Sites, Users & Permissions

When a team needs to give staff, applications, and outside organizations different access to files, the first decision is where those accounts and resources belong. A Files.com Site holds the configuration and resources for that work. Workspaces organize related resources within a Site, and Child Sites provide separate site-wide configuration under Parent Site administration.

Sites and Child Sites

Site-wide settings apply across the Site's Workspaces. Authentication providers, security policies, domains, and branding belong to this level. Site Administrators manage those settings and have authority throughout the Site, including its accounts, files, connections, and workflows.

A Child Site is another Site under a Parent Site's administration. It has its own resources and site-wide configuration, including authentication, security settings, and domains. Every Parent Site Administrator retains full Site Administrator authority over every Child Site. Separate configuration therefore does not exclude Parent Site Administrators; Child Site Administrators explains that relationship and the grants available for administering selected Child Sites.

Workspaces

When related files, participants, and flows need to be kept together, a Workspace provides their resource and administrative boundary within a Site. Every Site starts with a Default Workspace and can operate entirely there. Additional Workspaces can organize a task, team, functional area, or environment, whether one IT team administers them all or different teams manage their own work.

A Workspace has its own folders, users, Groups, Partners, connections, and workflows. Workspaces share the Site's authentication configuration, security policies, and other site-wide settings. Workspace Administrators manage their assigned Workspaces; Site Administrators retain authority across the Site.

Each user belongs to a Workspace. Users created in a Custom Workspace are scoped to it. Site Administrators can explicitly grant cross-workspace access to Default Workspace users or Groups when their work spans several areas. Belonging to a Workspace does not give an ordinary user access to every folder in it.

Files and Folders

Files are organized in a folder tree within the Workspace. Folder permissions determine which content a user can reach and what they may do with it. A Group given access to a folder grants that access to its members; the Group does not become another folder level.

A folder can hold native Files.com files or expose connected storage through a Remote Server Mount. Its position in the file tree does not by itself identify where the contents are stored. The remote connection's permissions and the user's Files.com permissions both matter when working with mounted storage.

Users, Groups, and Partners

A user account represents a person or a system. Separate accounts let you give a colleague and an unattended application different access, track their activity, and end one account's access independently. Authentication establishes which account or credential is connecting; permissions determine the work it may perform.

Groups collect regular users who need shared access. A user can belong to several Groups, and direct user permissions combine with Group permissions. Membership is therefore an access decision: adding someone to a Group gives them its existing grants. A user's Primary Group separately identifies which Group Admins may manage the account; it does not limit the account to that Group's folder access.

A Partner represents an external organization within a Workspace. Its Partner Users inherit the Partner's folder permissions and remain within its Root Folder. They cannot join Groups or receive individual folder permissions. The Partner organizes the external relationship and its accounts; it is distinct from a Child Site or Workspace.

File Access and Administrative Permissions

Giving someone access to files and giving them responsibility for accounts or configuration are different decisions. Folder Permissions control file operations and folder administration. Administrative Permissions define authority over Sites, Workspaces, accounts, and shared resources. Those grants can combine, so an account's capabilities need to be understood together.

A team exchanging supplier invoices might keep its intake folders, supplier accounts, accounting connection, and delivery workflows together in a Workspace. The people operating that process can receive access through Groups, while each supplier's accounts belong to a Partner. A Child Site becomes relevant when the work needs independent site-wide configuration. The arrangement combines resource ownership, account membership, and permission grants; Groups and Partners are not additional folder levels.

Choose the resource arrangement for the work and the settings it needs, then grant the access each participant requires. Account Structure & Environments applies this model to deployment choices. Customer Isolation answers the separate question of how Files.com keeps unrelated customers' data and configuration separated on shared infrastructure.