User Categories

Short Description User Categories classify users for inheritance and filtering. When a user owns a plan object, the object inherits the user's category — making attribute-based dependencies and filtering possible.

What this article answers

• What User Categories do.
• How to create and manage them.
• How they propagate through ownership.

What User Categories do

User Categories classify Hive9 users into named groups — for example, by role (Marketing, Finance, Operations), by region (NA, EMEA, APAC), or by business unit.

The power of User Categories is automatic inheritance: when a categorized user owns a plan object (Plan, Campaign, Program, Tactic, Line Item, PR), the object inherits the user's category. This enables:

• Attribute-based dependencies triggered by the owner's category.
• Filtering plans and tactics by owner category.
• Reporting segments aligned to owner categories.

Managing User Categories

Configured under Settings → User Profile Configuration (or under Organizational Setup, depending on instance).

• Add New Option — create a category.
• Edit icon — rename a category.
• Delete icon — remove a category.
• Save.

Dependencies between User Categories and other custom attributes are configured via your CSM — not customer self-service.

Assigning User Categories

To yourself

1. Open My Account.
2. Find the User Category field.
3. Pick from the dropdown.
4. Save.

To other users

1. Settings → Users → click the user.
2. Set the User Category field.
3. Save.

All assignment changes are tracked in the audit log.

How inheritance flows

When a user is assigned to a category, the inheritance works as:

1. User is assigned category "EMEA Marketing."
2. User creates a Tactic. The Tactic inherits "EMEA Marketing" as a contextual attribute.
3. Reports filtered by User Category surface the Tactic under "EMEA Marketing."
4. Workflow rules using User Category route the Tactic accordingly.

Inheritance is dynamic — when a user's category changes, future-created objects inherit the new category. Previously-created objects retain whatever they inherited at creation time.

Use cases

• Regional reporting — assign users to their region; reports surface plans owned by each region.
• Functional reporting — assign users to Marketing, Finance, Operations; surface what each function owns.
• Approval routing — route approvals based on owner's category.
• Access filtering — combined with role permissions, allow finance to see only finance-owned tactics.

Common questions

What if a user spans multiple categories? Each user has one User Category. If you need cross-category visibility, use Teams (multi-team membership) and roles in combination.

Will changing a user's category re-categorize their existing tactics? No — existing objects retain the category they inherited at creation. Changes apply to objects created after the category change.

Can I bulk-update user categories? Bulk operations on users are limited. Check with your CSM if you need to recategorize many users at once.

Are User Categories different from teams? Yes. User Categories classify the user; Teams define access groups. A user has one Category and one or more Teams. The two work together but solve different problems.
 

Related articles

• Creating, editing, and deleting users
• Teams — collaboration rules (Edit/Approve)
• Organizational Setup overview
• Approver types (User, Role, Record Owner, Custom Attribute)