Access Control: Who Can View & Edit
The rules for who can read and edit calculations across org staff and clients.
ClearSpan separates read access from write access, and treats firm staff (engineers, reviewers, firm admins) differently from external clients. This page summarizes who can see and change a calculation.
Org staff (engineers, reviewers, firm admins)#
Staff are members of a firm who are not clients. Within their own firm:
- Read — Staff can read every project and calc in the firm, including client-owned ones.
- Write — Staff can edit calcs on internal (staff-owned) projects. They can view but not edit calcs on client-owned projects.
- Draft client calcs are hidden — When staff open a client's project, only submitted/reviewed calcs appear; the client's in-progress drafts stay private until submitted.
A reviewer can edit a revision they created for the "Reviewed with Changes" flow even on a calc they don't otherwise own — that's the one staff exception to view-only on client work. See Revisions.
Clients#
A client account sees and edits only their own projects and calcs:
- Clients read and edit calcs they created on their own projects.
- They cannot see other clients' work, and they cannot see a firm's internal projects.
- Only client accounts submit calcs for review; internal staff have no client-style submission flow. See Submission.
Editing locks by status#
Beyond who you are, the calc's status gates edits:
- A draft is editable by anyone with write access to it.
- A submitted, reviewed, or rejected calc has frozen params — edit attempts are rejected with a prompt to create a revision instead.
- For engineer (staff) calcs, only the latest revision is editable; past revisions are read-only so history stays intact.
See Calculation Lifecycle for the full status flow.
Deleting#
| Project type | Who can delete |
|---|---|
| Internal / org project | Firm admin (or superuser) only |
| Client-owned project | The client owner only |
A project with any calc past draft can't be deleted — submitted and reviewed work, and its documents, are preserved. Bring the work back to draft scope or contact an administrator if a removal is truly needed.