How to Create a “Read-Only Reporting” Role in Keap for Stakeholders: A Visual Walkthrough

In today’s data-driven business landscape, providing key stakeholders with access to critical information is essential. However, full administrative access to your CRM, like Keap, can pose security risks and lead to unintended changes. This guide outlines a robust, step-by-step process for establishing a “Read-Only Reporting” role within Keap. This ensures that your sales managers, marketing directors, or external consultants can view the reports and dashboards they need without the ability to modify core data or system settings. By implementing this specific user role, you maintain data integrity while empowering your team with the insights necessary for strategic decision-making, streamlining operations, and reducing potential for human error.

Step 1: Understand Keap User Permissions Fundamentals

Before diving into role creation, it’s crucial to grasp how Keap’s permission system operates. Keap uses a hierarchical structure where user roles dictate access levels to various modules, records, and functionalities. By default, Keap offers several pre-defined roles, but for a truly “read-only” experience, customization is key. You’ll need to navigate to the “Users” section under “Admin” settings. Recognize that permissions can be granular, affecting everything from viewing contact records to editing campaign sequences. Our goal here is to restrict all modification capabilities while opening up reporting access. Familiarize yourself with the existing roles to understand the baseline before you begin tailoring a new, highly restricted profile, ensuring no critical data can be inadvertently altered.

Step 2: Create a New User Role for Read-Only Access

To begin, log into your Keap application as an administrator. Navigate to the main menu, select “Admin,” and then click on “Users.” On the Users page, you’ll see a list of existing users and an option to manage roles. Click on the “Roles” tab and then select “Add New Role.” Name this new role something descriptive, such as “Read-Only Reporting Access” or “Stakeholder Viewer.” This clear naming convention will prevent confusion when assigning users. For the initial setup, you might consider copying an existing role with minimal permissions, such as a basic “User” role, as a starting point. This provides a baseline set of permissions that you can then systematically strip down to ensure only viewing capabilities remain, rather than building from scratch.

Step 3: Configure Contact and Company Permissions

The core of a read-only role lies in meticulously adjusting permissions for contacts and companies. Within your newly created “Read-Only Reporting Access” role, locate the sections pertaining to “Contacts” and “Companies.” Here, you must ensure that all “Add,” “Edit,” “Delete,” and “Export” permissions are unchecked or explicitly set to “Deny.” The only permissions that should remain active are those related to “View.” This means users assigned to this role can search for and open individual contact or company records, view their details, notes, and activity history, but cannot make any changes. This granular control prevents any accidental data modification, safeguarding your valuable CRM data while still providing essential visibility for reporting purposes.

Step 4: Restrict Access to Campaigns, Opportunities, and Marketing

Beyond contacts, it’s vital to limit access to sensitive areas like campaigns, opportunities, and marketing tools. In the role permissions, navigate to sections such as “Campaigns,” “Opportunities,” “Referrals,” and any “Marketing” or “Email Broadcasts” specific settings. For each of these modules, ensure that all permissions allowing creation, editing, deletion, or sending are thoroughly unchecked. Users in this role should not be able to launch campaigns, modify sales stages, or send mass emails. They should, however, typically retain the ability to “View” reports related to these areas, such as campaign performance or opportunity pipeline summaries, without interfering with active business processes. This ensures operational security while still enabling strategic oversight.

Step 5: Grant Targeted Reporting and Dashboard Access

Now, focus on the primary purpose of this role: reporting. Navigate to the “Reports” and “Dashboards” sections within the role permissions. Here, you will typically grant “View” access to all relevant reports and custom dashboards. This allows stakeholders to access sales reports, marketing performance metrics, task reports, and any custom reports you’ve built without the ability to alter their configurations or the underlying data. It’s often beneficial to ensure they can view shared dashboards that provide an at-a-glance overview of key performance indicators. This step is critical for empowering decision-makers with the information they need without compromising the integrity or security of your Keap system, making data-driven strategies accessible and safe.

Step 6: Assign the Read-Only Role to Specific Users

Once your “Read-Only Reporting Access” role is fully configured and secured, the final step is to assign it to the relevant stakeholders. Go back to the “Users” section under “Admin” and select the individual user you wish to grant this restricted access to. In their user profile, locate the “Role” dropdown menu and select the “Read-Only Reporting Access” role you just created. It is highly recommended to perform a test login with one of these accounts (or create a temporary test account) to verify that all permissions are correctly applied and that the user can indeed only view data and reports, with no ability to modify anything. This final verification step ensures your Keap environment remains secure and operates as intended, preventing unintended access and maintaining data integrity.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Keap CRM Data Protection & Recovery: The Essential Guide to Business Continuity