--- title: Setting Document-Level Permissions description: "In Essal Office, access to documents is controlled at two levels: globally (what a user can do in general) and per document (what a user can do to a s..." --- [Skip to content](https://help.essal.cloud/en/article/1469-#main-content) English Show submenu for translations [More support](https://help.essal.cloud/en/kb-tickets/new?hsLang=en) [Customer portal](https://clients.essal.cloud/tickets?hsLang=en) [![logo](https://help.essal.cloud/hubfs/logo.svg)](https://help.essal.cloud/?hsLang=en) - [Home](https://essal.cloud/) - [Products](https://essal.cloud/products) - [Industries](https://essal.cloud/industries) - [About](https://essal.cloud/about) - [Contact](https://essal.cloud/contact) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Home](https://essal.cloud/) - [Products](https://essal.cloud/products) - [Industries](https://essal.cloud/industries) - [About](https://essal.cloud/about) - [Contact](https://essal.cloud/contact) - English Show submenu for translations - [More support](https://help.essal.cloud/en/kb-tickets/new) - [Customer portal](https://clients.essal.cloud/tickets) - [Home](https://essal.cloud/) [Home](https://essal.cloud/) Essal Help Center - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Help Center](https://help.essal.cloud/en?hsLang=en) 2. [Essal Office](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en) 3. [Sharing documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#sharing-documents) # Setting Document-Level Permissions In Essal Office, access to documents is controlled at two levels: globally (what a user can do in general) and per document (what a user can do to a specific document). Document-level permissions let you grant or restrict access to individual documents beyond what the user's global role allows. --- ## Why Document-Level Permissions Global roles determine what a user can do across the whole system. But you may have documents that should be visible to only a specific subset of users — for example: - HR documents that only the HR team should see - A confidential contract only executives can access - Finance documents restricted to the Finance group Document-level permissions let you handle these cases precisely. --- ## Permission Types per Document Each document can have the following permissions granted to specific users or groups: - **Permission**: \*\*View\*\* - **What it allows**: See the document in search and list results; open and read it - **Permission**: \*\*Change\*\* - **What it allows**: Edit the document's metadata - **Permission**: \*\*Delete\*\* - **What it allows**: Move the document to trash - **Permission**: \*\*Share\*\* - **What it allows**: Create and manage share links for this document --- ## Setting Permissions on a Document 1. Open the document 2. Click the **Permissions** icon or tab in the document toolbar or metadata panel 3. In the permissions section: 4. Under **Users**, search for and add specific users, then select which permissions to grant 5. Under **Groups**, search for and add groups, then select which permissions to grant 6. Save changes --- ## The Document Owner The document owner always has full access. Ownership and permissions are independent — changing permissions does not affect the owner relationship. See Changing Document Ownership for changing who owns a document. --- ## Admin Override Users with the **Admin** global role can access and edit all documents regardless of document-level permissions. Document-level permissions apply to non-admin users only. --- ## Inheriting Permissions Through Groups The most efficient way to manage permissions at scale is through groups. Create a group for each team (e.g. `Finance`, `HR`, `Legal`), add users to the appropriate groups, then grant document or tag-level permissions to those groups. Adding a new employee to a group immediately gives them access to all documents the group can see. See Managing Groups for group setup. --- ## Default Access for New Documents New documents are visible only to their owner and to admins by default. Other users can only see a document if: - They are granted explicit view permission on that document - They belong to a group with view permission - A global setting grants view access more broadly (admin-configured) - [Essal Office](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Getting started](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#getting-started) - [Searching and saved views](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#searching-and-saved-views) - [Correspondents and document types](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#correspondents-and-document-types) - [Email import](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#email-import) - [Users groups and permissions](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#users-groups-and-permissions) - [Sharing documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#sharing-documents) - [Working with documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#working-with-documents) - [Pdf tools](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#pdf-tools) - [Uploading documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#uploading-documents) - [Archive serial numbers](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#archive-serial-numbers) - [Workflows and automation](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#workflows-and-automation) - [Organizing with tags](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#organizing-with-tags) - [Troubleshooting and faq](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#troubleshooting-and-faq) - [Account and security](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#account-and-security) - [Custom fields](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#custom-fields) - [Portal](https://admin.essal.cloud/) - [Newsroom](https://newsroom.essal.cloud/) - [Careers](https://careers.essal.cloud/) - [Help](https://support.essal.cloud/) - [Status](https://status.essal.cloud/) - [Contact](https://essal.cloud/contact) - [Terms](https://legal.essal.cloud/terms) [![logo](https://help.essal.cloud/hubfs/logo.svg "logo")](https://essal.cloud/) Essal LLC Copyright © 2026, Essal