Permissions let firm admins control which clients each teammate can see. You build two kinds of groups — Client Groups and Team Groups — and link them together. This article covers the refreshed Permissions experience. You can enable Permissions by going to the "What's New" section or your settings.
What Permissions do
By default, everyone on your team can see every client. Permissions let you narrow that down, using two kinds of groups plus a link between them:
Client Group — a named set of clients (for example, "Partnership Clients").
Team Group — a named set of teammates (for example, "Tax Team A").
The link — you grant a Team Group access to one or more Client Groups.
The result: a teammate in a Team Group sees only the clients in that group's linked Client Groups. A teammate who isn't in any group continues to see all clients. This is the heart of the feature — a Team Group is only meaningful once it's linked to at least one Client Group.
Where to find it
Permissions now live under the Team tab. Only Owners and Admins can open it — teammates with the User role don't see it.
You'll see two columns side by side: Client Groups on one side and Team Groups on the other. Each column shows its groups, how many members each contains, and — for Team Groups — which Client Groups they can see, so the link between the two is visible at a glance.
Creating a Client Group
In the Client Groups column, click Add.
Give the group a name.
Use the picker to choose the clients that belong in it (see Assigning clients and teammates below).
Save the group.
A client can belong to one Client Group at a time. A client that isn't in any group is Unassigned and stays visible to everyone in your firm.
Creating a Team Group and linking it
In the Team Groups column, click Add.
Name the group and add the teammates who belong in it.
Link the Client Groups this Team Group should be able to see. This is what actually grants access — a Team Group with no linked Client Groups doesn't restrict or grant anything.
Save the group.
As you build the group, Tallyfor shows a preview of the effect — for example, how many clients the teammates in this group will be able to see — so you're never left wondering whether a change took effect.
Assigning clients and teammates
The assignment picker is built to handle firms with hundreds of clients:
Search to filter the list instantly, and select everything that matches your current search in one action.
Multi-select quickly: click to select, Shift-click to select a range, and Ctrl/Cmd-click to add or remove individual rows. A running count shows how many items you've selected.
See each client's current group inline. Because a client can only be in one Client Group, adding a client that's already in another group moves it — the picker makes that clear before you save.
The list stays fast and smooth even with very large client lists.
Private Client Groups (Owners only)
When creating or editing a Client Group, an Owner can mark it private. A private Client Group — and its clients — is visible only to Owners, which is useful for housing the firm's own or sensitive binders. Admins and Users don't see private groups at all.
Team roles
Tallyfor has three roles: Owner, Admin, and User.
Owner — the highest level of access; can create and manage groups, including private Client Groups.
Admin — can create and manage groups, but cannot see private Client Groups.
User — can't open Permissions; their client access is governed by the group(s) they're in.
New teammates join as Users; you can change their role after they accept the invite.
Owners and Admins always see every client, regardless of groups — group restrictions apply to Users only. So if you're testing as an Admin and still see all clients, that's expected, not a bug.
Plan limits
On the standard plan you can create up to 2 Client Groups and 2 Team Groups. Premium subscribers get unlimited Client and Team Groups. When you reach the limit, the option to add another group is disabled with a note explaining why.
Deleting a group
Deleting a group is confirmed first, and Tallyfor tells you the consequence: deleting a Client Group returns its clients to firm-wide visibility (Unassigned), and deleting a Team Group returns its teammates to seeing all clients. Nothing is silently orphaned.
Need help?
If group access isn't behaving the way you expect, contact our support team and let us know which teammate and which clients are involved so we can take a look.