1
Open the Groups tab
In the left menu, go to Account settings → User management, then select the Groups tab.
Groups & Document Access
Not every contract should be visible to everyone in your account. A team handling acquisitions, executive agreements, or HR settlements often needs those documents walled off from the rest of the company, even from other managers.
A group is Pactly’s document-access primitive. It is a named list of users, and any contract or form assigned to a group is scoped to that group’s members. Assign the right people, assign the contract, and everyone else stops seeing it in their repository.
How group access works
Section titled “How group access works”Group membership is an access-control list layered on top of a user’s role:
- A contract or form can be assigned to one group. Every member of that group can view and work with it.
- Users who are not in the group do not see it in their repository.
- A user can belong to multiple groups, and so gains access to the contracts of each.
Group membership narrows what a user sees; it does not grant powers their role lacks. A user still needs the relevant role permission to act on a contract they can see.
The Sensitive flag
Section titled “The Sensitive flag”A normal group controls who can see a contract, but an admin can still see everything by default. A Sensitive group is stricter: its contracts are hidden from everyone outside the group, including admins who are not members.
Use Sensitive groups for the most confidential work, where even account administrators should not see the documents unless they are explicitly part of the team. It is the only thing in Pactly that hides a contract from an admin, so add at least one trusted member to every Sensitive group or its contracts can become unreachable. If an admin reports that a contract is “missing,” check whether it lives in a Sensitive group they do not belong to.
Standard group
Contract assigned to Procurement group
Members see it. Others don’t.- Member of the group Can see
- Admin (not a member) Can see
- User outside the group Hidden
Sensitive group
Contract assigned to M&A group · Sensitive
Hidden even from admins.- Member of the group Can see
- Admin (not a member) Hidden
- User outside the group Hidden
The Sensitive flag is the only thing in Pactly that hides a contract from an admin. Always keep a trusted member in every Sensitive group, or its contracts can become unreachable.
Creating a group
Section titled “Creating a group”Groups live under Account settings → User management → Groups. The Groups tab appears for admins and for users whose role can manage groups.
Step 1 of 5
2
Click Add group
Select Add Group to open the new-group dialog.
3
Enter a name and description
Give the group a clear Name (required) and an optional Description explaining who it is for.
4
Set the Sensitive option
Tick "Sensitive (contracts hidden from non-group users)" if this group should also be hidden from admins outside it. Leave it unticked for standard access control.
5
Save the group
Click Save. The group appears in the list, ready to be assigned to users and contracts.
Step 1 of 5
The Workflows column on each group is a separate, advanced setting that points the group at a non-default workflow view. Most accounts leave it as Default; see your workflow configuration if you need to change it.
Assigning users to a group
Section titled “Assigning users to a group”You add and remove members from the user record, not from the group itself.
Step 1 of 4
1
Open User management
Go to Account settings → User management and stay on the Users tab.
2
Edit a user
Open the user you want to add, using the edit action on their row.
3
Add them into groups
In the "Add into groups" field, select one or more groups. Remove a group chip to take the user out of it.
4
Save the user
Save the dialog. The user gains access to every contract in the groups you assigned, and loses access to any group you removed.
Step 1 of 4
Assigning a group to a contract
Section titled “Assigning a group to a contract”Once a group exists, assign it to a contract from the contract’s Access tab, in the right-hand details panel. The Group field shows the current group (or “No group”); click Set group to choose one.
A contract can be assigned to one group at a time. Changing the group reassigns visibility to the new group’s members; clearing it returns the contract to your account’s default, role-based visibility.
What happens when you delete a group
Section titled “What happens when you delete a group”Deleting a group does not delete or hide its contracts. When a group is removed, Pactly clears the group from every contract and form that referenced it. Those records fall back to your account’s default, role-based visibility rather than disappearing.
This makes a Sensitive group’s contracts visible again to the roles that would normally see them. Before deleting a Sensitive group, confirm that returning its contracts to default visibility is acceptable, or reassign them to another group first.
Common ways teams use groups
Section titled “Common ways teams use groups”| Goal | Group setup |
|---|---|
| Keep a department’s contracts together | One group per department (Legal, Procurement, HR), members added per user |
| Wall off highly confidential deals | A Sensitive group so the documents are hidden even from non-member admins |
| Scope a manager to their own area | Assign the manager to their department’s group so their repository is filtered to it |
| Separate access by region or office | One group per region, with users added to the regions they cover |
Related
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