Create a Manager Access Level

The article provides a comprehensive guide on creating a manager access level in BambooHR. It outlines the purpose of manager access levels, which is to enable managers to view pertinent information about their direct and indirect reports. The guide details the steps to customize these access levels, including adding basic information, determining visibility of employee data, and managing access to specific fields. Users can grant access based on direct reports or both direct and indirect reports. It also explains how to set access permissions for various tabs and includes a feature to duplicate existing access levels for efficiency. Finally, users are encouraged to finalize their settings by saving the changes to make the access level available.

Jul 8, 2026
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How do I create a manager access level?

Purpose: Manager access levels allow you to grant your managers access to information they need for their employees who directly or indirectly report to them. This guide will show you how to customize a manager access level to meet your company's needs.

Empower your managers to do their best work with manager access levels. This BambooHR Learning course can show you how!

Table of Contents

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Add basic information
What this Access Level Can See
Do you know you can duplicate an access level?

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Manager access levels give your managers the ability to view information about their direct or indirect reports. As we go through this level, you will not see the option to allow Edit access to your managers for any information other than the Notes and Timesheet tab. It is a specific design for all manager access levels. If you have a manager who needs to have more access, it is best to create a custom access level.

To create a manager access level, click Access Levels in Settings and then select the add icon next to "Levels." From the dropdown menu, select Manager Access Level.

Add basic information

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

Access Level Name: Add a name to help you remember specifically for which users this access level applies.
Description: This option 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 user(s) to access. You can also specifically list anything you do not want the user(s) of this access level access.

Once you add information, click Next Step.

What this Access Level Can See

Manager access levels come with a default selection of fields for access. When you create a new manager access level, you will see those fields having View Only, No Access, or Access Varies. The default selection accounts for what most customers 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.

Under What this Access Level Can See, you can determine what information the users in this level can see for their direct and indirect or direct reports, including what information they can see about themselves. This step is broken down into three sections:

See About other Employees

You will need to decide which group of employees and their information the user can access. This group is only for those in this access level, and the following options are available:

Direct Reports: Access to employees who report directly to the user.
Direct and Indirect Reports: Access to employees who report directly to the user (direct reports) and employees reporting to those direct reports and so forth through the reporting chain.

Field Access

After you determine which employees you would like the users in this access level to see, you will need to select which fields you would like the user to access within each tab of an employee's profile. You can grant access to fields in three different ways:

Set Access on all Fields: This allows you to set access for all fields under the specific tab to No Access or View Only. 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.
Access by Section: Hovering over a section of fields allows you to set access for that section. You can set all fields to No Access or View Only. You can see all fields included in the section below the section name.
Access by Field: Click on the section to give the user access to each field. Hover over the specific field, and you can set the field to No Access or View Only.

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.

The Notes tab and Timesheet tab are the only tabs on an employee's profile that a manager access level user can have Edit access. By design, managers are typically the ones who need to add notes or edit timesheets for their employees in BambooHR. Please note that all additional notes from additional managers or administrators can be viewable by the user if you grant them access to this tab. If you do not want your managers to edit or view notes, change the Notes tab to No Access.

See About Themselves

After you determine what the user will see about their direct and indirect or direct reports in BambooHR, you need to decide what you would like the user to view for their personal information.

First, you will need to select if you would like the user to view their personal information. If not, the user will not see the My Info tab in BambooHR.

Second, if you would like to allow access, you need to decide which employee access level to assign to the user.

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. If a widget is outlined in your account's color, you have granted access. The widgets on Home include the following:

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.
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.
Links: This widget displays quick links to outside websites (i.e., benefit providers, etc.).
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).
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:

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 is included in Time & Attendance (add-on feature).
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.
My Stuff: The individual sections in this widget will only show if there are active items for the specific section.
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.
My Team: This widget will display the profile picture and preferred name for each person reporting to the employee. It will also appear if any of those employees have an upcoming birthday, work anniversary, or approved time off.
Insights dashboard: There are several report widgets available to give you insight into your team. You can add, remove, or rearrange these widgets if you have access to the information in the specific widget.

After you ensure all access has been granted correctly for a manager access level user, click Save & Finish at the bottom of the page to finalize the changes. The manager 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 manager access level* similar to an already created one, you can duplicate the access level. Click on a manager access level you want to copy, then under the action menu, select Duplicate Access Level. This action will open up a new manager 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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