Super Admins, Power Users, and Departments

Last updated: July 29, 2026

Summary

In Portflow, roles with additional permissions compared to learners (regular users) are defined as Super Admins or Power Users.

Super Admins can manage all of Portflow.

Power Users can have one or more abilities and are linked to one or more departments, allowing them to perform certain actions within or related to their departments.

Departments refer to (hierarchical) organisational units within the institution and are used to manage access to scaffolding objects (Templates, Snippets, Repository Goals, etc.).

Who is a Super Admin in Portflow?

If you are an LMS admin with overarching LMS admin permissions to launch Portflow, you will have access to the Portflow Admin panel, IF your institution has not limited admin inheritance from the LMS.

The institution has 2 choices:

  1. Inherit all admins from LMS. If you are an overarching (root account, root org unit) LMS admin, you will also become super admin in Portflow. If you lose your LMS admin permissions, you also lose your Portflow admin permissions.

  2. Manage Portflow Super Admins within Portflow. LMS admins who launch Portflow will not automatically become Super Admins in Portflow. Their admin status in Portflow must be managed manually, and changes to their LMS role will not affect their permissions within Portflow.

Inherit LMS admin role setting

The admin inheritance setting as well as the list of current Super Admins can found via Portflow Admin User permissions Super admins.

Note

  • If this toggle was never changed, you will inherit admins from LMS (default behaviour). 

  • When you switch from inheriting from the LMS to not inheriting, you will keep the list as it was at the moment of switching, and you can add or remove Super Admins as desired. 

  • When you switch back from not inheriting to inheriting from the LMS, all manually added Super Admins that are not LMS admins will be removed from the list of Super Admins right they next launch (open) Portflow.

How to add new Super Admins?

  • When inheriting admins from LMS: If a user gets their LMS admin role, they will get their Portflow admin role automatically when they launch (open) Portflow.

  • When managing admins in Portflow: New LMS admin users will not receive Super Admin permissions automatically. To promote users to admin, use the 'Promote to admin' button and find the user by name or email to promote.

How to remove Super Admins?

  • When inheriting admins from LMS: If a user loses their LMS admin role, they will lose their Portflow admin role when they launch (open) Portflow.

  • When managing admins in Portflow: The current admins will remain admins, unless removed manually by clicking the Action menu (three dots) next to their name in the Super Admin Overview and clicking 'Demote user'. Confirm with 'Yes, demote user'.

Note

If a Super Admin has not launched (opened) Portflow in 3 months (90 days), we will display a warning next to their last use date. A Super Admin can demote this inactive super admin from the table (if super admins are managed through Portflow).

Indicator for long time not launching

Who are Power Users?

From the Portflow Admin Panel, a Super Admin or a Functional manager can promote users to so-called Power Users. These users can be assigned one or more abilities, providing them with access to a set of elevated permissions.

What are the Power User Abilities?

Below, the various Power User Abilities are described.

Managing Power Users

Power users can be managed using the user interface (see directly below) or via CSV uploads (explained below the user interface).

How to promote Power Users via the user interface?

  1. In Portflow, go to Admin  User permissions Power users (1)

  2. Click the Promote User (2) button

    Power user overview
  1. Locate the user by email address or name (3)

  2. Select the ability/abilities you wish to grant this user (4)

    Power user abilities
  3. Select the appropriate department(s) (5). If you need to create a department first, you can read how to do so in the section below. The department selection will only affect the 'Template creator' and 'Snippet creator' abilities. The other abilities are general abilities and not impacted by the department choice.

  4. Click Promote user

    The user now has gained new abilities.

How to demote Power Users via the user interface?

From the Portflow Admin panel, a Super Admin or a Functional manager can demote power-users back to normal users. For example, when they have not been active for a while (90 days), or if they no longer need their abilities.

  1. Find the Power User you wish to demote in the table

    (Portflow Admin User permissions Power users). 

  2. Click the Action menu (right-hand column) in the row of the user. 

  3. Click Manage Power User

  4. Remove the relevant or all Abilities and Departments.

How to use CSV imports to manage Power Users?

Super admins and Functional managers can use CSV imports to manage Power Users in bulk (add or remove Power Users, add or remove Abilities from Power Users, and add or remove Departments from Power Users). 

  1. Prepare the CSV-file

    CSV-files can be prepared manually using the following headers, other headers will be ignored: 

    lms_id,sourced_id,departments,abilities
    • Either lms_id or sourced_id are required, both are also accepted, however the lms_id is leading in that case

    • departments accepts a string of comma separated department names, these are case-sensitive

    • abilities accepts a string of comma separated ability names using underscores and lower case

      • data_manager

      • functional_manager

      • snippet_creator

      • template_creator

      • rubric_scales_creator

      • accreditation_manager

    Tip: Use the example export or the export of current Power Users to easily get started on a CSV instead of manually creating a CSV file.

    The export of current Power Users will contain additional fields (e.g. name, email) that will be ignored during import.

    Note: The Power User CSV does not create new or update existing departments, ensure you have the referenced departments in the file created under 'Departments' before uploading the Power User CSV.

  2. Import the CSV-file

    1. In Portflow, go to Admin  User permissions Power users (1) tab;

    2. Click the Import power users (2) button.

      Import Power users via CSV

    3. Click the Upload CSV (3) button.

      Upload CSV option

    4. Select the prepared CSV file and upload it.

    5. The CSV file will be validated. Review the changes and click Apply changes (4).

      Review CSV import

Manage Departments

Departments are used to group and manage Power Users and their relationships with Scaffolding objects (e.g. Templates, Snippets, Goal Repository). Typically, Departments refer to organisational units within the institution, such as faculties, schools, institutes, programmes, teams, or departments.

Departments can be managed via Admin Departments (1). 

You can add Departments (2) and give them a name (3).

Note: Department names have to be unique.

In the overview, you can see how many Templates are associated with the Department (4), how many Snippets are associated with the department, and how many members (Power Users) the Department has (5). In the Action menu (6), you can rename or delete a Department.

Departments overview

Tips:

  1. Keep department names short. This makes it easier to read in the tags.

  2. Departments can be stacked/layered, representing a hierarchy. For example, a department for a school (e.g. 'School of Social Sciences': SoSS) and underlying departments for the offered programmes (e.g. Bachelor of Communication Science: SoSS | BoCS). Using this structure, a Power User could be linked to both the programme they teach in as well as the overarching school. In turn, overarching scaffolding objects (e.g. Templates, Snippets) can be linked to the Department of the school and programme-specific objects can be linked to the Department of the corresponding programme.