Max Insights – Roles & Permissions Guide

Bryan Olson
Bryan Olson
  • Updated

Overview

This article describes all roles available in Max Insights and the exact capabilities assigned to each role. 

Roles are divided into the following categories:

  • System Roles (Dashboard & general access)
  • Alarm Roles (Alarm management)
  • Control Roles (Setpoint & automation control)
  • Calculation Role (Specialized feature access)
  • PFO (Production Functionality Overview) Roles (Reporting access control)

⚠️ Important

  • Users must have one System Role assigned.
  • Alarm and Control roles are add-ons and must be combined with a System Role.
  • Some features may require Editor-level or higher access.

System Roles

1. Super Admin

Description

Super Admin is the highest-level role with full access across dashboards, alarms, templates, and system configuration.

What this role CAN do

  • Access all dashboard types (shared, created, public)
  • Create, edit, delete, copy, and share dashboards
  • Add and configure dashboard widgets
  • Modify dashboard layouts and time settings
  • Access system settings and data sources
  • Perform all alarm-related actions:
    • View, create, edit, delete, disable, and suspend alarms
    • Configure alarms and view history
  • Manage templates:
    • Create, edit, delete, and apply templates
    • Manage global templates (share/edit/delete)
  • Access admin-level features:
    • Customer configuration
    • Data management sections
  • Access setpoint control admin features:
    • View admin page
    • Add and view control widgets

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot:
    • Write setpoints
    • Modify widget control settings
    • Set lockouts
  • Does not include:
    • Calculation feature creation

2. Admin

Description

Admin has full dashboard and template control, along with limited administrative access, but no alarm or control permissions by default.

What this role CAN do

  • View all dashboards (shared, created, public)
  • Create, edit, delete, and share dashboards
  • Add and configure widgets
  • Modify layouts and dashboard settings
  • Access settings page and data sources
  • Manage templates:
    • Create, edit, delete, apply, and share templates
  • Access data management section
  • View calculation features

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot access or manage alarms
  • Cannot configure or control setpoints
  • Cannot manage global templates
  • Cannot edit customer configuration
  • Cannot create calculation features

3. Editor

Description

Editor is a power user role focused on dashboard and template creation and management.

What this role CAN do

  • View dashboards (shared, created, public)
  • Create, edit, delete, and share dashboards
  • Add and edit widgets
  • Modify layouts and time settings
  • Use sync/zoom and customer selection
  • Manage templates:
    • Create, edit, delete, apply, and share templates
  • View calculation features

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot access the settings page
  • Cannot view data sources
  • Cannot manage alarms
  • Cannot access control/setpoint features
  • Cannot manage global templates
  • Cannot access admin sections

4. Viewer

Description

Viewer is a read-only role for dashboard consumption.

What this role CAN do

  • View shared and public dashboards
  • Navigate folders
  • Adjust time settings
  • Use zoom/sync features
  • Select customers

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot create or edit dashboards
  • Cannot manage widgets or layouts
  • Cannot access settings or data sources
  • Cannot manage templates
  • Cannot access alarms or controls
  • Cannot access admin features

Alarm Roles (Add-on Roles)

5. Alarms Admin

Description

Full control over alarm configuration and lifecycle.

What this role CAN do

  • View alarm pages and history
  • Configure alarms
  • Create, edit, delete alarms
  • Acknowledge alarms
  • Disable, suspend, and copy alarms
  • Set default alarms
  • Configure notifications and groups

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot access dashboards, templates, or controls without a System Role

6. Alarms Editor

Description

Can manage alarms but with limited administrative capabilities.

What this role CAN do

  • View alarms and history
  • Create and edit alarms
  • Acknowledge alarms
  • Disable, delete, copy, and suspend alarms

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot set default alarms
  • Cannot configure advanced settings (notifications, groups)
  • Requires Editor-level system role or higher

7. Alarms Viewer

Description

Read-only alarm access with limited operational actions.

What this role CAN do

  • View alarms and history
  • Acknowledge alarms
  • Disable and suspend alarms

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot create or edit alarms
  • Cannot delete or copy alarms
  • Cannot configure alarms

Control Roles (Setpoint & Automation)

8. Automation Control Admin

Description

Highest level of control access including automation and templates.

What this role CAN do

  • View control admin page
  • Add and view control widgets
  • Write setpoints
  • Modify widget settings
  • Set lockouts
  • Manage automation:
    • Create automation templates
    • Add and control automation widgets

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot access dashboards or alarms without a System Role
  • Cannot add automation templates to assets (not defined in system)

9. Control Admin

Description

Advanced control role without full automation template creation.

What this role CAN do

  • View control admin page
  • Add and manage control widgets
  • Write setpoints
  • Modify widget settings
  • Set lockouts
  • View and control automation

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot create automation templates
  • Cannot assign automation templates to assets

10. Control User

Description

Operational role for executing control actions.

What this role CAN do

  • View control widgets
  • Write setpoints
  • Set lockouts
  • View and use automation controls

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot access control admin page
  • Cannot configure widgets
  • Cannot create automation templates
  • Cannot add control widgets

Calculation Role

11. Calculation Admin

Description

Specialized role for managing calculation features.

What this role CAN do

  • Create calculation features

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot view or manage dashboards, alarms, templates, or controls unless another role is assigned

PFO Roles (Reporting Access Control)

Overview

PFO roles are designed to introduce granular access control for reporting features within Max Insights. Currently, when Customer View PFO is enabled:

  • All users (including Viewers) can interact with reporting features
  • This effectively gives edit-level access to all users

These new roles separate view vs edit capabilities to prevent unauthorized data changes.

12. Insights Super Admin (PFO)

Description

Extended capability for Super Admins to configure and manage PFO widgets.

What this role CAN do

  • Can see the PFO widget in the widget menu
  • Can add the PFO widget to dashboards
  • Can modify the PFO widget configuration
  • Can add or modify project numbers

What this role CANNOT do

  • No additional restrictions beyond standard Super Admin capabilities

13. PFO Editor

Description

User responsible for managing reporting data within PFO.

What this role CAN do

  • Can access the PFO module
  • Can upload reporting data
  • Can modify existing reporting data
  • Can fully interact with reporting features in the left-side panel

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot configure or place PFO widgets (unless also granted via System Role)
  • Cannot access system-level configuration settings

14. PFO Viewer

Description

Read-only access to PFO reporting features.

What this role CAN do

  • Can access the PFO tab
  • Can navigate the left-side panel
  • Can view reports and reporting data

What this role CANNOT do

  • Cannot upload reporting data
  • Cannot modify reporting data
  • Cannot perform any edit or write actions

PFO Behavior & Access Control

Expected Behavior

  • Enabling Customer View PFO:
    • Makes PFO visible to users
  • Assigning PFO roles:
    • Controls whether a user can edit or only view

Access Logic

  • Visibility → Controlled at customer level
  • Edit permissions → Controlled at user role level

Notes

  • PFO roles are add-on roles, similar to Alarm and Control roles
  • Users must still have a System Role assigned
  • This feature addresses the current limitation where:
    • All users (including Viewers) can modify reporting data

 

 

Role Assignment Summary

Role TypeRequired?Purpose
System Role✅ YesBase access (dashboard + UI)
Alarm RoleOptionalAlarm management
Control RoleOptionalSetpoint & automation
Calculation RoleOptionalCalculation feature creation
PFO RoleOptionalReporting (PFO) access control


When to Use Each Role (Quick Guidance)

  • Super Admin → Full platform ownership and configuration
  • Admin → Customer admins managing dashboards/templates
  • Editor → Power users building dashboards
  • Viewer → End users consuming dashboards
  • Alarm Roles → Assigned to operations teams
  • Control Roles → Assigned to engineering/operations for equipment control
  • PFO Roles → Assigned based on reporting responsibilities:
    • PFO Editor → Users responsible for uploading and modifying reporting data
    • PFO Viewer → Users who need read-only access to reports and data
  • Calculation Admin → Assigned to advanced analytics users

 

Was this article helpful?

0 out of 0 found this helpful

Have more questions? Submit a request