HandsHQ users can access different parts and functionality of the system based on:

This article helps you understand what each permission level means when you're adding a user to HandsHQ and how your limits and allowances are managed.

To understand where and how to add/delete a user, please head to the article on adding users here.

User permissions differ between our RAMS product and our Training Register product.

How many users you can add varies on your plan and the user type.

In most cases, users can be added by your account admin under Settings > Users in the primary division. Please note our support team cannot manage users without permission from your account admin - so it's always best to speak to them first.

HandsHQ offers different levels of user types, and we charge for them differently. Your plan dictates how many users you can add of each type.

You can filter your user list to see how many and which users you have for each allowance type.

The table below explains what the allowance type each user type and permission counts towards.

*RAMS Names

RAMS can be renamed e.g. Projects, Documents, Events - depending on what your accounts settings dictate. This will affect the wording in your user setting e.g. Project Editor instead of RAMS Editor.

**Team and Line Managers

Team and line managers are only available for customers on the Standard, Business and Enterprise plan. This permission is not available on the Bolt-On plan, as the Teams feature is not part of the feature set.

***Personnel Profile viewers

Personnel profile viewer (people who can log in to view their own personnel/training profile) have a login, but these are managed via the individual Personnel Profile, NOT in Settings > Users. Personnel profile viewers are free and unlimited.

Once you reach your plan allowance for a limited user type, you will be blocked from adding more users in that allowance. You can free up seats by removing other users/downgrading their permission to a free user type.

The system will automatically calculate what type of user allowance type someone is based on their permissions assigned. The user type will count towards the highest level they have - e.g. if you are a RAMS viewer in one division (free permission) and a RAMS approver and Personnel Editor (Full User) in another, you will count as a Full User.

HandsHQ Full User permissions depend on what product(s) you use.

Please refer to the specific sections below for detailed definitions of what each permission level includes.

Our RAMS plans include Basic, Advanced, Pro and Enterprise plans. Some customers also use Training Register alongside our RAMS platform, whose user permissions are explained below.

If you cannot see some of the options listed below, the related features are not enabled on your account.

RAMS editors can view, create and edit all projects in HandsHQ in the division(s) they have access.

Project approvers can be selected to approve projects in their division(s). If you're using the approval feature, you need to select which users should be the approvers on your account.

If your name appears in the list when clicking 'Submit for approval', you are an approver.

Content editors can access and manage the Content/ Risk Register tab (the name will depend on what feature you have in your plan). We recommend restricting this feature to users who are trained and competent in managing your risks and have been briefed on how to use this feature.

For multi-division accounts: depending on if your content is shared across divisions, changes might affect specific divisions or your entire account.

You are a content editor if you can see a 'Content' or 'Risk Register' tab in your account.

Suppose you only use our RAMS product without the Training Register. In that case, you still have some basic functionality for managing personnel, which can be added to your projects and sign RAMS digitally.

Please note that personnel access does not allow for managing user logins. Only administrators can manage user logins.

Users with any personnel or role permission will see and access the "Personnel" tab in the top menu.

Whether you use Training Register as a standalone or alongside our RAMS product, the Training Register user permissions allow different levels of viewing and editing personnel data, training requirements, and course/role information.

Users with access to the Training Register will see a "Training" tab in the top menu.

The 'Roles & courses editor' permission is a level of access mainly intended for people who control training requirements across the organisation. Roles & courses editors have full access to the course and roles tabs across all divisions.

Personnel editors can access and edit the personnel profiles and records. This applies to all the records that belong to the divisions/accounts they have access to.

They can view, edit and upload training records, but they cannot change default role and course settings, unless they also have roles & courses access.

On RAMS & Training Register accounts/divisions:

Personnel viewers have a read-only access to all the personnel in the selected division/account. This is helpful for people who want oversight over all personnel profiles, training and view records on site, without the ability to upload or edit anything.

On RAMS & Training Register accounts/divisions:

Account administrators and the owner have the highest level of to the account. They can make permanent changes across the system. This permission should only be granted to users who are competent and confident using HandsHQ and all features included in your plan.

Account owners and administrators have the same level of access. The only difference is that account admins cannot remove the account owner.

Division administrators are similar to account admins, but they are restricted to the specific division(s). On multi-division accounts, this means they have access to all the features and users, although limited to their division.

This is useful, for instance, if your account is split by departments, and you want the head of each department to have administrator access within the division they manage.

Note: some features that can be managed by division admins might also affect other divisions. For example, if your content library is shared across divisions, division admins can edit this permanently, which might affect the entire account (depending on your setup).

Although the definitions of user permissions stay the same regardless of your account setup, your view will differ slightly whether you have one division or more in HandsHQ.

When adding users, you will see a side panel allowing you to set the permission level for the user. What levels you see depends on the features on your account.

You need to navigate to the Primary division first to access Settings > Users in a multi-division account.

If your account has multiple divisions, you can grant users division-specific permissions using the access grid:

For example, you can give someone Personnel editor access in one division but not in another.