User Roles & Permissions

How access works

A person can do something in DigitVA only through a grant: one role at one scope.

• Scope is where the role applies: the whole project, one site of a project, or one organization unit (for example a district or CHC) and every unit below it. An administrator's grant is global. In the grant forms these scopes are named project, project_site, org_unit and global.
• Roles add up. A person may hold several grants; they can do everything any of them allows. There is no "deny" grant, and roles do not include each other (a reviewer is not automatically a coder).
• The level × cadre grid only limits. On the Organization setup page, the grid says which roles a cadre may be given at each level. It never gives access by itself. A coder grant on a unit needs a cadre allowed to Code VA at that level; an interview_supervisor grant needs a cadre allowed to Supervise interviews there. The District reference model card on that page shows the suggested roles for each cadre.
• Closed projects: grants on a project that is not active open nothing until the project is reopened.
• Area dashboard: everyone with at least one grant can open the Area dashboard (/area), which shows counts only (no case lists, no personal details) for the part of the project they hold a grant on.

Summary

Click a role for details. "Yes" means the role can do it inside its own scope. Personal details means names and identifiers of the deceased and respondent, and who collected, coded or reviewed a death.

Roles

Within-Tree vs. Cross-Tree Coding & Supervision

In organization-mode projects (for example District > CHC > PHC-AAM > SC-AAM > Village), DigitVA supports both within-tree and cross-tree assignment of Medical Officers (Coders) and Interview Supervisors:

• Own unit (Within-tree): By default, a worker assigned to a unit (e.g. PHC01) codes or supervises VA forms from PHC01 and every sub-centre/village beneath PHC01.
• Other units at this level (Cross-tree): In Organization → 4. Workers & Scope, you can configure a PHC Medical Officer or Supervisor to code/supervise other PHCs outside their own unit subtree so they do not code deaths from their own facility.
• All units at this level: Grants the worker coding or supervision access across every active unit at their level (e.g. all PHCs in the district).
• Custom selected units: You can tick any specific combination of units per worker — for example, assigning 2 PHCs to one Medical Officer and 10 PHCs to another Medical Officer.
• Project-wide Coding Scope boundary: Under Project Setup → Coding (or Organization → 1. Levels → Coding scope), you can also set a project-wide Coding confined within level (for example, Block/CHC or District) and specify whether people granted above that level have view_only or code_any access.

Question-Driven Cadre Setup ("Who can do what?")

In Organization → 3. Cadres & permissions → b. Who can do what?, you can configure cadre capabilities either via the full-width Level × Cadre matrix or by clicking Level · Cadre pills under each plain-language question:

• Who can report deaths? Enables can_report_deaths and pre-selects the death_reporter role.
• Who can conduct VA interviews? Enables can_fill_va_form and pre-selects the interviewer role.
• Who can supervise interviews? Enables can_supervise_interviews and pre-selects the interview_supervisor role.
• Who can code VA forms? Enables can_code_va_form and pre-selects the coder role.
• Who can review coded VAs (QA)? Pre-selects the reviewer role.
• Who is Unit / Facility In-charge? Pre-selects the site_pi (In-charge) role.
• Who is a Coding Tester? Pre-selects the coding_tester role.

Examples

• A coder with a grant on site NC01 of project UNSW01 codes NC01's cases only, not TR01's in the same project.
• A coder with a grant on project UNSW01 codes cases from every site of that project.
• A coder with a grant on a district unit codes cases from that district and every CHC, PHC and subcentre below it.
• A PHC Medical Officer at PHC01 configured with Custom coding units: PHC02, PHC03 codes deaths from PHC02 and PHC03 (cross-tree) while holding their home roster position at PHC01.
• A Senior Medical Officer granted interview_supervisor and reviewer on a CHC supervises interviews in the CHC's area and reviews its cases; neither grant lets them interview.

Existing Users & One-Scan Expo Mobile App Onboarding

• Existing DigitVA users across projects: When adding a worker in Organization → 4. Workers & Scope, typing an email address or 10-digit mobile number automatically checks whether that person already has a DigitVA account (for example from another project). If found, DigitVA links their existing account and adds the new project's grants without resetting their password.
• Expo mobile app QR onboarding: Click the QR icon on any worker row (or Project App QR in the Workers toolbar) to display a one-scan QR code for the DigitVA mobile app.

Coding language

Coders and reviewers also see only cases whose narration language matches the coding languages on their user profile. A grant alone is not enough.

Who manages grants

• Admin — every grant, everywhere, and all user accounts.
• Project PI — every role except admin and project_pi, inside their own projects, from the Admin panel's access grants, the Organization page's Workers & Scope drawer, Mentoring & Scientists tab, or user import.
• Data manager and In-charge — new users and grants inside their own area: in a site project, coder, coding_tester and data_manager at project or site scope; in an organization project, interviewer, coder, reviewer, coding_tester, collaborator and collaborator_pii at any level of their area, and data_manager below their own level (an In-charge also at its own level).