Account administration, permissions and governance
Account administration, permissions and governance
This domain tests role design and guardrails: who can administer the account, who can edit which board, and how to keep a large account auditable.
Core rules
- Account roles include admin, member, viewer and guest. Admins manage account settings, users, billing and security; members create and collaborate; viewers are read-only; guests are external collaborators limited to shared work. Use the least privilege that lets the person do the job.
- Board access is separate from account role. A board has an owner and subscribers; permissions can restrict editing, for example to board owners, or allow subscribers to edit. Private boards limit access to invited subscribers, while account admins retain account-level administrative controls. Workspaces can be open or closed; closed workspaces require invitation.
- Column permissions restrict edits to specific columns, useful for budget, status or approval fields. They supplement, not replace, board permissions.
- Governance controls include naming conventions, board templates, workspace ownership, content directory, audit log, SSO or SAML, SCIM provisioning, two-factor authentication, session management and data residency. Enterprise plans expose more of these controls.
- Prefer archive over delete for retired boards and items, and use the recycle bin as a recovery window, not a retention policy. Document board ownership and review automation and integration ownership.
Worked example
An external consultant must update task status on one project board but must not see the account directory or other boards. Add the consultant as a guest, share only that board as a subscriber with edit rights, and restrict sensitive columns with column permissions. Reasoning: making them a member would expose more of the account; a viewer would block needed edits; a guest plus board-level subscription matches the actual work. If the board later becomes a template for many teams, move it to a closed workspace and assign a board owner.
Traps
Assuming account admin automatically means correct board ownership; granting member access when guest access is enough; using a private board as the only security control while leaving a dashboard shared broadly; deleting users or boards to clean up without checking automation ownership and recycle-bin recovery. Over-customizing roles without a governance model creates access drift.