Managing User Accounts

Administrator(s) have the ability to create, update, and otherwise manage their Agency’s e-PlanREVIEW® (EPR) user accounts. This ensures that Admins can regulate how an Agency’s user licenses are apportioned among staff members.

The following must be completed before additional user accounts can be created:

  1. Configure User Role Permissions.

  2. Configure Groups for Permitting (and, if applicable, Design Review).

  3. Upload and configure stamps.

 


Understanding Standard and Non-standard User Roles

Each EPR user must be assigned the User Role that most closely matches their expected tasks.

User Role

License Type

Description

User Role

License Type

Description

Admin (A)

Standard

The Admin role is mainly tasked with assisting in the initial configuration of the EPR portal and with updating portal configurations as needed. Some of the most significant Admin abilities include managing:

  • User accounts

  • Assignment distribution workflows

  • Project Membership distributions

  • The standard comment library

  • Corrections Report Letter templates

  • Stamps, custom stamps, and user stamp access

  • Email notification templates

  • Dropdown list values throughout EPR

The Admin role can also perform the functions of every other user role in EPR, including project creation, assignment intake, plan review, and packaging deliverable back to applicants.

Project Coordinator (PC)

Standard

The Project Coordinator is usually reserved for intake staff/permit technicians. The most common responsibilities for these users are to:

  • Create plan review tasks (“assignments”) for reviewers

  • Update review assignments or reassign review tasks, as needed

  • Prepare corrections report letters

  • Prepare deliverable packages of marked-up or approved plans to return to applicants at the end of a review cycle

When all review assignments have been given an approved, rejected, or canceled status, Project Coordinators will be notified so they can prepare a Corrections Report letter with all reviewer feedback and then package files to return to the applicant, either through email or, more commonly, through check-in to an integrated portal.

The Project Coordinator role cannot typically perform plan review.

Reviewer (R)

Standard

The Reviewer (or "plan checker", "plans examiner", etc.) has these main responsibilities:

  • Review and markup plans

  • Provide feedback through comments and/or stamp approved plans as appropriate

  • Evaluate the submittal by selecting an Assignment Status (Approved, Resubmittal Required, etc.) to complete their review

Reviewers belong to one or more Groups (think of these as Departments or Sub-departments) and are responsible for completing plan review tasks (“assignments”) made for their Group. In some cases, especially for larger agencies, assignments are made for a specific named Reviewer within a Group. Although other users are still able to access the assignment, the named Reviewer is expected to complete the review assignments. Reviewers can also create corrections reports, if desired.

Group Manager (GM)

Standard

The Group Manager functions as an elevated ‘Reviewer-type’ role.

  • The GM has the added ability to edit and delete markups created by other reviewers within his or her Group (by default, a reviewer can only edit his or her own markup activity).

Project Manager (PM)

Standard

The Project Manager is the highest level of ‘Reviewer-type’ role.

  • The PM has the added ability to edit and delete markups created by other reviewers within the project he or she is managing.

Contributor (CTR)

Contributor

A Contributor is a non-standard, licensed user who is granted access to view and respond to plan review staff comments across one or (usually) many projects.

  • The Contributor can view all projects for which they are a project team member.

  • They can view those projects' comments and add responses to any that have the “Response Enabled” option set by the comment creator.

Read-Only (RO)

Read-Only

A Read-Only user is a non-standard, licensed user who is granted global view rights to all information within EPR.

  • The Read-Only user cannot add, edit, run, or delete any data within the system.

One-Time-Access-User (OTAU)

N/A

A One-Time-Access-User (or “ReviewSession Guest”), is a non-standard, unlicensed role granted to guests invited through the ReviewSession feature so they can view one project’s details, comments, and access pages where those comments exist. The invitation is for a limited time (with an end date set by the invitation sender) and the guest will lose access after that date.

Contact

N/A

A Contact is a non-standard, unlicensed role granted to accounts created as a side effect of their contact information being sent to EPR by goPost™ or an integrated partner system to ensure that they can be contacted in regard to project application updates, questions, or concerns. Contacts cannot log into and do not receive automated notifications from EPR, though staff can contact them if desired.

A Standard license grants one individual the right to be any one (1) user role within EPR except for Contributor and Read-Only roles, which have their own specialized license types. If you have questions regarding licenses and license types, contact the e-PlanSoft Support Team by creating a Service Desk Ticket.

 


Creating a New User

Go to Settings > Security > Users in the Navigation menu to open the Users page. This page will show Active users - meaning users who can successfully log into EPR - by default.

Add a User Account

Admins can add user accounts as needed from the Users page as follows:

  1. Click on the plus icon at the bottom right to create a new user account.

  2. Complete the PROFILE tab:

    1. Select a License Type based on the intended usage (Standard, Contributor, Read-Only, or Shared).

    2. Password, User Role, Email, First Name and Last Name are required.

    3. New accounts must have a unique email addresses that is not already in use by any Active, Inactive, or deleted user, nor by any Contact records.

    4. Confirm the account is set to “Active” to ensure the user can log into EPR. 

  3. Click on the GROUPS tab and select one or more Group(s) which the user will represent when performing plan review.

  4. Click on the STAMPS tab, and select one or more Stamp(s) which the user will be able to place during plan review (if necessary).

  5. Click SAVE to complete creating the account. The form will close.

  6. If the user needs to receive email notifications from EPR, reopen the user profile by clicking (right-facing arrow).

  7. Click on the NOTIFICATIONS tab, where a list of options now appears.

    1. First, check the box for “Email notifications to…” at the top if this user should receive email notifications from EPR. This may not apply for agencies integrating EPR to another system that can handle user notifications.

    2. Next, select which specific notifications the user should receive (see User Notifications Settings [link] for more information).

 

 

Copy an Existing Account

Admins can save time when creating a new account by copying an existing profile to auto-fill the License Type, User Role, Group(s), Stamp(s) and Notification choices.

To copy an account:

  1. Search for an existing user account to copy.

  2. Click on the (ellipsis) button on the far right of the record.

  3. Click on the option for Copy as New User.

  4. A new account form pops up with License Type and User Role auto-populated.

    1. Complete the PROFILE tab by inputting a new Password, Email, First Name, Last Name, and any other desired field manually.

    2. Click the GROUPS tab to confirm that desired group(s) are auto-populated.

    3. Click the STAMPS tab to confirm that desired stamp(s) are auto-populated.

    4. Click the NOTIFICATIONS tab to confirm that desired notification(s) are auto-populated.

  5. Click SAVE to complete the new account. The form will close.

 

Request a New Account

To have staff fill out their own basic account information rather than creating it for them, ask any future user(s) to go to the EPR login page and click on Request a new account. This will create the user's account with the basic PROFILE information, but sets their status to “Inactive” and leaves their User Role blank.

The Admin needs to then edit the account(s) to set a user role, make the account “Active”, add group(s), add stamp(s), and select notification options before the user(s) can actually log in.

To view requested account records in the User page:

  1. Toggle the list view from “Active” to “Inactive” at the top of the page.

  2. Search for and select the desired inactive record.

  3. On the PROFILE tab, set the desired User Role and switch the “Inactive” toggle to “Active.”

  4. On the GROUPS tab, select the group(s) the user will belong to.

  5. If necessary, grant access to stamp(s) in the STAMPS tab.

  6. On the NOTIFICATIONS tab, select any desired notifications for the user.

  7. The new user will receive an email with login instructions once their account has been updated from “Inactive” to “Active.”

An email will automatically be sent to a user when their status is changed from “Inactive” to “Active.”


User Notification Settings

Administrators can choose which events will trigger an email notification for a user from the account’s NOTIFICATIONS tab.

 

How to Set Notifications

To configure user email notifications:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Security > Users in the navigation panel.

  2. Search for a user account by scrolling through or typing their email address directly into the email column header.

  3. Click on (right-facing arrow) to open the user profile.

  4. Click on the NOTIFICATIONS tab.

  5. Check the box for 'Email notifications to...' at the top for the user.

    1. If this box remains checked, the user will not receive notifications for any of the events selected in this tab.

  6. Check the box next to any notification(s) that should trigger emails to this user.

  7. Click the SAVE button to confirm these choices.

 

Both the Admin(s) and the users themselves can update the notification settings at any time while logged into EPR by clicking on (user profile) to open their account profile and going to the NOTIFICATIONS tab.

 

 


Notification Options

The following table breaks down user notification options and how they are triggered. Note that unlike permissions, notifications are configured per user rather than per user role. This allows individual staff members who may share a role but do not necessarily want/need the same amount of notifications to specify for which events they want to receive emails.

Except where stated, a specific user role is not a condition for receiving a notification. Instead, most notifications occur based on your subscriptions and meeting a set of conditions (as noted).

Notification Checkbox

Affected By Team Membership?

Conditions for Triggering Notification

Notification

Notification Checkbox

Affected By Team Membership?

Conditions for Triggering Notification

Notification

PROJECT > Comment > Allow Response

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. Your user role is Contributor.

  3. Someone else sets a comment as “Response Enabled.”

Notifies you when a comment has “Response Enabled” activated.

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You did not create the comment.

  3. You previously added a response to the comment’s thread.

  4. Someone else adds another comment response after your comment response.

Notifies you whenever someone else adds another comment response after your comment response.

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You did not create the comment.

  3. You are currently assigned to the comment.

  4. Someone else adds a comment response.

Notifies you whenever someone else adds a comment response.

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You did not create the comment.

  3. You have been assigned to the comment.

Notifies you when you have been assigned to the comment.

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are currently assigned to the comment.

  3. Your comment assignment is marked “complete” / ”incomplete” by someone else.

Notifies you when your comment assignment is marked “complete” / ”incomplete” by someone else.

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You created the comment.

  3. Someone else marks a comment assignment as “complete” / ”incomplete.”

Notifies you when someone else marks a comment assignment as “complete” / ”incomplete.”

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Create (Assigned)

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are listed as the Assignee.

Notifies you whenever a document review assignment is created with you as the Assignee.

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Reassigned

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are listed as the updated Assignee.

Notifies you whenever an existing document review assignment is updated to make you the new Assignee.

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Status Updated to Active

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. An assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Active."

Notifies you whenever an assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Active." (These are assignments currently in review.)

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Status Updated to Approved

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. An assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Approved."

Notifies you whenever an assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Approved." (These are approved assignments.)

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Status Updated to Canceled

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. An assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Canceled."

Notifies you whenever an assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Canceled." (These assignments are not needed.)

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Status Updated to Not Started

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. An assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Not Started."

Notifies you whenever an assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Not Started." (Review for these assignments has not yet started.)

PROJECT > Document Assignment > Status Updated to Rejected

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. An assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Rejected."

Notifies you whenever an assignment status is changed to any value with the parent status "Rejected." (These assignments require resubmittal.)

PROJECT > Project > Document Awaiting Intake

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. A document is on the Intake tab and requires assignments to be created.

Notifies you whenever a document is on the Intake tab and requires assignments to be created.

PROJECT > Project > Status Changed to Cycle Complete

YES

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. A project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Cycle Complete."

Notifies you whenever a project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Cycle Complete." (This project review cycle is done.)

PROJECT > Project > Status Changed to Finished

YES

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. A project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Pass” or “Fail."

Notifies you whenever a project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Pass" or "Fail." (This project has been approved or requires resubmittal.)

PROJECT > Project > Status Changed to On Hold

YES

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. A project status is changed to any value with the parent status "On Hold."

Notifies you whenever a project status is changed to any value with the parent status "On Hold." (Work on this project has been paused.)

PROJECT > Project > Status Changed to Open

YES

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. A project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Open."

Notifies you whenever a project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Open." (This project is undergoing review.)

PROJECT > Project > Status Changed to Withdrawn

YES

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. You are a project team member.

  3. A project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Withdrawn.”

Notifies you whenever a project status is changed to any value with the parent status "Withdrawn." (Work on this project has been canceled.)

USER > Auth > New User Request

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. Your user role is Administrator.

  3. Someone requests a new user account from login page.

Notifies Administrators whenever someone requests a new user account from login page.

USER > User Account > Create

NO

  1. Subscribed to notification.

  2. Your user role is Administrator.

  3. Someone creates a new user account.

Notifies Administrators whenever someone creates a new user account (either from the Users page or API).

 


Recommended Notifications

Each user should be subscribed to the events that are relevant to them/their role. Users subscribed to an event will receive an email notification from EPR whenever the event is triggered, as recorded in the event log. The following basic notification subscriptions are recommended, though Agencies are welcome to define their own recommended (or even required) notification subscriptions for staff.

User Role

Description

Example(s)

User Role

Description

Example(s)

Administrators

Any event notifications, but especially those related to User administrative functions such as new user requests and the creation of user accounts to ensure that Admins are keeping track of licenses and who has access to their EPR environment.

 

 

Project Coordinators

Any notifications related to intake, assignment creation, reassignment, assignment status changes, and/or project status changes since these allow staff to track application progress and trigger additional workflow steps as appropriate.

Reviewers, Group Managers, and/or Project Managers

Notifications informing someone that a plan review assignment or reassignment has been created for them.

Contributors

Select the Allow Response notification to allow for a variety of comment response-related notifications to trigger as explained in the Notifications Options table.


Editing Users

User accounts can be edited at any time, though it’s recommended that the user is not currently logged into the system when making changes to their profiles to ensure their next login attempt reflects any change(s).

To edit an existing user account:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Security > Users in the navigation panel.

  2. Search for a user account by scrolling through or typing their email address directly into the email column header.

  3. Click on (right-facing arrow) to open the user profile.

  4. Click on any desired tab and update as needed.

  5. Once all changes are complete, return to the PROFILE tab and click SAVE.

Removing Users from Groups

Updating a user’s profile details or stamp access is relatively straightforward, but removing a group from a user account’s profile is a bit trickier if they have previously been given review assignments for that group. If the user has already worked on assignments for the group that they are no longer associated with, expect the following:

  • The user retains rights to edit their existing comments, sketches, measurements and stamps on that assignment.

  • While the user remains the Assignee for the assignment, they retain the right to change the assignment status.

    • To remove the status editing right, simply reassign the review to another user.

  • The user cannot create new comments or other markups for that group (since they no longer represent that group).


Inactivating or Deleting User Accounts

EPR user accounts can be either inactivated or deleted, though deleting a user account is almost never necessary nor is it recommended.

Making a User Account Inactive

To remove a user’s EPR access and/or free up a user license for another individual, make the account inactive. Inactivating a user is almost always preferred to deleting an account because it safely preserves record history for any activity the user had in EPR.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Security > Users in the navigation panel.

  2. Search for a user account by scrolling through or typing their email address directly into the email column header.

  3. Click on (right-facing arrow) to open the user PROFILE.

  4. Switch the toggle from “Active” to “Inactive.”

  5. Click SAVE.

 

Deleting a User Account

If a user account was created accidentally, or was created and never used (and will not be needed in the future), then and only then should the account be deleted.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Security > Users in the navigation panel.

  2. Search for a user account by scrolling through or typing their email address directly into the email column header.

  3. Click on (right-facing arrow) to open the user PROFILE.

  4. Click on (ellipsis) on the upper right of the profile and click Delete.

  5. Click DELETE in the confirmation message to proceed or CANCEL to step back.

 

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