How to enable the Knowledge Base and configure access to materials

The Knowledge Base in Smart Way LMS has two access levels: access to the module for all employees and access to a specific material. A material is available to employees only when the Knowledge Base module is enabled in the company settings, the material has the Published status and the user meets the viewing access conditions for that material.

Who can manage the Knowledge Base?

The Manage knowledge base menu is available only to administrators. They can work with their company's materials regardless of whether the module is enabled for employees.

Employees and managers can only view materials added by an administrator. They cannot create, publish or edit materials. The manager role does not provide administrative access to the company's materials.

How to enable or disable the Knowledge Base for employees?

Open Settings.
Go to Company.
Find the Knowledge base for employees setting.
Turn the switch on or off.
Wait for the setting to be saved.

When the module is enabled, users can see Knowledge base in the menu and open the materials available to them.

When the setting is disabled:

Knowledge base disappears from the employee menu;
material pages become unavailable to employees and managers;
administrators can view and manage Knowledge Base content;
materials, categories, tags, access settings and version history are not deleted;
after the module is re-enabled, published content becomes available again in line with the configured permissions.

Disabling the module is useful for temporarily closing the reader-facing area, but it does not replace archiving individual materials that are no longer relevant.

How an Academy subscription affects the Knowledge Base?

With an active Academy subscription, users can open permitted internal documents and administrators can create new materials.

If the Academy subscription is inactive:

the list, search and existing material access rules remain unchanged;
the system blocks documents from being opened;
the Add material button is disabled;
administrators can open and edit existing materials.

How to configure access to a material?

The material editor has an Access section with two modes.

Entire company

The material is visible to all company employees who have access to the module.

Use this mode for general policies, platform instructions, company templates and materials that do not contain restricted information.

Restricted access

The material is visible to employees in the selected departments or job titles.

Select Restricted access.
In the department field, add the required teams.
In the job title field, add the required job titles.
Save the draft or publish the material.

In restricted access mode, you must select at least one department or one job title. An empty list is an error.

How departments and job titles are combined?

If both lists are completed, OR logic applies between them.

Example:

the Sales department is selected;
the Regional Manager job title is selected.

The material will be visible to all employees in the Sales department and all employees with the Regional Manager job title, even if they work in another department.

Do not select a department and job title together if you need 'only this job title in this department' logic: the current mode does not create this intersection.

What determines whether access works correctly?

Access rules use values from the employee's profile. Before publishing, check:

whether the department is completed;
whether the current job title is specified;
whether the same name has been entered in different ways;
whether employee access to the module is enabled.

Changing a department or job title may immediately remove access to the list, search, material page, preview, download, favourites and use of the material by the assistant.

How to verify access?

After publishing, check access with at least two accounts:

A user from the target department or with the target job title should be able to find and open the material.
A user outside the configured audience should not see the material in the category or search, or be able to open it through a direct link.
If downloads are permitted, check the Download button.
If access is restricted, check the department and job title separately.

An administrator is not suitable for testing reader restrictions because they have unrestricted access to materials within their company.

Common configuration errors

Restricted access is selected, but no team or job title has been added.
Department AND job title logic is expected, although the system uses department OR job title.
The required field is not completed in the employee's profile.
The material remains a draft or has been unpublished.
Employee access to the module is disabled.
Access was checked only with an administrator account.