Overview
Version 2.1 of the Employee Records Management (ERM) application completes the foundational feature set. The centerpiece of this release is the complete Roles and Permissions system, which introduces granular resource-level access control, SSO-based role mapping, departmental visibility rules, time-bounded access exceptions, and administrator impersonation for troubleshooting permissions.
Alongside the permissions system, this release delivers targeted improvements to navigation, the Audit workflow, and the Employee Search experience, along with bug fixes that address issues reported by early testers.
New Features
ERM-1675 - Complete Roles and Permissions System
ERM 2.1 includes a full, resource-level roles and permissions system. Administrators can define any number of custom roles and configure fine-grained View, Create, Edit, and Delete access on each named ERM resource. The Roles settings page exposes four operational tabs:
Roles — full CRUD for custom roles. New roles are created with all permissions disabled by default. ERM-1675
User Assignments — assign users to one or more roles and manage those assignments over time. ERM-1675
Resource Permissions — configure the specific View / Create / Edit / Delete grants per role per resource. ERM-1675
Permissions Test — administrators can impersonate any user to see the application exactly as that user sees it. ERM-1675
ERM-1675 - Default Roles — SSO and Security Group Mapping
A new Default Roles tab in Roles and Permissions allows administrators to map SSO providers or VisualVault Security Groups to the three built-in ERM roles: Admin, Manager, and Employee. Users who authenticate via SSO are automatically placed into the correct ERM role on first login, eliminating the need for manual role assignment during onboarding.
ERM-1667 - Employee Access — Departmental Visibility and Direct Report Access
A new Employee Access tab in Roles and Permissions gives administrators control over two org-wide visibility policies:
Departmental Access — when enabled, managers can view all employee records belonging to their department, not just their direct reports. ERM-1667
Direct Report Visibility — when enabled, managers can view the files of any employee who lists them as their named manager on the Employee Detail page. ERM-1667
Both toggles are per-customer and can be enabled or disabled independently.
ERM-1667 - Access Exceptions
The Employee Access tab introduces an Access Exceptions table, which allows administrators to grant a specific individual the same access level as another employee for a defined period. Common use cases include temporary coverage, parental leave, and interim role assignments.
Exceptions are created via a modal specifying the recipient, the employee whose access level will be mirrored, an optional start date, and an optional end date. ERM-1667
Exceptions with no start date become active immediately. Exceptions with no end date remain active until manually deactivated. Exceptions whose end date has passed are automatically marked Inactive. ERM-1667
The table can be filtered by Status (All, Active, or Inactive) for quick visibility into current exceptions. ERM-1667
Every exception carries a full audit trail of changes, visible in the exception detail modal. ERM-1667
Improvements
ERM-1680 - Persistent Navigation Shell
The left-side navigation menu and application header now remain static during navigation. Previously, navigating between pages caused the entire page (including the menu and header) to reload, resulting in a noticeable flash. Only the main content area now updates on navigation, making the application feel noticeably faster and more cohesive.
ERM-1680 - Audit: Save Stays on the Record
When saving a newly created Audit record, ERM previously redirected users to the Audit List page. The record now refreshes in place after a successful save, remaining on the open Audit and displaying the assigned name and ID.
ERM-1680 - Audit: Back and Cancel Controls
Audit pages now include explicit Back and Cancel controls. Previously, the only way to leave an Audit record without committing changes was to use breadcrumb navigation. Dedicated Back and Cancel buttons are now present, providing a consistent and clear exit path.
ERM-1845 - Employee Search: Incremental Filtering
Filter inputs on the Employee Search page now apply results incrementally as the user types, rather than requiring an explicit search submission. The grid updates automatically with each keystroke (with a short debounce to prevent excess requests), and pressing Enter remains a valid way to apply the filter for keyboard-driven users.
ERM-1842 - Sort Indicators Visible on Hover
Sort arrow indicators on sortable column headers are now visible on hover, before the user has clicked to sort. Previously, the sort arrow only appeared after the first click, which made it unclear which columns were sortable.
Bug Fixes
Roles and Permissions
The "Documents" action was absent from the Actions menu on the employee list, even for users whose role included the "View Employee Documents" permission. The action now appears correctly. ERM-1854
Users with a view-only grant on Employee Detail could edit and save changes to the employee record. View-only roles now correctly render employee information as read-only. ERM-1855
Navigating to Document Types or Audit Types without the required permission produced a raw "Forbidden" error screen. Restricted entry points are now either hidden or display a clear access-denied message. ERM-1856
Navigation and Login
When the Audit Dashboard module was disabled for a customer, users were landing on the Audit Dashboard after login and immediately seeing an Access Denied screen. Users now land on the Employee Dashboard when the Audit Dashboard is not enabled. ERM-1825
Employees and Departments
Creating or editing an employee record returned a 500 Internal Server Error and prevented the record from being saved. Create and edit operations now complete successfully. ERM-1714
The Departments tab in Roles and Permissions failed to display pagination controls for customers with large department lists, and in some cases showed "No items to display" even when departments existed. Pagination now renders correctly. ERM-1867
Dashboard
Dashboard chart hover and interactivity behavior was inconsistent. Chart interactivity has been standardized across the Dashboard. ERM-1722
Table Pagination
The rows-per-page selection control was updating the displayed count but not actually limiting the rows shown. The grid now correctly honors the rows-per-page setting. ERM-1680
Settings
Settings > Configuration > Fields allowed all fields to be removed, leaving the configuration in an invalid state. A minimum of one field is now enforced. ERM-1680
Documents
The Document Type associated with an uploaded document was not being displayed on the Employee Documents tab or in the Document Viewer after upload. Document Type now appears correctly in both locations. ERM-1870