--- title: Understanding Who Can See Your Documents description: Knowing who can access a document is essential for maintaining data privacy and for making sure colleagues can find what they need. Essal Office uses ... --- [Skip to content](https://help.essal.cloud/en/article/1470-#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) # Understanding Who Can See Your Documents Knowing who can access a document is essential for maintaining data privacy and for making sure colleagues can find what they need. Essal Office uses a layered permission model that determines visibility based on ownership, object-level grants, and global roles. --- ## Layer 1: The Document Owner The user who owns a document always has full access to it. That includes viewing, editing, and deleting. By default, the person who uploads a document becomes its owner. --- ## Layer 2: Admin Users Users with the **Admin** (or Superuser) role can see and manage all documents, regardless of ownership or permissions. Admins have system-wide access by design. Keep the number of admin accounts to a minimum — typically to IT staff or senior managers. --- ## Layer 3: Explicit Permissions The document owner or an admin can grant specific users or groups explicit access to a document. Permissions can be as narrow as read-only view, or as broad as full edit and delete rights. If someone tells you they cannot find a document you expect them to see, check whether they have been granted view permission either directly or through a group. --- ## Layer 4: Global Permissions (System-Wide) Admins can configure system-wide settings that change the default visibility. For example, a setting may allow all authenticated users to view all documents by default (common in smaller teams where privacy between colleagues is not a concern). These settings determine the baseline — document-level permissions then add exceptions on top. --- ## What Other Users Without Permissions See If User A has no permissions on a document owned by User B: - The document does not appear in User A's search results or list - If User A navigates to the document URL directly, they see an access denied message - The document is effectively invisible to them --- ## Checking Who Has Access To review access on a specific document: 1. Open the document 2. Click the **Permissions** tab or icon 3. Review the **Owner**, **Users**, and **Groups** sections to see who currently has what level of access --- ## Practical Access Design For most small teams, a simple approach works well: - **Scenario**: All staff see all documents - **Recommended setup**: Set global default to allow all authenticated users to view - **Scenario**: Department-level access - **Recommended setup**: Create one group per department; grant groups view on relevant documents - **Scenario**: Fully private documents - **Recommended setup**: No extra action needed — only the owner and admins see them by default - **Scenario**: Temporary external access - **Recommended setup**: Use a share link (no account needed) - [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