Managing Authorizations

An authorization records that a member has completed the training or safety sign-off for something, such as “Laser Safety” or “Woodshop Basics”. Workspaces can require authorizations before members reserve equipment, and members earn them by completing classes or by being granted them by staff.

This guide covers creating authorization types and managing them for individual members. To understand how requirements work together at booking time, see How Authorization Requirements Work.

You need the Manage Authorizations permission (Managers and Admins by default) to create, grant, or revoke authorizations. Find them under Admin > Resources > Authorizations.

Create an authorization

1. Go to Admin > Resources > Authorizations and choose Add Authorization.
2. Enter a name (for example “Laser Cutter Safety”) and an optional description of what it covers.
3. Choose a status: Active (can be granted) or Under Review (not yet in use).
4. Set Grants expire after to the number of months a grant should last, from 1 to 120. Leave it blank for no expiry.
5. Choose Save Authorization.

Note

The grant duration only affects new grants and class re-takes. People who already hold the authorization keep their current expiration date.

Statuses

Status	Meaning
Active	In use. Staff can grant it to members.
Under Review	Defined but not ready. It can’t be manually granted until you set it to Active.
Archived	Retired. No new grants are issued. See Archiving Workspaces & Authorizations.

The authorization detail pane

Tab	What you’ll find
Overview	The description, the grant duration, and which workspaces and equipment use this authorization.
Settings	The Archive button.

The “used by” lists help you see what a change would affect before you archive or edit.

How members earn authorizations

Source	How it works
Class	Attach authorizations to a class series. Members earn them when they complete a session. For a multi-session cohort, they earn them at close-out if they met the cohort’s attendance threshold.
Manual	Staff grant it directly from the member’s profile (below).

Whichever way it’s earned, the grant expires according to the authorization’s grant duration. If the authorization has no duration, the grant never expires. Re-taking a class resets the expiry clock. More detail is in How Authorization Requirements Work.

Events can also give attendees a temporary authorization for the event window. See Event Access Policies.

Grant an authorization manually

1. Go to Admin > People > Users and open the member.
2. On the Overview tab, find the Authorizations card and choose Grant Authorization.
3. Pick the authorization. The list shows active authorizations the member doesn’t already hold.
4. Optionally set an expiration date. Leave it blank to use the authorization’s default duration (or no expiry if it has none). A date you choose must be in the future and overrides the default.
5. Confirm.

The grant records who granted it and when.

Tip

You don’t need to set a date for most grants. Leaving it blank keeps expiry consistent with class-earned grants.

Revoke an authorization

1. Open the member’s profile and find the authorization on the Authorizations card.
2. Choose Revoke and confirm.

Revoking removes every active grant the member has for that authorization, whether it came from a class, a cohort, or a manual grant. The member can no longer reserve in workspaces that require it. The grant history is kept, and the revocation is logged with who did it and when. Manual revocations don’t send the member an email.

Caution

To revoke the authorization from everyone, or because a class was canceled, use the archive and class-cancellation flows. They notify affected members. See Archiving Workspaces & Authorizations.

See what a member holds

Open the member’s profile and select the Credentials tab. Each row shows:

Column	Meaning
Authorization	The authorization’s name.
Granted	When it was granted.
Expires	The expiry date, or “Never expires”.
Status	Active, Expired, or Revoked.
Source	Class, Cohort, or Manual.

Members can open their own profile and select Credentials to see their own list. Viewing someone else’s requires the View Users permission.

See who holds an authorization

On Admin > People > Users, use the Authorization filter and pick one. The list narrows to members who currently hold it. Expired and revoked grants don’t count. The filter is in the page address, so you can share the link.

Expiry

When a grant’s expiration date passes, it stops counting immediately and the member loses access to anything that requires it. Members see expiration dates on their profile and get email reminders 7 days and 1 day before a grant expires.

Troubleshooting

I can’t find the authorization I want to grant. The list only shows Active authorizations the member doesn’t already hold. Check its status, or look on their Credentials tab.

“This user already has an active grant for this authorization.” A manual grant is already in place. Revoke it first if you need to replace it.

A member completed a class but didn’t get the authorization. Check that the class series has the authorization attached, and for a cohort that the member met the attendance threshold and the cohort was completed. Reopening a cohort revokes the grants issued at close-out.

I changed the grant duration but existing holders’ dates didn’t change. That’s expected. Only new grants and class re-takes use the new duration.

Related

• How Authorization Requirements Work
• Managing Workspaces
• Managing Equipment
• Access Control Overview