Viewing Private Records

If for some reason private information needs to be seen by someone else (for example, if an employee leaves the firm), an administrator can view a user’s private records. The ability to do this is limited by two things:

• the supervisor password (if one is set)

• a setting in each user’s security profile

By default this is only available to administrators. Other users would need to be granted that right in the security setup. So, be sure to assign correct profiles to new users - don't just let everyone be an administrator.

Click here for more information about privacy and private records.

Follow these steps to view another user’s private records:

1. Select File > Setup > View Private Records. The Privacy Configuration window appears.
   
   

2. The Operator box displays the current user. This is followed by a master setting to view private records or not. For this drop-down setting, select one of the following:

   1. will view “others” private records: Select if you want the selected administrator to be able to view other users’ private records for the current session. When the administrator logs out of Abacus, he/she will not be able to view private records the next time he/she logs in.

   2. won’t view “others” private records: Select if you do NOT want the selected administrator to be able to view other users’ private records.

   3. permanently view “others” private records: Select if you want the selected administrator to view other users’ private records always. This setting will NOT be reversed once the administrator logs out (as it is for will view “others” private records).

3. The Available box contains a list of users. The Selected box contains users for whom the administrator can view private records. To move users back and forth from the Available and Selected boxes, highlight the user and click the right arrow button (-->) or left arrow button (<--). To move all users to another box, click the double right arrow button (-->>) or the double left arrow button (<<--).

4. If records were marked private with a user ID that is no longer in the user database, enter it into the Other field and click Add.

5. When you have all desired users listed in the Selected box, click Done to save.

If you are an administrator and have been set with permanently view “others” private records access, when you log in to Abacus you will be prompted to a) clear the permanent setting, b) skip the permanent setting for the current session but keep it turned on for future use, or c) use the permanent setting for the current session.

NOTE: So you can monitor who uses this window, the current user ID is logged to the file “Privacy.log” in the Abacus data directory whenever privacy is overridden.

TIP: When viewing a private record, hover the mouse over the Private checkbox and a pop-up tip will display the owner.