Overview
BioPortal uses role-based access control backed by teams and per-site assignments. Teams group contractors together so you can assign a whole crew to a site rather than managing individuals one-by-one. Each user has one role per company and inherits site access either directly or through team membership.
Roles & permissions
BioPortal has seven roles. BioPortal staff roles (Super Admin, Customer Support, Lab Admin) sit above company roles and can operate across multiple companies.
Company Admin is the common case
Creating a team
Open team management
Go to /admin/teams. You'll see a list of existing teams for your company. Click Create New Team to open the form.
Fill in the team details
Each team has:
- Name (required, 3-100 characters) — e.g. "Harbour Field Team"
- Description (optional, up to 500 characters)
- Colour — pick one of 8 presets (Blue, Green, Amber, Red, Purple, Pink, Indigo, Teal) for quick visual identification
- Team leader (optional) — auto-added to members
- Members — multi-select of users
- Assigned sites — multi-select of sites
Review and create
Click Create Team. The team is now visible in the list and members can see their assigned sites immediately.
Assigning sites to teams
Sites can be assigned to teams in two places: during team creation (above) or from the site detail page. All members of a team automatically gain access to assigned sites. Team-based assignment also powers the Contractor Quality dashboard widget — results grouped by the team responsible for the site, not just the individual who collected the sample.
One site, multiple teams
Inviting a new user
Open the user management page
Navigate to /admin/users. Click Create New User to open the invite form.
Complete the 6 sections
The form is organised into collapsible sections. Work top-to-bottom:
- User Details — display name, email, phone, photo
- Company & Role — which company, what role
- Team Assignment — only shown for Contractor role
- Authentication & Security — password, 2FA, grace period
- Notification Preferences — email / SMS / in-app toggles
- Onboarding — welcome email with optional custom message
Send the invitation
Click Send Invitation. The user receives an email with a link to set their password. While they're pending, their row in the user list shows a yellow Pending badge and you can resend the invitation or copy the invitation link at any time.
Who can you invite?
Contractor assignment
When you invite a Contractor, section 3 of the form offers three ways to grant site access:
Existing team
Add them to a team that's already assigned to the relevant sites. Fastest if the team exists.
New team
Create a team inline — name, colour, and site assignments in one step.
Individual sites
Assign specific sites directly, without using a team. Best for one-off contractors.
Managing existing users
From /admin/users you can search, filter by role/status, and click into any user to:
- Change their role (within roles you're allowed to assign)
- Update team membership
- Resend invitations for pending users
- Copy the invitation link to share out-of-band
- Deactivate the account (soft delete — data preserved)
Deleting or deactivating teams
Deleting a team is a soft delete. The team is marked inactive, removed from its assigned sites, and members lose the site access they gained via the team (unless they're also assigned individually).