A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up User Permissions in HighLevel to Prevent Accidental Contact Deletion

In the fast-paced world of digital agencies and businesses leveraging platforms like HighLevel, data integrity is paramount. An accidental deletion of a contact can lead to lost leads, disrupted campaigns, and significant operational headaches. To safeguard against such costly errors, implementing robust user permissions is not just a best practice—it’s an absolute necessity. This guide will walk you through the precise steps to configure user roles and permissions within HighLevel, ensuring your valuable contact database remains secure and intact, preventing unintended deletions by your team members.

Step 1: Understand the Risk and Define Your Objectives

Before diving into settings, take a moment to assess the specific risks within your organization. Who on your team truly needs the ability to delete contacts? For many roles, such as sales representatives, marketers, or even some administrative staff, the ability to delete contacts is rarely essential and often poses a greater risk than benefit. Your objective here is to minimize the number of users with delete privileges to only those who absolutely require it for critical operations. This initial assessment helps you build a permission structure that is lean, efficient, and secure, aligning with the principle of least privilege – granting only the necessary access for a user to perform their job. Clearly defined objectives will streamline the setup process and ensure effective risk mitigation.

Step 2: Navigate to Agency Settings and Team Management

To begin configuring permissions, log into your HighLevel agency account. Once logged in, direct your attention to the left-hand navigation menu. Scroll down and click on “Settings.” Within the Settings menu, you will find an option labeled “Team Management.” This is your gateway to managing all users and their respective roles and permissions across your agency. Accessing this section requires appropriate administrative privileges, reinforcing the importance of having a few trusted individuals with high-level access to maintain system security. If you operate at a sub-account level, these settings will be found under the sub-account’s “Settings” tab, then “My Staff.”

Step 3: Create or Edit User Roles

HighLevel allows you to define custom roles, which is crucial for granular control. If you haven’t already, consider creating new roles that align with your team’s responsibilities (e.g., “Sales Rep – Limited,” “Marketing Specialist,” “Admin – Full Access”). Alternatively, you can edit existing roles. Click on the “Roles” tab within “Team Management.” Here, you’ll see a list of predefined and custom roles. Select an existing role you wish to modify or click “Create New Role” to start fresh. Naming your roles clearly is vital for easy management; descriptive titles help quickly identify the scope of permissions associated with each role.

Step 4: Configure Contact-Specific Permissions

Within the role editing screen, you’ll encounter a comprehensive list of permissions. Scroll down to the “Contacts” section. This is where you will specifically address the ability to delete contacts. Carefully review the options. You will find toggles for various contact-related actions, such as “View Contact,” “Edit Contact,” “Export Contacts,” and critically, “Delete Contact.” For roles where contact deletion is not necessary, ensure the “Delete Contact” toggle is set to OFF. This simple action directly prevents users assigned to this role from permanently removing contacts from your system, providing an essential layer of data protection. Double-check all related permissions to ensure they align with the role’s intended scope.

Step 5: Assign Users to the Appropriate Roles

Once you’ve defined or updated your roles with the desired contact deletion restrictions, the next step is to assign these roles to your team members. Navigate back to the “Users” tab within “Team Management.” For each user, click on their profile to edit their details. In the user’s profile settings, you will find a dropdown menu or selection for “User Role.” Select the newly configured role that prohibits contact deletion for individuals who do not require this capability. It’s a good practice to audit all existing users and assign them to the most appropriate, least-privileged role to immediately apply your new security protocols. Repeat this for every team member to ensure consistent application of permissions across your organization.

Step 6: Verify Permissions and Educate Your Team

After assigning roles, it’s critical to verify that the permissions are working as intended. Ask a user assigned to a restricted role to attempt deleting a contact. They should be prevented from doing so, either by a greyed-out option or an error message. This verification step confirms your setup is effective. Furthermore, communicate these changes to your team. Explain the rationale behind the new permission structure, emphasizing that it’s designed to protect vital client data and streamline operations, not to hinder their work. Provide clear guidelines on what to do if a contact genuinely needs to be removed, outlining an approval process involving an administrator with the necessary deletion privileges.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Essential HighLevel Data Protection & Recovery for HR & Recruiting Firms