Creating and managing Power Users – Docebo Help & Support

Introduction

On the learning platform, Superadmins can delegate part of their administrative responsibilities to other users, known as Power Users.

While Superadmins have unrestricted access to all administrative features, Power Users are assigned specific permissions and scopes, allowing for controlled and secure delegation.

This approach makes it possible to distribute the administrative workload efficiently, without granting full platform access.

For example, you can assign different Power Users responsibility for areas such as user management, content management, or support, leveraging their expertise in specific domains. Take inspiration from the Community Guide on Power Users Personas (opens in a new tab).
You can also use Power User with different resource scopes to manage branches located in different countries, or in association with the Extended enterprise app, to manage different domains.

How are Power Users created

A Power User is created in the same way as any other user, in User management. The only difference is that, when creating the user, in the user Level drop-down you select the Power User option instead of just User.

You can also promote an existing user to Power User in two ways:

From the User management page, by editing their user level.
From the Power Users management page, by selecting which existing users to promote. This will have the effect of changing their level to Power User.

For more information, see the chapter Create a Power User.

Once a user’s level is set to Power User, they will be listed in the Power User management page. This is where you define the permissions and resources associated with that Power User.

Permissions of a Power User

A Power User’s permissions determine which actions they are allowed to perform on the platform. Examples include: creating or editing courses, enrolling users, managing users, configuring notifications, and so on.

These can be set in a highly granular way. For full details of the available permissions see the article Power User permissions.

Permissions are not assigned directly to individual Power Users. Instead you first create one or more permissions “profiles”, each representing a predefined set of permissions. For instructions, see the chapter Create a permissions profile.

A profile can contain any combination of permissions across different functional areas, so you can make it highly targeted or quite broad. Two example profiles are shown below.

Once created, a permission profile can be assigned to one or more Power Users. If you change the profile, the change will apply to all the Power Users who are assigned that profile. You can also assign a given Power User more than one profile. For instructions, see the chapter Grant profiles to Power Users.
In this way, profiles help you manage the complexity of all the different permissions.

Resources of a Power User

The permissions granted to a Power User apply only to the resources they are allowed to manage.

Resources can include things like users, groups, branches, courses, learning plans, catalogs, channels, pages, menus and more.
Resources are assigned directly to individual Power Users, from the Power User management page. For instructions see the chapter Assign resources to Power Users.

→ So remember that, to be able to perform a particular action, a Power User needs both the relevant permissions and resource assignments.

For example, a Power User with a full set of permissions for courses (create, delete, etc.) will be able to do those actions only on the set of courses assigned to them as resource.

Power Users that manage other Power Users

In larger or more complex organizations, you can further streamline administration by creating a Power User hierarchy, where certain Power Users are allowed to manage other Power Users. For details see the chapter Power Users who manage other Power Users.

The rest of this article explains in detail how to do all the configurations pertaining to Power Users.

Learn more on DoceboU

Want to learn more about Power Users? Have a look at the dedicated course, Delegating Administrative Tasks with Power Users (opens in a new tab) on Docebo U!

Access the Power User management page

The Power User management page is where you can do all configurations relating to Power Users, including setting up permission profiles and resource assignments. To access it, go to Admin menu > E-learning > Power Users .
→ Power Users with at least one Power User management permission can open this page.

The Power Users management page is composed of two tabs:

Power Users. For Superadmins, this tab lists all the Power Users configured in the platform. For Power Users, it shows only those Power Users who are assigned to them as resource.
→ Note that Power Users cannot see themselves in this list (even if assigned to themselves as resource) and so cannot view or edit their own Power User permissions and resources.
Profiles. For Superadmins, this tab lists all the permission profiles already configured in the platform. For Power Users, it shows only the profiles assigned to them as resource.

Create a Power User

Power Users are just users created by the standard user creation procedure, but whose user level is set to Power User rather than User. So creating a Power User involves setting or changing a user’s level to “Power User”. You can do so in two ways:

From the User management page:
→ This requires the relevant permissions for users.

Create a new user (or edit an existing user), and set their level to Power User.

From the Power user management page:
→ This requires only the permission Power User management / Create and manage Power Users,

Click the plus button in the top right corner and select New Power User. The right panel that opens will show all the users available for promotion. Power Users will see here only the users assigned to them as resource. Select the users whom you want to promote to Power User, then click Confirm.

The newly created Power Users will become visible in the Power Users tab of the Power Users management page.

Tip: Demoting a Power User can be done in the same ways, and requires the same permissions. From User management, you can set their level back to User. From Power User management, you can click the ellipsis menu on a user’s row and select switch to User level.

Create a permissions profile

A profile is a set of permissions that you can grant to Power Users, determining what actions they can perform on the platform. For example, you might have profiles like "User manager" or "Content manager," each one with different permissions.

Power Users are typically assigned to one or more profiles which define their privileges within the platform.
Superadmins can configure as many profiles as they need in the platform but remember that you can grant at most 10 profiles to each Power User.

→ Only Superadmins can create or edit permission profiles. Power Users with permission to manage other Power Users cannot create or edit profiles. They can only grant or remove pre-existing permission profiles assigned to them.

In order to create a new Power User profile, from the main Power Users management page, click on the plus button in the top right corner, then select New profile.

In the right panel, set a profile name and, optionally, a profile description. For security reasons, both the profile name and the profile description are checked according to the OWASP guidelines (opens in a new tab) and will be sanitized to avoid injections. Click on Create and edit to start the configuration.

Use the General section to edit the profile name and description, if necessary. Please note that the following characters < > \ | / = + are not accepted in the profile name field, and you will not be allowed to save the changes related to the profile when the name includes those characters.

Use the Pre-Populate User Additional Fields area to select the user additional fields that will be automatically populated with the data of the Power Users associated with the profile when they create new users. To do so, click on Select additional fields, select one or more fields from the right panel that will open by clicking the checkboxes next to their field names, and click on Select to confirm your action. This step is optional. Please note that the user additional fields defined as Invisible to the user are not automatically populated upon the user creation.

Move now to the Manage Permissions section to assign the rights to the profile, that is what the Power Users assigned to the profile will be authorized to do in your platform. Click Add permission, and select an area from the corresponding dropdown, in the right panel that will open. Once you pick up an area, use the Type dropdown to define whether you want to assign all permissions related to the selected area to the Power User profile, or select the Custom permissions option to choose a subset of permissions from the third dropdown.

Please note! Have a look at the complete list of the permissions available for the configuration of Power User profiles to have an overview of the available permissions and relevant options.

Once you have completed your selection, click Confirm. The permission you have added is listed in the recap bottom area of the Manage Permissions section. Repeat the permission selection for all of the areas you wish to assign to the profile.

Grant profiles to Power Users

Once a permission profile has been created, you can grant it to one or more Power Users. When you grant a profile to a Power User, you are giving them the permissions defined in that specific profile.

→ Power Users who manage other Power Users can only grant the permission profiles assigned to them as resource. They can still remove other profiles, but then won’t be able to grant them back again.
i) With the permission Power User management / Edit existing Power Users they can grant or remove profiles for any Power User visible to them.
ii) With only the permission Power User management / Create and manage Power Users they can only grant or remove profiles for Power Users which they themselves have created.

Please note: You can grant up to 10 profiles to every Power User.

Check or edit the permissions of a Power User

You can always check and adjust what permissions a Power User currently has by opening their configuration page.

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab > [power user name].
In the Properties tab, the Granted profiles list shows the permission profiles currently granted to this Power User.
→ From here you can also click x on a profile chip to remove it, or click Grant profiles to add more profiles to this user. For more information see the chapters Grant multiple profiles to a given Power User and Remove profiles from a given Power User.
The Permissions recap area underneath shows exactly which permissions correspond to the granted profiles. When you save it is updated to reflect the profiles that you have granted or removed.

Grant multiple profiles to a given Power User

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab.
Do one of the following:
- Click the name of a [power user] in the list to open their configuration page. Then in the Properties tab click Grant profiles.
- Click the ellipsis menu on a user’s row and select Grant profiles.
In the right panel that opens, select the permission profiles that you want to grant to this user, then click Grant or Confirm.

Remove multiple profiles from a given Power User

Note: Remember that Power Users who manage other Power Users can remove profiles that are not assigned to them as resource, but afterward they won’t be able to grant them back.

Method 1 (from the Power User properties)

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab.
Click the name of a [power user] in the list to open their configuration page. In the Properties tab, the Granted profiles list shows the profiles currently granted to this user.
You can click the x on any chip to remove that profile.
When you are finished click Save changes.

Method 2 (from the Power User list)

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab.
Click the ellipsis menu on a user’s row and select Unassign profiles.
In the right panel that opens, select the profiles that you want to remove from this particular user, then click Remove.

Tip: If you remove all the permission profiles from a Power User, you will be asked whether you also want to demote that user to normal user. Choose Change to user or Keep Power User as needed.

Grant a particular profile to one or more Power Users

Go to Power User management page > Profiles tab to view the list of profiles.
Then do one of the following:
- From the ellipsis menu on a profile’s row select Grant to Power Users.
- Click a [profile name] to open the configuration page for that profile. Then click the plus button (Grant Power Users) in the top right corner.
In the right panel that opens, select the Power Users to whom you want to assign this permission profile, and click Grant.

Remove a particular profile from one or more Power Users

Go to Power User management page > Profiles tab > [profile name]) and select the Power Users tab.
Here you will see the Power Users currently granted this profile.
Click the ellipsis menu on a user’s row, and select Unassign from profile.
Note: Only for Superadmins, this can also be done as a mass action: select multiple Power Users in the list, click the Choose action button and select Unassign from profile.

Grant multiple profiles to multiple Power Users in bulk (Superadmins only)

→ Only Superadmins can grant multiple profiles to multiple Power Users at the same time.

Method 1 (from the profiles list):

Go to Power User management page > Profiles tab to view the list of profiles.
Select the check boxes next to the profiles that you want to grant.
Click the Choose action button and select Grant to Power Users.
In the right panel that opens, select the Power Users to whom you want to grant the selected profiles, and click Grant.

Method 2 (from the Power Users list):

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab.
Select the check boxes next to the Power Users to whom you want to grant profiles
Click the Choose action button and select Grant profiles.
In the right panel that opens select the profiles that you want to grant to the selected Power Users and click Grant.

The granting of more than one profile happens in the background, as a background job.

Note that it is not possible to remove multiple selected profiles from multiple Power Users at the same time. However Superadmins can select multiple Power Users and use Choose action > Unassign all profiles to remove all permission profiles from those users.

Assign resources to Power Users

The permissions granted to a Power User apply only to the resources they are allowed to manage.
→ For example, if you grant permissions to enroll users in courses, these will be effective only for the courses and users that are also assigned to the Power User as a resource.

So you also need to assign to each Power User the set of resources that they are allowed to operate on. Resources can include users, groups, branches, courses and learning plans, catalogs, locations, pages, menus, profiles, and more.

View or change the resources assigned to a Power User

The resources assigned to a particular Power User can be checked and defined on their configuration page:

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab > [power user name]. This will open the Power User’s configuration page.
Select the Assigned resources tab. Here you can see the resources currently assigned to this Power User.
In the left navigation, click on a resource type (for example, Catalogs) to view what items of that type are currently assigned.
To remove a particular resource, click the ellipsis menu on the item’s row and select Unassign.
Note: Only for Superadmins, this can also be done as a bulk action. Select the check boxes next to the items to remove, then click the Choose action button and select Unassign.
To assign resources to this user:
1. Click the plus button (Assign resources) in the top right corner.
2. In the panel that opens select the resource Type and click Next.
3. From the list of available items, select the desired ones and click Assign.

Important: Parent Power Users are allowed to see all the resources assigned to the Power Users managed by them in the Power Users management page, including those not assigned to them in the first place, but they cannot manage them in turn if those resources are not also assigned to them. In addition, if they unassign the resources not assigned to them, they will not be able to assign them back.

Bulk-assign resources to multiple Power Users (Superadmin only)

You can also assign resources to multiple users at the same time. To do this:

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab.
In the list of Power Users, select the ones to whom you want to assign resources.
Click the Choose action button and select Assign resources, then choose one of the available options:
- All courses, All learning plans, All courses and learning plans, and All courses and learning plans in visible catalogs let you quickly assign one of the wildcard “all” options for content.
- Custom selection of resources opens the standard right panel where you can select the resource Type and then the individual items to assign

Unassign all content from a Power User

You can quickly unassign all the content resources (courses, learning plans and categories) from a Power User with a single action.

Go to Power User management page > Power Users tab to view the list of Power Users.
From the ellipsis menu on a user’s row, select Unassign all courses.
→ A window opens warning you that you are about to unassign all courses, learning plans, and categories from the selected user. And that if the resources you are unassigning are not assigned to you in the first place, you won’t be able to add them back.
Click Unassign to confirm.

Note: Only for Superadmins, you can also unassign all content from multiple users at the same time. Select the check boxes next to the users, then click the Choose action button and select Unassign all courses.

Notes on resource assignments

When a Power User assigns a resource to a user (e.g., enrolls a user in a course, or assigns a subscription), other Power Users cannot undo the assignment. Only Superadmins can modify or invalidate the assignments made by Power Users.
When assigning an entire set of resources to one or more Power Users (all courses, all learning plans, etc.), the assignment is considered a dynamic sum of all the resources, which changes depending on the resources created or deleted in the platform. This behavior is reflected in filters too. For example, if you filter Power Users using the Without learning plans filter, the results page will never include the Power Users assigned to all learning plans, even if there is no learning plan in your platform.
If a Power User is also a manager, they will have visibility over the resources (courses, learning plans, catalogs, etc.) available to the users they are managing. As an example, when a Power User with manager permissions navigates the My team page, they will be able to see the courses and the learning plans where their team members are enrolled, even when not directly assigned to them.

Courses and learning plans

When assigning courses and learning plans as resource to a Power User, you can either make a Custom selection (meaning that you individually choose which items to assign) or select one of the “All” options, which assign to the Power User all existing and future content of the specified type (courses, learning plans, or both).

Please note that: The option All courses and learning plans in visible catalogs assigns to the Power User all the content in the catalogs that are visible to them in learner view. So changing the learner visibility of a catalog (the branches, groups or users allowed to see that catalog) may consequently also affect the Power User’s resource assignments.

When a Power User is assigned a learning plan as resource, they implicitly acquire visibility on all the courses contained in the learning plan, and can manage those courses in accordance with their permissions on courses.

Please note: When a Power User manages other Power Users, the following applies:

The “parent” Power User can assign only a Custom selection of content to their “child” Power User. The “All” wildcard options are not available.

When assigning a Custom selection, the parent Power User can choose only from courses and learning plans explicitly assigned to them as resources via the options: All courses, All learning plans, All courses and learning plans, or Custom selection.

Courses and learning plans assigned indirectly to the parent Power User through All courses and learning plans in visible catalogs cannot be assigned to child Power Users.

Branches

Power Users can assign users only to the branches that they manage, meaning the branches assigned to them as resources.

When a Power User has no branches assigned as resource:

Users created by that Power User will be placed in the root branch.
When creating or editing users, that Power User will have visibility on all the additional fields, even if additional fields visibility based on branch nodes has been set.

If a Power User is assigned a user belonging to a branch that is not assigned to the Power User, the Power User can assign the user only to one of the branches they are managing.

Tip: If your platform was activated before October 21, 2019, when a Power User assigns the user to a branch they are managing, the user will be kept in both branches. However, for platforms activated after October 21, 2019, users can belong to only one branch. If the Power User assigns the user to one of the branches they are managing, the user will be removed from the previously assigned branch.

Pages and menus

A Power User who has a menu assigned as a resource always maintains athe ssignment of the pages (current and future) belonging to that menu.

You cannot unassign a page from a Power User if they have a menu assigned containing that page.
Unassigning a menu from a Power User does not automatically unassign the pages in that menu.
While on the Assigned resources tab of a Power User, you can unassign all pages or all menus by clicking the ellipsis menu at the end of the Pages or Menus vertical tab, then selecting Remove all assigned pages or Remove all assigned menus. If you want to unassign both pages and menus, make sure to unassign menus first, then pages. Otherwise, pages still linked to menus will remain assigned.

For more information, see the article Power user permissions, chapters: Permissions for pages and Permissions for menus.

Notifications

A Power User with permissions for notifications is able to view and manage only the notifications configured for the Power User’s assigned resources. More specifically:

The resources set as trigger filters for the notification (groups, branches, courses and learning plans) must all be assigned to the Power User as resource.

For more information see the article Configuring notifications > Set the trigger filters of a notification.

Reports

When scheduling and exporting reports, remember that the visibility of Power Users over resources follows the refresh latency of the other data in the reports, and is not reflected in real time. Instead, the reflected data will be the one obtained after the last data refresh.

As an example, if you edit a Power User’s permissions by adding or removing courses associated to the Power User, the changes you made to Power User permissions are NOT immediately reflected in the value of the filters available in the Filters tab of the Reports menu and are NOT immediately reflected in the courses that are extracted and visible in the report. Instead, filters and reports will remain unchanged until the next data refresh. Keep in mind that this delay concerns all the data and so the Power User will not see any change in the data compared to what existed before your changes. For more information on reports, refer to the dedicated article of the Knowledge Base.

Profiles assigned as resources

As described in the chapter Grant profiles to Power Users, profiles are normally granted to Power Users to define their permissions on the platform.

However, profiles can also be assigned as resource to Power Users with permission to manage other Power Users, so that they can, in turn, assign those profiles to the Power Users they manage. For more information see the chapter Power Users who manage other Power Users

Remember: When a profile is assigned as resource to a Power User it does not define that particular Power User’s permissions. It only enables them to grant that profile to the Power Users whom they manage.

Managing Power Users

Directly from the Power Users management page you can access the following actions on Power Users by clicking the ellipsis menu on a user’s row:

Power User overview. When you select this option, you will access a quick recap of the resources and the profiles assigned to the Power User, as well as an overview of the permissions they are granted on the basis of the assigned profiles.
Edit. Use this option to edit the details of the selected Power User.
Assign resources. Use this option to quickly assign resources to the selected Power User. See the chapter Assign resources to Power Users.
Grant profiles. Use this option to quickly grant profiles to the selected Power User. See the chapter Grant multiple profiles to a given Power User.
Unassign profiles. Select this option to quickly unassign profiles from the selected Power User with a single action. See the chapter Remove profiles from a given Power User.
Log in as this Power User. (Available only for Superadmins) You can temporarily login as a Power User in your platform to perform actions on their behalf to help with troubleshooting in their learning platform. Learn more about impersonating a Power User.
Unassign all courses. Use this option to unassign all of the courses, learning plans and categories from the selected Power User. See the chapter Unassign all content from a Power User
Switch to User level. Use this option to demote the Power User to a normal user. When you do so, all of the permission profiles and assigned resources will be removed from that user.

Additionally, only for Superadmins, the following are available as mass actions. To access them, select the check boxes next to multiple Power users, then click the Choose action button.

Assign resources: See the chapter Bulk-assign resources to multiple Power Users (Superadmin only)
Grant profiles: See the chapter Grant multiple profiles to multiple Power Users in bulk (Superadmins only)
Unassign all profiles: Use this option to unassign all of the profiles linked to the selected Power Users from them. Since this option results in the selected Power Users no longer being assigned to any profile, to proceed with this action, the platform will ask you if you also want to demote the selected Power Users to normal users.
Unassign all courses. Use this option to unassign all of the courses, learning plans and categories from the selected Power Users. See the chapter Unassign all content from a Power User
Switch to User level. Use this option to unassign the selected Power Users to their role, demoting them to normal users. When you do so, all of the profiles and the resources assigned to the Power User will be unassigned.

Please note! When you change a Power User’s level, grant or unassign profiles or resources, or update the permissions associated with a Power User’s profile, the Power User will be logged out the next time they perform an action on the platform and will need to log in again to see their updated rights. In case of indirect resource assignments (e.g., a user being added to a group to which the Power User is already assigned), the Power User is not automatically logged out, but they will see their updated rights only after their next login.

Power Users who manage other Power Users

On the platform, you can grant certain Power Users permission to manage other Power Users, creating a user hierarchy within the platform. These “parent” Power Users are a step above ordinary Power Users: they have the authority to manage and oversee the activities of their “child” Power Users across the platform.

Prerequisites:

Power Users can manage other Power Users only when the Make the Power User management permission available, allowing Power Users to manage other Power Users and the profiles assigned to them as resources option is enabled in the platform Advanced settings.

1. Grant “parent” Power Users the permission to manage other Power Users:

Once you have enabled the advanced setting, the “Power User management” permission area becomes available when you create or edit a permission profile. You can then grant a profile containing these permissions to the Power Users who will be managing other Power Users.

→ Once a Power User has at least one of these permissions assigned, they can access the Power User management page and there they will see listed any Power Users assigned to them as resource (see step 2).

2. Assign to “parent” Power Users their “child” Power Users as resource:

Now you need to assign to each “parent” Power User the “child” Power Users that they will be managing. You do this in the normal way, by simply assigning the relevant users as resource, either individually or via a group or branch assignment.

At this point, the “parent” Power User will be able to see their “child” Power Users in the Power User management page. Here they can perform actions on them such as assigning / unassigning resources, granting permission profiles, as well as promoting normal users to Power User:

With only the Create and manage Power Users permissions the “parent” Power User can only perform actions on the “child” Power Users which they themselves have promoted. The others will appear in the list as read-only.
With the Edit existing Power Users permission, the “parent” Power User can perform actions on all the “child” Power Users visible in the list.

3. Assign to “parent” Power Users permission profiles as resource:

If you want parent Power Users to be able to modify the permissions of their child Power Users, then you need to assign the relevant profiles to the parent as resource. This will allow the parent Power User to grant those profiles to their child Power Users.

→ Note that, when modifying the permission profiles of a child Power User, the parent Power User can only grant the profiles assigned to them as resource. The other granted profiles are visible and can be removed, but the parent won’t be able to add them back.

Creating and managing Power Users via CSV files

In your platform, you can create and manage users using CSV files. When creating or managing Power Users with this method, remember that you can assign up to 10 profiles per Power User.

To create a Power User via CSV file, set the user data field Level as poweruser and use the Profile Name data field to list the names of the Power User profiles you want to assign to the user. Profile names must be separated by the | character (pipe, or, vertical bar). When assigning multiple profiles to a Power User, do not use | as the separator in the CSV file.

Distributing paid courses through Power Users

If you offer paid courses on your platform, a common situation is that you do not want learners to have to directly make purchases. Instead, you can set up a configuration where a Power User handles the transactions and/or takes care of enrolling their learners.

Some mechanisms to do this include:

Seats: A Power User with the permission Can buy and assign seats for courses and learning plans can purchase or be granted a certain number of seats in a paid course, which they can then use to enroll their learners. See the article Managing seats for paid courses.
Purchase on behalf: A Power User with the permission Course catalogs / Allow Power User to buy courses and learning plans on behalf of someone else can purchase a course or learning plan for someone else. See the article Navigating and Managing your Shopping Cart.
Training credits: A Power User can purchase or be granted a certain quantity of training credits, which they can use to either:
a) directly enroll their learners in courses.
b) distribute credits to their learners, who can use those credits to enroll themselves in paid courses, without making a purchase
See the article Training credits for e-commerce.

Tips and tricks

The Power Users who have permission to create courses can also set course categories for the course. If another Power User has visibility to the same course category, the two Power Users are then able to work together to build out the courses in that category.
If your platform is organized in branches and you must assign a Power User to each branch/sub-branch, use a CSV file instead of a manual assignment. During the CSV import, configure the Auto assign branches to Power Users functionality.

Docebo Help

How can we help?