Barriers

Some records shouldn't be open to everyone in the firm, even people whose role can see the section. A live mandate is the usual example: only the deal team, plus whoever the firm names, such as compliance and the partners, should know it exists.

A barrier does that. Switch one on for a section and each record in it is visible only to the people named on that record, plus any roles you choose. Everyone else finds it simply isn't there.

A barrier describes who can open what in ORCA. Whether that is enough for your firm's own obligations is for your compliance officer to judge, and the limits further down are there to help them do it.

How It Works

A barrier is set per section, not per record, so nobody can forget to tick a box on the one mandate that mattered. Once it is on, every record in the section has its own team.

There are two kinds:

• Limited to each record's team. The people named in a person field on the record (a Deal team field, say), and anyone holding a role you choose. Use this for the main section, such as Mandates.
• Follows a linked record. Whoever can see the record this one links to can see this one. A fee line follows its mandate, and so does an NDA. Use this for sections that hang off the main one, so their teams never need keeping in step by hand.

A barrier sits on top of everything a role already does. Someone needs access to the section, and to the record if their role is set to own records only, and to be on the team. Having Settings doesn't get anyone past a barrier. If an admin should see everything, give them a role and tick that role on the barrier.

Switching One On

You need permission to open Settings.

1. Make sure the section has a person field for the team, such as Deal team. It can hold several people. If there isn't one, add it to the section's template first (see Creating Templates).
2. Go to Settings > Custom Sections, edit the section, and scroll to the Barrier card at the bottom.
3. Choose Limited to each record's team.
4. Under The team is named in, pick the person field. Beside each field ORCA says how many records name nobody in it, for example "(12 of 40 records name nobody)". Fill those in first, or they'll vanish for everyone except the roles below.
5. Under Also visible to these roles, tick any roles that should see every record in the section. Usually compliance and the partners.
6. Press Save barrier.

The change takes effect straight away and is written to the access log, whether or not the log is switched on.

To take a barrier down, choose Off and save. That's logged too.

Choosing the Team on Each Record

The team is just the person field you picked. Open a record, put the right people in it, and save. Anyone added can open the record from then on. Anyone removed loses it.

• A record that names nobody is visible only to the roles ticked on the barrier.
• Whoever creates a record joins its team if they left the team empty, so nobody loses sight of a record the moment they save it. If they named a team without themselves, that's taken as deliberate and left alone.
• Add the responsible partner. Being the partner on a mandate doesn't put you on its team. If the partner isn't in the team field and doesn't hold a role on the barrier, they can't open their own mandate.

With the access log on, every change to a team is logged, saying who was added or removed.

Linked Sections: Fees, NDAs and the Like

A barrier on Mandates keeps the mandate private. But a fee register or an NDA register that names the mandate would still tell everyone the client, the fee and who signed. Follows a linked record closes that gap.

1. The linked section needs a link field pointing at the section with the team barrier (for example a Mandate field on Fees that links to Mandates). A plain text field holding the mandate's name won't do: ORCA has to know which record it belongs to.
2. Put the team barrier on the main section first. Until it has one, there's nothing to follow.
3. Go to Settings > Custom Sections, edit the linked section, and in the Barrier card choose Follows a linked record.
4. Under Follow the record linked in, pick the link field, and press Save barrier.

From then on a fee line is visible to exactly the people who can open its mandate. Repeat for each section that hangs off it: fees, offers, NDAs.

A few things follow from this:

• The link has to be filled in. Saving a record here without it is refused with "Choose the Mandate this belongs to. Who can see it depends on that." A record that somehow links to nothing is visible only to the roles named on the main barrier.
• Linked to several records, it's visible to anyone who can see at least one of them.
• You can't take down a barrier that others follow. Switching Mandates to Off while Fees follows it is refused, naming the sections to change first.

What Someone Outside the Team Sees

Nothing, mostly. That's the point.

• Lists, kanban boards, search and reports leave the record out. So do the tracker, totals, dashboard counts and company tabs.
• Opening its link directly gives "not found", the same as a record that doesn't exist, so a guessed link tells them nothing. With the access log on, the attempt is logged as Refused.
• Things filed on it go with it. Emails, notes, to-dos, calendar events and company list rows (a mandate's buyer list, say) filed on a barred record are hidden too, wherever they'd normally show: the company timeline, the contact page, the calendar, the planner, meeting briefs and the daily briefing.
• A link from a record they can open reads "A record you can't open" in place of the barred record's name.
• ORCA AI reads only what the person asking could open themselves.
• Counterparty suggestions draw only on records the person asking can open, unless an admin has chosen "Firm memory, no names". See Whose history.

Totals and dashboard tiles count only what each person can see, so two people looking at the same tile can get different numbers. That's correct, but it surprises people the first time.

What Someone on the Team Sees

The record as normal, plus a padlock note beside its title saying who it's limited to, for example "Visible to its deal team and Compliance only", or on a fee line, "Visible to whoever can see its mandate". If the access log is on and you have Settings access, the note also has a Who has opened this link.

Exports, the API and Formulas

• The account export is refused unless the person taking it can see every barred record. A partial file that called itself a full export would be worse than none. See Data Export.
• API keys aren't people, so they can't be on a team. A barred section or record comes back as "not found" over the API, and a link to one reads "A record you can't open". See Using the ORCA API.
• Webhooks don't send changes to barred records. See Webhooks.
• {Link.Field} formulas read across a barrier only where both records share it: the same section, or a section that follows that link. Otherwise that part of the formula reads as if nothing were linked. A formula's result is shown to everyone who can open its record, so it can't depend on who's looking. See Formula Fields.
• AI summary fields are stored on the record, so they leave out anything filed on another barred record, even when the person generating the summary is on that team.

ORCA Support

When ORCA support needs to look at your account, we can open barred records. If your access log is on, each of those views is written to it and marked ORCA support, so you can see exactly what we opened, and when.

What a Barrier Doesn't Reach

Some things aren't tied to any one record, or were copied before the barrier went on. We'd rather you knew:

• Emails never filed on a record. An email that's only on a company or contact, not filed on the mandate, isn't behind the mandate's barrier.
• Meetings. They link to companies and people, not to records, so a barrier can't reach them.
• Copies made before the barrier went on: earlier ORCA AI chats, briefings already sent, and AI summaries generated before.
• Totals stored on an open record that add up barred records below it, such as a roll-up.
• A team-barred record linked from an open one. Its name is hidden on screen, but searching for the name can still find the open record that links to it. Using Follows a linked record on the open section closes this, and is the setup we recommend.
• Editing an open record that links to a barred one. The picker only offers records you can open, so saving can clear a link you couldn't see. Again, following the link avoids it.
• CSV imports into a barred section name no creator, so imported records with an empty team are visible to the barrier's roles only until someone fills the team in.
• Links shared on purpose, such as an approval request, and emails sent by automations an admin set up.

Try It in the Demo

The Ardlow & Penn demo has barriers on. Mandates are limited to each mandate's Deal team and the Compliance role, and Fees, Offers and Term Sheets and the NDA Register follow their mandate. The demo login is on every deal team but one: Project Whimbrel. It doesn't appear in any list, and its link is "not found". The only trace of it a visitor sees is its lines in Settings > Access log, including a colleague's refused attempt to open it.

Related

• Access Log : who opened and exported which record
• Counterparty Suggestions : suggestions that answer to the person asking
• Accounts & Users : roles, section access and own records only
• Creating Templates : adding the person field and link fields a barrier uses
• Demo Accounts : Ardlow & Penn, with barriers on