Create an Employee Access Level

The article provides a comprehensive guide on creating employee access levels in BambooHR. It outlines the purpose of access levels, which allow employees to view and edit their information, reducing administrative tasks. The guide includes a table of contents, interactive learning options, and detailed instructions on setting up access levels. Users can customize access settings for personal information, time off requests, and benefits. The article emphasizes that employees cannot view others' profiles and provides insights on managing access for various employee groups. Additionally, it offers tips for duplicating access levels to streamline the process. The content is structured to facilitate user understanding and engagement with the BambooHR platform.

  • Jul 8, 2026
  • Knowledge

Title
Create an Employee Access Level
Article Text
This feature is included in the Core, Pro, and Elite packages.

How do I create an employee access level?

Purpose: Employee access levels give an employee view or edit access to their information so you can save time. Don't worry about updating address changes, emergency contacts, or receiving emails about how much time off an employee has available. This help guide will guide you through how to set up access levels for your employees to see and update their information in BambooHR.

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Table of Contents

Would you like to watch a video about this topic?

Do you prefer hands-on learning? Our interactive guides will guide you through different aspects of your BambooHR experience. We have an interactive guide specifically designed to show you how to create an employee access level. You can use the link below to access this guide. All you need to do is modify the "REPLACEME" with your BambooHR subdomain, and you can get started!

https://REPLACEME.bamboohr.com/home?pendo=hpXGj4Wm_GztmDEsyzsrLCru1ug&step=xJ8InNGRodEMkbnAKk2lQVyfTbk

Access Levels in Settings

BambooHR automatically creates an employee access level for you to help you save time. To edit the default settings for the provided employee access level, click the gear icon on the right and then select Access Level Settings.

To set up a new employee access level, click navigate to Settings > Access Levels, click on the plus icon next to "Levels" and then select Employee Access Level from the dropdown menu.

If you have employees in multiple locations who need access to different information for themselves, you may want to create a separate employee access level for employees in each location. This setting is often helpful for companies that have international locations.

Add basic information

While editing an employee access level or adding a new one, you can add the following information:

  1. Access Level Name: Add a name to help you remember specifically for which employees this access level applies. If you have multiple employee access levels, be sure to give a unique name for each access level.
  2. Description: This field is optional. However, we recommend giving a detailed description of the access level to help you remember why you created it. In this section, you can note the specific actions or areas of BambooHR that you would like the employee(s) to access. You can also specifically list anything you do not want the employee(s) of this access level to access.

Once you add information, click Next Step.

See About Themselves

Employee access levels come with a default selection of fields for access. When you create a new employee access level, you will see those fields having View Only, View and Edit, Edit - Approval Required, and No Access. The default selection accounts for what most admins would want to share with their employees. However, the default selection is a start, and you can grant access to additional fields or remove a field from the default fields.

Users in an employee access level do not have access to view other employees' profiles.

On the See About Themselves tab, you will determine what you want the employee to see about their personal information in BambooHR. You can grant an employee access to fields in three different ways:

  1. Set Access on all Fields: This allows you to set access for all fields under the specific tab. Depending on the tab you are viewing, you can set all fields to No Access, View Only, Edit - Approval Required, or Edit. In the example above, we are viewing the Personal tab which does not allow Edit access for all fields. If you set access for all fields and add a custom field to the tab, access for the new field will follow the access for all other fields on the tab unless you manually update the access.
  2. Access by Section: Hovering over a section of fields allows you to set access for that section. Depending on the specific section you are viewing, you can set all fields to No Access, View Only, Edit - Approval Required, or Edit. You can see all fields included in the section below the section name.
  3. Access by Field: Click on the section to give the user access to each field. Depending on the specific field, you can set the field to No Access, View Only, Edit - Approval Required, or Edit.

Once you select access for all fields on the Personal tab, you will need to go through each subsequent tab and determine what access you would like to give for each field.

Please note that allowing employees to upload their profile pictures is not done in access levels, but in general settings. See here for instructions on enabling that permission. 

Edit - Approval Required

Edit - Approval Required allows an employee to make and submit changes to data for approval. This is referred to as Information Updates in BambooHR. The change must be approved before it is displayed live on the employee's profile. Most commonly, you see Edit - Approval Required selected for fields that HR needs to know about because they affect other things such as payroll (i.e. changes to address information). Edit access is most commonly used for those fields where HR does not need to know or approve each change, but the data just needs to be accurate when it is needed (i.e., emergency contact information).

If an employee requests a change to that information, the box will gray out until the request is approved or denied. Clicking on the Pending Approval note shown above will take them to their inbox where they can cancel or comment on their request.

Time Off

If you want to give your employees access to time off information in BambooHR, you will first need to give them access to request time off. You can do this by checking the box next to "Can Request Time Off" on the Time Off tab. Once you check the box, you can click All Current and Future Time Off Categories, and you will be able to determine what categories of time off employees will be able to request from. If no categories are selected, then it will automatically give access to request time off for all categories.

Once you give employees access to request time off, you might want to grant access for employees to be able to view their history for a specific time off category or grant access to see what time off policies* they have been assigned to. To do this, simply hover over the type or policy and click on the View Only button that pops-up. Selecting View Only for a category will also allow an employee to view a time off balance on their employee profile for that specific category.

*In order for employees to calculate future balances, and view their time off history, they will need access to the associated time off category. Checking the options for the policies only allows the employee to view the name of the policy he or she is assigned to but not any details of how the policy accrues.

Benefits

If you grant your employees access to view their benefits information, you will need to determine if they can view what the company will pay for the benefit plans they are enrolled in. Marking the checkbox will allow employees to view these amounts within the Benefits Overview table on their employee profile. You can remove this option by unchecking the box if needed.

See on Home

Home is the first page an employee will see after they log in to BambooHR. When granting access to Home, you can enable access on each widget. Click on the widget to grant access or click again to remove access. The widgets on Home include the following:

  1. Celebrations: Once checked, you will see the Anniversaries & Birthdays option. Click on the drop-down arrow to select which option you would like to show. An employee can view all celebrations that have happened in the last seven days and will be happening in the upcoming 30 days with the option to load more.
  2. Announcements: This widget displays company announcements in the What's Happening widget. An employee can view them if they have access. The What's Happening widget automatically appears to the employee if they have one active item in this widget. An announcement will pop up as a notification in this widget. After the employee views an announcement, they can view it again by clicking Announcements in the widget's top right corner.
  3. Links: This widget displays quick links to outside websites (i.e., benefit providers, etc.).
  4. Welcome New Hires : This widget (also known as Welcome to Company) displays all new employees in your company. New hires will appear when they are active, have a hire date, and when it is their first day OR if hired within the last 30 days. Additionally, you will see a new hire's Get to Know You information from the New Hire Packet (if provided).
  5. Who's Out: This widget displays company holidays and which employees will be out of the office during the next seven days, the rest of the month, and the following month. An option to load further information is available until no holidays or requests load. This widget also includes a link to view the calendar.

Please note the following widgets will automatically appear on Home if the employee has an available item in the specific widget:

  1. My Time: This widget gives employees a quick overview of their timesheet and allows them to document their time. The widget will only appear if the employee has Time & Attendance enabled (add-on feature).
  2. Time Off: This widget displays time off balances and allows an employee to request time off or calculate a future balance. It will only appear if the employee has access to at least one time off category.
  3. Goals*/Training/Benefits: The individual sections in this widget will only appear if there are active items for the specific section.
  4. What's Happening: This widget displays notifications about items that need the employee's attention in BambooHR. Some examples include time off requests that need approval, signature requests to sign, and assigned onboarding or offboarding tasks. Company announcements are also included in this widget if the employee has access to view them. This widget only appears if the employee has at least one outstanding notification.

After you ensure all access has been granted correctly for an employee access level user, click Save & Finish at the bottom of the page to finalize the changes. The employee access level will now be available for selection when enabling access for a user in BambooHR.

Do you know you can duplicate an access level?

If you need to create another employee access level* similar to an already created one, you can duplicate the access level. Click on the employee access level you want to copy. Then, under the action menu, select Duplicate Access Level. This action will open up a new employee access level with all the same settings as the duplicated one. In this way, you can quickly make any small changes in creating the access you need.

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