Understanding User Types, License Types, and Sugar Licenses

Overview

Sugar is purchased with a set number of user seats that allow users to access the application. If you have purchased licenses for more than one product (e.g., Sugar Sell Premier and Sugar Serve), each license type has its own limit and users that are assigned both license types count towards each of the limits.

If your instance has more active users than is allowed by your Sugar license, regular users will not be able to log in and a warning will display. Administrators will not be able to add more users of a particular license type than is allowed by their Sugar license. This article covers which user types count towards your licensed user limits, the basics of license types, and how to manage your licensed user seats. For more information on users in Sugar, please refer to the User Management documentation.

SugarCloud customers can monitor the number of active users counting against their license and see the breakdown for each license type (e.g., Sugar Serve, Sugar Sell) purchased with their Sugar subscription via the SugarCloud Insights page.

User Types

There are four types of users in Sugar: Regular User, System Administrator, Group User, and Portal API User. Each user type has different functions in Sugar, which will vary for each instance. Depending on an organization's use of Sugar, not all of these user types will be necessary. The following sections cover which user types count towards the organization's licensed user limits and which user types are excluded.

Please note that administrators will either manage the User Type field in Sugar or in SugarIdentity, depending on whether the instance uses SugarIdentity.

If your Sugar instance uses SugarIdentity, then you will manage the user type in SugarIdentity:
UnderstandingUserTypesLicenseTypesSugarLicenses_UserTypes_SugarIdentity

If your Sugar instance does not use SugarIdentity, then you will manage the user type in Sugar via Admin > User Management:

Note: The Users module utilizes the Sidecar user interface in Sugar versions 13.3 and higher.

Included in License Count

Active users with the following user types are included in your company's license count:

Regular Users (Active): A regular user is the most common of the user types. These users can access Sugar modules according to team and role restrictions. Each regular user with an active status counts toward your total license count.
System Administrator Users (Active): Also known as admin users, System Administrator users have administrative rights to all records in Sugar and can perform functions such as creating users and editing system-wide settings. All instances of Sugar require at least one admin user. Each active admin user counts toward your total license count.

Excluded From License Count

The following user types do not count as licenses for your company's license count:

Inactive Users: Any user with a status of "Inactive" does not count against your licenses.
Group Users: This user type is used for inbound email group mailboxes and does not count against your licenses.
Portal API Users: This user type includes the Sugar Customer Support Portal user and is used for server-to-server authentication. It does not count against your licenses.

Note: The Users module utilizes the Sidecar user interface in Sugar versions 13.3 and higher.

License Types

The License Type field appears in user records and allows system administrators to grant each user access to one or more Sugar products (e.g., Sugar Serve, Sugar Sell Premier). Please note that administrators will manage the user's assigned license types either via Admin > User Management in Sugar or in SugarIdentity (for instances that are SugarIdentity-enabled).

In SugarIdentity:
UnderstandingUserTypesLicenseTypeSugarLicenses_LicenseType_SugarIdentity

In Sugar:

Note: The Users module utilizes the Sidecar user interface in Sugar versions 13.3 and higher.

The options available to select in the field depend on the product(s) purchased by the organization from SugarCRM. For example, if the organization purchases multiple products such as Sugar Sell Premier and Sugar Serve, both options will be available to select in the License Type field. Each active user must be assigned to at least one product via the License Type field as it determines which functionality the user may access in Sugar. If multiple products are selected, the user will be able to access the combined functionality of all selected options in the field. Some products (e.g., Sugar Automate) are not able to be selected alone and must be applied in conjunction with a CRM license (e.g., Sell Advanced or Serve). For more information on the functionality available for each license type, please refer to the License Types Matrix documentation.

Note: If your SugarCloud instance is SugarIdentity-enabled, you will assign licenses to users in either SugarIdentity or in your Sugar instance depending on where the License Type field is located. For more information, refer to the SugarIdentity Guide.

Please keep in mind that licensed user limits are calculated for each license type purchased, and an active user assigned to multiple license types will be counted against each. So, an active user assigned to both "Sugar Sell" and "Sugar Serve" will count towards the total license count for each. SugarCloud customers can monitor the number of active users counting against their license via the SugarCloud Insights page.

Application

If your instance has more active users than is allowed by your Sugar license, only administrators will be able to log in and will be redirected to the Users module. Beginning with version 9.3.0, you will not be able to add more users of a particular license type than is allowed by your Sugar license. SugarCloud customers can view the breakdown of the total number of active users counting against a particular license type via the SugarCloud Insights page.

To regain access to your instance, an administrator must log in to do one of the following:

For versions lower than 9.0.x, reduce the number of active users by deactivating users that count towards the purchased user total. Refer to the User Management documentation for information on deactivating users. Please note that the purchased user total can be found in Admin > License Management.

Note: Beginning with version 9.1.0, SugarCloud customers can view the total number of purchased licenses for each license type via the SugarCloud Insights page.
For versions 10.0.x and higher, reduce the number of users assigned to the particular license type(s) exceeding the limit. You can navigate to the user's record in Sugar or SugarIdentity (for instances that are SugarIdentity-enabled) and de-select the specific product (e.g., Sugar Sell Premier) in the License Type field to remove the license type assignment. SugarCloud customers can view the total number of purchased licenses for each license type via the SugarCloud Insights page.
Note: For certain SugarIdentity-enabled instances, the administrator will need to access SugarIdentity to manage the users' license types (e.g., Sugar Serve).
Purchase additional seats for your organization by contacting your Sugar partner or SugarCRM. Once the license has been purchased, the administrator can revalidate it in License Management. For information on updating your Sugar license, refer to the System documentation.

If you are not able to add a new user in Sugar due to reaching your license limit, please look into purchasing additional seats for your organization by contacting your Sugar partner or SugarCRM.

Sugar has a stock report that shows which users count towards your license limit; please refer to the Stock Reports documentation. However, if using a version of Sugar lower than 8.1.x, the Reporting on Users Counting Towards Licensed User Accounts article covers how to create this report manually.