02
Concepts and roles: how ToolFlux thinks
Learn the vocabulary and decide who gets which rights.
Reviewed 2026-09-05
In short
- A user has an account and signs in. An employee has none — they only receive tools.
- Three roles: administrator, moderator, user. The administrator reaches everywhere; the other two only the locations they supervise.
- A location can have several supervisors, not one.
The five ideas
Everything the app does rests on five things. Get them straight and the rest of this manual is just procedure.
- Item
- The object being tracked. It can be a single tool, a set, a container, an accessory, or goods counted by quantity: consumables and materials. Chapter 03 takes them one at a time.
- Location (logistics node)
- The physical place the item sits: warehouse, van or site. The app also calls it a logistics node on the add screens.
- Employee
- The person who takes the tool. No account, no sign-in.
- User
- The person who operates the app. Account, password and a role.
- Custody
- The answer to «who is holding this right now». It changes with a handover and is proved by a signed record.
The three roles
A user has exactly one role. It is not chosen at sign-up — the administrator sets it when creating the account.
Administrator
Sees and does everything. Manages users, edits company details, handles the plan. For location rights they count as a supervisor of every location, without being listed on any.
Moderator
The warehouse or site supervisor role. Works on the locations they supervise. Can delete accounts, but only ones with the user role — never another moderator or an administrator.
User
An execution account. No user management, no plan screens. Can work on the locations they supervise — and if they supervise none, they cannot move anything.
How rights are actually granted: through the location
This is the mechanism the rest of the product rests on. Apart from the administrator, the right to move an item comes from the location, not from the role: every location has a list of supervisors, and an operation there is only allowed to someone on that list.
The check runs at the moment of the action, not when you sign in. Take a warehouse away from someone now and their next scan on it is already refused.
Where this is managed
On the phone
Users: from the company management area on the home screen — the card appears only for the administrator. Employees: the card next to it, visible to everyone.
Screenshot
Zona de administrare a firmei de pe ecranul principal al aplicației, văzută cu un cont de ADMINISTRATOR, ca să apară și cartonașul de utilizatori.
In the console
Utilizatori in the left menu — the entry is missing entirely for the other roles, and the page refuses direct access by URL. Employees live under Angajați and are visible to everyone.
Company details are edited from Utilizatori as well: name, tax ID, address, plus the currency and code format fixed during setup.
Screenshot
Pagina Utilizatori din consolă pe un cont demo, cu câțiva utilizatori de roluri diferite în listă.
What differs
The model is identical — same roles, same location check, same data. What differs is only what is convenient where: the console is built for a desk and has no phone version, and the app is the only one that works in the field, where the scanning happens.
Next
Chapter 03 takes the inventory: the six item types, what separates them and when you pick one over another. If your problem is more that tools stop coming back from people, that situation is covered separately in the guide on tools not returned by employees.
The screens in this chapter
Next chapter
03 · Inventory: the six kinds of item