Multiple staff members can collaborate on the same client thanks to staff collaboration tools in vcita. In this article, you will learn how to assign staff members to a client and use the View permissions to determine what your staff members can and can't see on the client card. 

Staff Assignment

Every client can have multiple staff members assigned to them:

• Primary staff: Think of the primary staff member as the main point of contact on your team for a client. The primary staff member is the default assignee when the client leaves a message, shares a document or submits a generic payment (unassociated with an invoice or booking).
• Additional staff: These are additional staff members who the client is working with - they usually have at least one interaction with the client, such as an appointment or if they issued an invoice to the client. You can remove additional staff after the interaction is complete if you'd like to have greater control over what client cards your staff members are seeing.

The default assignee of a new client will automatically become the primary staff for that client.

You can find out which staff members are assigned to a client at any time by locating the client under Clients and click on the client to open up their client card. You will find the assignment information in the column on the left-hand side.

To change the Primary staff:

Just click Change next to the current primary staff and select a staff member from the list. Only the current primary staff, admins, managers and collaborators can change the primary staff. this will override any default staff assignment rules.

If the client has any upcoming bookings, you have the option at this point to reassign those appointments to the new primary staff member. Make sure this doesn't create any scheduling conflicts with the new staff member's existing appointments. 

To change additional staff:

Additional staff are automatically added if they have an interaction with the client, like a booking. 

Click Add/Remove to add and remove additional staff members. 

Auto-Staff Assignment

Auto-Staff Assignment behavior decides how interactions are assigned. 

• New interactions from new clients: All incoming communications from brand new clients who were not in your Clients list.
• Returning client interactions: Engagements from established clients in your account. 

To adjust Staff assignment behavior:

1. Navigate to Settings > Staff and switch to the Assignment rules tab.
2. Adjust the following:
   • Default Assignment: Specify the staff member who will be the primary staff by default for new clients. Brand new interactions such as contact form submissions, documents, payments, etc. will be assigned to the staff member specified, making that staff member the primary staff for the new client (This does NOT include new bookings if a different staff member is selected when making the appointment).
   • Returning client interactions: Engagements (other than bookings) can be assigned to the primary staff every time or the last staff member the client worked with. 
   • Returning client bookings: Appointments can automatically be assigned to the last staff member the client engaged with (whenever possible), or let the client choose when the option to choose a staff member is enabled.

View Permissions

View permissions define what your staff members are and aren't allowed to see on the client cards they are assigned to, either as primary or additional staff. 

To view your staff member's current view permissions:

1. In your vcita dashboard, select Settings > Staff to open your list of staff members.
2. Hover over the staff member and click the ⋮ icon. Choose Staff settings from the dropdown.
3. Switch to the Roles & Permissions tab.
4. You will find their role in the dropdown list at the top of the page. 

Shared View

The Shared View allows for across-the-board collaboration. In shared view, staff members can see all the activities of their assigned clients, even activities that took place with other staff members, so the whole team is on the same page. 

Restricted View

In restricted view, staff members can only see their own activity with clients such as an appointment scheduled with them. 

In addition, regardless of whether you set the permission to Shared view or Restricted view for a particular staff member, you can enable staff members to view all the client cards of every client in your account.

• Can view all client cards: Check the checkbox to allow the staff member to see all client cards in your CRM. They won't be able to see the client conversation of a client who isn't assigned to them, but they can create a new interaction with a client, for example. This would make them an additional staff on the client card and they would be able to see their own interactions and appointment.
• Cannot view all client cards: Uncheck the checkbox and staff members will only see clients they have worked with in the past, have been added to as an additional staff member or have an appointment with in the Clients list.

Views by Role

Further Reading:

• Setting Staff Roles and Permissions
• Permission Settings by Role