Employee Management

Employee management in NettPortal allows you to create and manage employee accounts with custom permissions. Employees are users who can access the admin dashboard with specific permissions you assign, enabling you to delegate tasks and responsibilities to your team members. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about creating and managing employee accounts. Even if you're not technical, we'll explain everything in simple terms.

🎯 What is an Employee?

An employee in NettPortal is a user account that can access the admin dashboard with specific permissions you assign. Think of it like role-based access control in any modern SaaS application—employees have their own dashboard where they can perform tasks based on the permissions you grant them. Employees log in using their email or phone number and password, just like operators, but they can only access features and pages you've explicitly allowed through permissions. This enables you to delegate responsibilities to your team members while maintaining control over what they can do.

Why Use Employees?

Employees offer several advantages for managing your organization:

👥 Team Collaboration

Delegate tasks to your team: Create employee accounts for your team members and assign them specific permissions. This allows you to distribute work across your team while maintaining control over what each employee can do. For example, you can create a support employee who can only view and reply to tickets, or a sales employee who can create customers and vouchers but can't access router settings.

Example: Create a "Support Staff" employee with ticket viewing and reply permissions
Benefit: Your support team can handle customer tickets without accessing sensitive router settings

🔐 Granular Access Control

Control what employees can do: The permission system allows you to grant or deny access to specific features. You can create employees with limited permissions (e.g., only view customers), moderate permissions (e.g., create vouchers and customers), or extensive permissions (e.g., manage routers and settings). This ensures employees can only access what they need for their role.

Example: Create a "Sales Team" employee who can create customers and vouchers but can't delete anything
Benefit: Prevents accidental deletions or unauthorized changes to critical settings

⚡ Permission Presets

Quick setup with presets: The system includes permission presets for common roles like "Support Staff", "Sales Team", "Technical Team", and "Manager". You can select a preset to quickly assign a set of permissions, or customize individual permissions to match your exact needs. This makes it easy to create employees with the right permissions without manually selecting each one.

Example: Select "Support Staff" preset to grant ticket viewing and reply permissions
Benefit: Saves time and ensures consistent permissions across similar roles

📱 Phone Number Login

Employees can log in with phone numbers: Just like customers, employees can log in using their phone number (without country code) along with their password. The system automatically uses your organization's country code, so if your organization is in Ghana, employees can log in with their phone number and the system will automatically use the +233 country code. This makes it convenient for employees who prefer not to use email.

Example: Employee in Ghana can log in with phone "241234567" and password
Benefit: Flexible login options for employees in different regions

Creating Employees

Creating employees is straightforward. Navigate to the Employees page and click Add Employee. You can create employee accounts one at a time with custom permissions. Here's what you need to configure:

👤 Basic Information

Full Name *: Employee's full name (e.g., "John Doe"). This is used for identification and display in the dashboard. Required—must be at least 2 characters.
Username *: A unique username for the employee account (e.g., "johndoe"). Required—must be at least 2 characters, lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only. The system automatically converts to lowercase.
Email *: Employee's email address (e.g., "john.doe@example.com"). Required—employees will use this email to log into the admin dashboard. Must be a valid email format and unique within your organization.
Password *: Password for the admin dashboard account. Required—must be at least 6 characters long. Employees will use this password along with their email or phone number to log in.
Phone Number (Optional): Employee's phone number (e.g., "241234567"). Optional—employees can also use their phone number to log into the admin dashboard. Enter the number without country code (the system automatically uses your organization's country code).

💡 Tip: Phone numbers are automatically saved with your organization's country code. For example, if your organization is in Ghana, entering "241234567" will be saved with the +233 country code automatically.

🔐 Permissions

Select what the employee can do: The permissions section allows you to grant or deny access to specific features. You can use permission presets for common roles, or customize individual permissions to match your exact needs. Permissions are organized into groups for easy selection.

Permission Presets

Quick setup with predefined permission sets:

Support Staff: View dashboard, customers, tickets (view, reply, create)
Sales Team: View dashboard, customers (view, add, edit), vouchers (view, create, print), packages (view), payments (view, statistics)
Technical Team: View dashboard, routers (view, edit, settings, logs), Hotspot Profiles (view, edit), customers (view), tickets (view, reply)
Manager: View dashboard, routers, vouchers, packages, customers, payments (view, statistics), tickets (view, reply), Hotspot Profiles (view), settings (view)
Full Access: All permissions (same as operator)
Custom: Manually select individual permissions

Permission Groups

Permissions are organized into logical groups:

Dashboard: View dashboard statistics
Routers: View, add, edit, delete routers, manage settings, view logs
Vouchers: View, create, edit, delete, print vouchers
Packages: View, create, edit, delete packages
Customers: View, add, edit, delete customers, batch operations, import
Hotspot Profiles: View, create, edit profiles
Payments: View payments, payment statistics, and subscription billing
Support Tickets: View, reply, create tickets
Settings: View, edit settings, edit homepage
Employees: View, add, edit, delete employees (operators only)

💡 Tip: Start with a preset and customize individual permissions as needed. You can always edit employee permissions later.

⚡ What Happens Automatically

When you create an employee account, NettPortal automatically creates a User account with role employee, assigns the employee to your organization, saves the phone number with your organization's country code (if provided), and applies the permissions you selected. The employee can immediately log in using their email or phone number and password.

Employee Login

Employees can log into the admin dashboard using their email or phone number along with their password:

🔐 Login Methods

Email Login: Employees can log in using their email address and password. This is the primary login method.
Phone Login: Employees can also log in using their phone number (without country code) and password. The system automatically handles phone number variations and uses your organization's country code. For example, if your organization is in Ghana, an employee can log in with "241234567" and the system will automatically use the +233 country code.
Login URL: Employees access the dashboard at /[organization-slug]/dashboard (where [organization-slug] is your organization's slug)

💡 Tip: Phone number login is convenient for employees who prefer not to use email. The system normalizes phone numbers automatically, so variations like "0540000000" and "540000000" both work.

Managing Employees

Once you've created employees, you can view and manage them from the Employees page:

🔍 Viewing Employees

The Employees page shows all employee accounts with:

Employee Name: Full name of the employee
Email: Email address used for login
Phone: Phone number (if provided)
Username: Username for the account
Created: Date and time when the account was created
Search: Search employees by name, email, or phone number

✏️ Editing Employees

You can edit employee accounts to update their name, email, phone number, password, or permissions. Changes to employee information don't affect their access history or activity logs. When editing permissions, you can add or remove specific permissions, or change to a different preset.

💡 Tip: You can update employee permissions at any time. For example, if a support employee is promoted to manager, you can update their permissions to include manager-level access.

🗑️ Deleting Employees

You can delete employee accounts that are no longer needed. Deleting an employee account removes their access to the admin dashboard immediately. Only delete employee accounts when you're certain they're no longer needed or when an employee leaves your organization.

Note: Deleted employees cannot log into the admin dashboard. Consider editing permissions to restrict access instead of deleting if you want to temporarily disable access.

How Employees Help Your Organization

Employees enable you to scale your operations and delegate responsibilities effectively:

📈 Scale Your Operations

Distribute work across your team: As your business grows, you can't handle everything yourself. Employees allow you to delegate tasks to your team members while maintaining control over what they can do. Create support employees to handle customer tickets, sales employees to create customers and vouchers, or technical employees to manage routers—all without giving them full operator access.

Example: Create 5 support employees to handle customer tickets 24/7
Benefit: Your support team can handle customer inquiries without you being involved

🛡️ Security and Control

Limit access to sensitive features: The permission system ensures employees can only access what they need for their role. Support employees can't delete customers or modify router settings, sales employees can't access payment statistics, and technical employees can't create vouchers. This prevents accidental changes and unauthorized access to sensitive features.

Example: Create a sales employee who can create customers but can't delete them
Benefit: Prevents accidental deletions and maintains data integrity

⚡ Efficiency and Productivity

Enable parallel work: With employees, multiple team members can work simultaneously on different tasks. Your support team can handle tickets while your sales team creates customers and vouchers, all at the same time. This increases productivity and reduces bottlenecks in your operations.

Example: Support team handles tickets while sales team creates new customer accounts
Benefit: Faster response times and improved customer service

🎯 Role-Based Access

Match permissions to job roles: The permission system allows you to create employees with permissions that match their job responsibilities. Support staff get ticket permissions, sales staff get customer and voucher permissions, technical staff get router permissions, and managers get broader access. This ensures employees have the right tools for their role.

Example: Create a "Technical Team" employee with router and profile management permissions
Benefit: Employees can focus on their specific responsibilities without distractions

Use Case Examples

Here are some real-world examples of how employees can be used in hotspot/WiFi businesses:

☕ Coffee Shop Hotspot with Customer Service Team

Scenario: A coffee shop offers WiFi hotspot services to customers. They assign customer service employees to handle customer inquiries, support tickets, and help customers with WiFi access issues.

Setup: Create "Customer Service" employees with ticket viewing, reply, and create permissions, plus customer viewing permissions
Permissions: View dashboard, view customers, view tickets, reply to tickets, create tickets
Result: Customer service team can help customers with WiFi issues, answer questions about voucher packages, and handle support tickets without accessing router settings, payment information, or voucher creation
Benefit: Faster customer support response times, better customer experience, and clear separation of responsibilities

💰 Hotspot Business with Finance Team

Scenario: A hotspot business has a dedicated finance team to track payments, view payment statistics, and monitor revenue from voucher sales. They need access to financial data but not technical router settings.

Setup: Create "Finance Team" employees with payment viewing and statistics permissions
Permissions: View dashboard, view payments, view payment statistics
Result: Finance team can monitor revenue, track payment history, view payment statistics, and generate financial reports without accessing customer accounts, router settings, or voucher creation
Benefit: Secure financial data access, clear audit trail, and dedicated team for financial oversight

🎫 WiFi Business with Voucher & Package Management Team

Scenario: A WiFi hotspot business has employees dedicated to managing vouchers and packages. They create voucher packages, generate vouchers for customers, and manage package pricing, but don't need access to router settings or financial data.

Setup: Create "Voucher & Package Team" employees with voucher and package management permissions
Permissions: View dashboard, view vouchers, create vouchers, edit vouchers, print vouchers, view packages, create packages, edit packages
Result: Voucher team can create new voucher packages, generate vouchers for customers, update package pricing, and print vouchers without accessing router settings, payment information, or customer support tickets
Benefit: Specialized team for voucher operations, faster voucher generation, and better package management

🏨 Hotel WiFi with Multiple Departments

Scenario: A hotel offers WiFi services to guests and has separate teams for different responsibilities: customer service handles guest inquiries, sales team creates customer accounts at check-in, technical team manages routers and profiles, and finance team tracks payments.

Setup: Create "Customer Service" employees for tickets, "Sales Team" employees for customer creation and vouchers, "Technical Team" employees for router and profile management, "Finance Team" employees for payments
Permissions: Each team gets only the permissions they need—customer service can't access routers, technical team can't access payments, finance team can't create vouchers
Result: Each department works independently with appropriate access—sales creates guest accounts at check-in, technical manages router settings, customer service handles WiFi issues, finance tracks revenue
Benefit: Clear separation of responsibilities, improved security, scalable operations, and each team can focus on their specific tasks

🏢 Large ISP with Full Department Structure

Scenario: A large ISP/hotspot provider has multiple departments: customer service for support tickets, sales for customer and voucher management, technical for router and profile management, finance for payment tracking, and managers for oversight.

Setup: Create "Customer Service Staff" for tickets, "Sales Team" for customers and vouchers, "Technical Team" for routers and profiles, "Finance Team" for payments, "Managers" for oversight with broader permissions
Permissions: Customer service handles tickets only, sales manages customers and vouchers, technical manages routers and profiles, finance views payments and statistics, managers have broader view access for oversight
Result: Each department operates independently with role-appropriate permissions—customer service can't access routers, technical can't access payments, finance can't create vouchers, ensuring security and clear responsibilities
Benefit: Scalable operations, proper access control, security through separation of duties, and each team can work efficiently without interfering with others

Best Practices

Here are some tips for managing employees effectively:

🔐 Principle of Least Privilege

Grant employees only the permissions they need for their role—don't give more access than necessary
Start with a preset and remove permissions that aren't needed
Regularly review employee permissions and remove unnecessary access

👥 Use Permission Presets

Start with permission presets for common roles (Support Staff, Sales Team, etc.)
Customize individual permissions only when needed
This ensures consistent permissions across similar roles

📞 Phone Number Management

Phone numbers are optional but useful for account recovery and support
Enter phone numbers without country code—the system uses your organization's country code automatically
Employees can log in with their phone number for convenience

🔍 Regular Review

Regularly review employee accounts and permissions
Update permissions when employees change roles or responsibilities
Remove or disable access for employees who leave your organization

🔐 Password Security

Use strong passwords (at least 6 characters, mix of letters and numbers)
Consider using auto-generated passwords and sharing them securely
Never share passwords in plain text messages—always use secure channels

Next Steps

Now that you understand employee management:

Create your first employee account using the Add Employee button on the Employees page
Learn about Customer Management to understand how employees can help manage customers
Learn about Voucher Management to understand how employees can create vouchers

Documentation