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To collaborate in real time, all users must have permission to access your document. Each permission level—owner, editor, or viewer—gives collaborators a certain amount of access to edit or interact with your file.

Note: Having only permissions to a file may not be enough to take action on a file if a specific role isn't given. Make sure to check your roles. To learn more, view Understanding roles.

Overview of permissions

Permission Structure

To view or edit a Workiva file, you must have access permission for the document, spreadsheet, or presentation as a whole. Document owners can then set specific view/edit/owner permissions for individual sections of a document. 

Note: If the File Access setting is turned on in the workspace settings (enabled by default), users will be able to request view or edit access to files that they don’t have permissions to. The file owners will then be able to approve or reject the file access requests. Workspace admins can turn this setting off if desired.

Once an individual or group has been given view/edit/ownership to a Workiva file (document, spreadsheet, or presentation), section level permissions override permissions made at the document level, while permissions assigned to individual users override group permissions. In addition, having permissions to certain section of a file —but not to the file itself— won't allow them to access the sections.

For example, Laura has been given View permissions to a spreadsheet as a whole, View permissions to Sheet1  and Edit permissions to Sheet3. She can view Sheet1 and edit Sheet3, but cannot see or edit Sheet2. Katie has Edit permissions for Sheet4 and Sheet3, but because she does not have any permissions to Sample Sheet #2 as a whole, she will not be able to see or edit either of these sheets.

Default permissions

When you create a file, you are automatically assigned as a file owner by default. No other collaborator or group will have access. As the file owner, you can change the level of access these groups have from the Permissions Editor. Learn more about updating file permissions.

Permissions in copied files

When you copy a document, the new document maintains the permissions from the original file. However, manually setting permissions in the new file will override the initial permissions.

Permissions in groups

If your workspace has groups, you can set permissions for the entire group from the Permissions editor. Once you set permissions for a group, you can add or remove users from the group at any time—their permissions update accordingly. Learn more about using groups.

If a user is a member of a group but has a different permission level set individually, they'll maintain their individually assigned permission level (e.g. a user that is set as an "Editor" but also in a group with "Owner" permissions still receives Editor permissions).

How overlapping permissions work

Generally, when two permissions overlap, the highest permission takes precedence.

However, this rule only applies when permissions are assigned at the same level. For example, if a user belongs to multiple groups with explicit permissions on the same section, the highest permission applies.

A more specific, direct permission will always override a broader, general permission, regardless of the permission level:

• Individual over group: A permission assigned directly to an individual user overrides any permission they receive through a group.
• Section over document: A permission assigned directly to a document section overrides permissions inherited from the parent document.

Note: If a user is in a group with explicit permissions but an owner manually removes their individual permissions, the user will lose access to the document. 

You can also set permissions for multiple users and sections at the same time. To learn more about using the advanced permissions editor, see Advanced Permissions.

Read the tables below to find out what users can do at each permission level.

Permission levels

Change Properties

Edit Documents

Attachments

Collaborate