For any Business the financial numbers are extremely sensitive information. Being skeptical about who accesses this information is justified given their vulnerability to be misused. There’s always the threat of data manipulation and leakage, and the last thing you want to worry about while handling your business is internal fraud!
Any business, new or seasoned, big or small, cannot at any cost afford this threat. While the risk of internal data security is inevitable, the ability to prevent it is under your control!
This is where the Role Based Access Control concept comes into the picture.
What is Role Based Access Control?
Role Based Access Control or RBAC, as the name implies, is an approach to restricting system access to authorized users only based on their roles. It aims to eliminate the risk of unauthorized access and misuse of data, by adding an additional layer of security. Basically, it encourages the owner to decide who should get access to which resources and to what extent.
Let’s understand it better with a designation wise example of an organization.
Where a Data Entry Operators’ sole responsibility is to record the entries in the Books, instead of giving them access to the entire Books of Accounts, you can easily restrict it to Transaction levels only with selective Report Access. While a manager, on the other hand, can be given access to the Reports, as their main focus area is curating various reports based on the Financial Data for decision making, thus they’ll only be able to examine reports and not partake in the execution.
Using Role Based Access Control ensures:
1.Optimized operational efficiency
2.Meeting several audit requirements and makes the reporting process easier
3.Protection of data through restricted access
4.Reduces the volume of workload for admin and IT support and thereby increases productivity
5.Better compliance with regulatory guidelines related to client confidentiality
So, what are the potential consequences of not having Role Based Access Control?
1.Data Breach – Data breach and leakage is always linked to the people who have some access to your data. A report by Verizon mentioned that about 20% of cybersecurity incidents and 15% of data breaches happens due to misuse of privileges by employees.
2.Data Manipulation – The last thing you want to worry about is Internal Fraud. An astounding 80% of data breaches happen due to human error! Incorrect and unauthorized alterations are a major cause of internal fraud according to several reports.
3.Bad Press – Data leakage costs you majorly as it tarnishes your business’ reputation. You might lose key stakeholders if proper security measures aren’t in place.
Many statistics suggest that data breach happens due to lack of proper management regarding access granting.
The above reasons call for proper management when it comes to deciding user access. An effective RBAC mechanism is implemented in two ways to ensure security-
1.Data Authorization – Where you can restrict the amount of data that a user has access to within the system.
2.Feature Authorization – Where you can restrict the access of certain features for a user within the system.
What’s better than being able to combine both the above ways together into an accounting software to ensure maximum security without hampering your day to day workflow. Something that allows you to track who is doing what in your books definitely sounds like a must-have.
Need an accounting software that goes beyond the granular level to give you the power to control how your Books of Accounts are being accessed?
Here’s how RealBooks comes to the rescue!
RealBooks is a cloud-based GST compliant accounting-inventory software. Besides being hosted on Amazon Web Services, with numerous levels of backups, and data protection measures in place, RealBooks’ RBAC is one of the finest features that is definitely icing on the cake when it comes to data security.
It helps to pre-define the permissions of users for authorized access using dynamic combinations of data and features authorization as desired.
RealBooks allows implementation of RBAC at a very granular level to ensure data safety using the following measures-
1. Set permissions based on user roles
With RealBooks, you as an admin can decide and define permissions for how your users use the software. For a user, permissions are categorized into 5 parts at masters and transaction level –
- Create
- Edit
- Delete
- View
You can use a combination of the above 5 categories and define how users can access data and features of the software, along with the Reports.
2. Voucher level measures
Not only feature level permission, one can define permissions for authorized users on a voucher level too. RealBooks has a mechanism of ‘Deny All Except’ and ‘Allow All Except’ to restrict and make exceptions regarding voucher data as required.
What does a ‘Deny All Except’ & ‘Allow All Except’ do?
For example, you want the user to have access to only Payment vouchers. So you select the ‘Deny All Except’ option to restrict the user to only Payment vouchers. This way, other vouchers won’t be visible to them.
On the other hand, you want to restrict the user from accessing certain vouchers while having permission to all other vouchers in your books. In this case, you use the ‘Allow All Except’ option while defining permissions. This way, the user can access all the vouchers and is restricted from the vouchers you have selected to not view or edit.
3. Ledger level measures
On a Ledger Level, you can define which ledgers are accessible to certain users. Here too, the mechanisms of ‘Deny All Except’ and ‘Allow All Except’ apply.
4. Ledger group level measures
With Ledger Group level permissions, control the ledger groups under which the user has access to create the ledgers.
For example, two of your accountants are responsible for only handling receivables. So, you can permit them to create ledgers only under the Sundry Debtors ledger group.
5. Company level & Segment level measures
With RealBooks configuring multiple branches under your main company for efficient data handling is quite easy. While the company creation and configuration in the software rests with the admin, the admin can restrict the user permissions of viewing/posting data to a specific branch/segment. This way, the user will be shown data pertaining only to the branch assigned to them.
The same thing applies while creating multiple companies under 1 account/domain. The users can be assigned company wise permissions and rights. As a result the user will be able to access only those companies to which he/she has been given access permission.
6. Backdated entries permission
On a practical level, you have to allow some scope for backdated entries with predefined precautions in place. But backdated entries are still vulnerable to tampering.
In RealBooks, booking backdated entries date range can be customized as needed. The admin can make exceptions for specific users and can customize and increase the available time limit as needed while having full rights to monitor the modifications. Exceptions can also be made on a voucher level and company level.
7. Additional features
The RBAC in RealBooks is strengthened by additional monitoring features such as Approval Workflow and Notifications. These features help the admin to monitor the modifications made by each authorized user in a particular segment.
Switch to a new secure digital future!
If you are looking for a cloud-based online accounting software with world-class cloud services then look no further. RealBooks is the one-stop solution to all your data safety worries. Numerous companies from several industries have already switched to RealBooks for hassle-free data management with real-time cloud sync, and
We’re committed to protect your business data and make it easy for you to access it anytime, anywhere. Forget all your worries and switch to a new digital future. Choose RealBooks – the bestcloud-based online accounting software and enjoy hassle-free operations management. Switch to RealBooks.