Hiding a column is not withholding a number — transcript

Play this as a presentation — one slide per step, with the same narration. Every word of every step is on this page.

This lesson is for whoever has been asked to keep cost and margin off the counter staff’s screens. In about eleven minutes you will know how to do it, how far it goes, and the sentence you should not say to an auditor about it.

Step 1 — See that two different controls govern one column

After this step you will stop looking for one switch. A grid column in a BigLedger document applet can be governed by an applet setting and by a client-side permission at the same time — the product’s own code lists them as pairs, column by column: the transaction date with its hide setting and its show permission, the branch code, the client document references, the whole receivables block, the costing and margin columns. The setting is tenant-wide and applies to everybody. The permission is granted on a role. Both are read in the browser, and they are read together every time either of them changes.

Reference: Sales Invoice (Internal) — Who can change what

Step 2 — Learn the rule, because it is an OR and everyone assumes an AND

After this step you will predict the outcome correctly. A key named HIDE_something shows the column unless the setting is on. A key named SHOW_something shows it only if the setting is on. And in either case, holding the matching permission shows the column regardless of the setting. So switching on Hide Gross Profit hides gross profit from everybody except the people you have granted Show Gross Profit to. That is almost always the arrangement you wanted, and it is not what the toggle’s label suggests. The half that catches administrators: turn a hide setting on and you lose the column too, unless somebody has granted you its permission.

Reference: Settings and Permissions — What a client-side permission actually does

Step 3 — Understand what hiding actually did

After this step you will describe this control honestly. Hiding a column does two things: it takes the column out of the grid, and it takes it out of the column tool panel so nobody can put it back from the screen. It does not stop the number arriving. The row was fetched from the server with every field on it, margin included, and on at least one screen the hidden column is calculated from a value that is still sitting there. So this is a tidiness control — it keeps a figure off a screen where it does not belong and out of the way of people who do not need it. It is not a defensible answer to who can see our margins.

Reference: Settings and Permissions — What a client-side permission actually does

Step 4 — Meet the screen that declares two dozen pairs and uses none

After this step you will know why a toggle you set did nothing. The Sales Invoice document listing carries a list of twenty-four of these column pairs — date, branch, client references, the receivables block, the dimension, segment, profit-centre and project codes — and its own template never hands that list to the grid. So on that one screen, none of those settings and none of those permissions changes a column. The line-item grid in the same applet passes its list and works normally. If you have switched a hide key on and expected a column to leave the document listing, this is the reason, and there is nothing you can configure to change it.

Reference: Sales Invoice (Internal) — Who can change what

Step 5 — Remember whose screen you just changed

After this step you will pick your moment. The setting half of the pair lives in the applet’s single settings document — one per applet, shared by everyone in the tenant, no per-company or per-branch copy. So a hide toggle flipped from a branch terminal changes the screen of the accounts clerk at head office, immediately. And because saving that screen writes every visible toggle on it, not only the one you came for, a settings panel is a live control rather than a form. Read the whole panel before you save it, do it on a quiet day, and never during month-end.

Reference: Settings and Permissions — Where a setting lives, and who it applies to

Step 6 — Use the control that actually refuses

After this step you will know what to reach for when it really matters. If a number must genuinely be restricted, the lever is a server-side permission — the ones that make the API refuse the request rather than the screen decline to draw it. The clearest worked example is exporting customer data: being able to view a customer does not let you export the list, the export endpoint refuses without its own grant, and that refusal happens on the server where a browser cannot argue with it. Use column visibility for tidiness, server-side permissions for restriction, and be precise about which one you have when somebody asks.

Reference: Teams and Permissions — Step 3: Split view, edit and export

How the steps fit together

    flowchart TD
  s1["Step 1 — See that two different controls govern one column"]
  s2["Step 2 — Learn the rule, because it is an OR and everyone assumes an AND"]
  s3["Step 3 — Understand what hiding actually did"]
  s4["Step 4 — Meet the screen that declares two dozen pairs and uses none"]
  s5["Step 5 — Remember whose screen you just changed"]
  s6["Step 6 — Use the control that actually refuses"]
  s1 --> s2
  s2 --> s3
  s3 --> s4
  s4 --> s5
  s5 --> s6
  

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

Next: What actually stops a sale below cost · Back to the series · Play this as a presentation