Access to certificates is granted per category, not for the register as a whole. That is why one crew member sees a sidebar entry with several categories and another sees only one — or none at all.
The three rights
For each certificate category a crew member can be given:
- View — see the category in the sidebar, browse its certificates (archived ones included), open one, preview and download its files, and receive its expiry and survey notifications.
- Edit — add certificates to it, edit their details, add, replace or remove their attached files, and archive or restore them.
- Delete — permanently delete its archived certificates. The Delete button only appears together with Edit on the same category.
They are set on the Permissions tab of a crew member's page, under the Vessel's Certificates group, which lists the vessel's certificate categories by name, each with its own View, Edit and Delete checkboxes. When a crew member is invited, their rank's default rights for Vessel's Certificates pre-fill the checkboxes for every certificate category the vessel has at that moment. A category created later is not granted to crew members automatically — tick it for those who need it.
How this plays out
- The Certificates sidebar entry only appears when the vessel's licence includes Vessel's Certificates and you can view at least one certificate category.
- Only the categories you may view are listed under it, and the Overview page, all tab counts, the dashboard alert counts and the calendar are limited to those categories.
- Add New, the file gallery editing buttons, and the Archive, Restore and Delete row actions appear only where you hold the matching right. In the add form, categories you may not edit are visible but cannot be selected, and a certificate can only be moved to another category you may edit.
- Captains, Management Admins and Management Users work across all certificate categories of the vessel; the per-category checkboxes apply to crew members.
- Viewers and Management Viewers get read-only access to every certificate category, not just a selection — they can browse and download, but the editing buttons are not shown.
- Yacht owners do not have access to the certificate register at all.
Managing the categories themselves is a settings job and needs edit rights on Vessel Settings; only the categories you may view are listed there. Changing a category's list of required certificates needs that same settings right and edit rights on the category.