Understand and Support the User Profile - Article
Summary
User profiles bring together information that helps support teams understand who a person is, how they enter the platform, which business relationships apply, and what learning or achievement evidence is connected to the account.
The profile is not the source of every record it displays. Some information belongs to the account, while other values come from organizations, SSO, integrations, questionnaires, activities, Transactions, certificates, Skills, or community memberships. Understanding those boundaries helps you correct the right source without unintentionally overwriting dependable information.
Use this article to:
- Choose the correct profile area for a support task.
- Distinguish editable profile data from connected evidence and source-owned values.
- Help users with preferences, access, achievements, and related records.
Use the profile as a support hub
A profile provides one perspective on the person; it is not one database table that owns every value. It connects identity and contact information with business relationships, preferences, authentication settings, learning records, credentials, and other enabled services.
Authorized administrators and support roles can use this joined-up view to investigate a request without assuming that every visible value should be edited locally. Preserve source ownership, privacy, consent, and organizational scope while acting on behalf of another person.
Open the intended profile
- Open Users and search for the intended account.
- Confirm the User ID and other dependable identifiers before changing anything.
- Check organization membership, role, account status, and sign-in context where they matter to the request.
- Open the profile and use the available view or edit action for the specific task.
The sections you can see depend on your role, scope, enabled features, and the account being reviewed. A limited profile view may show only a name and avatar; that does not mean the underlying record is empty.
Understand the profile areas
| Area or tab | What it represents | Support boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Personal information | Identity, contact details, configured profile fields, organization context, and supported staff relationships. | Confirm whether a value is owned locally, by an import, by SSO, by an integration, or by another business process. |
| Password | Local password maintenance where local authentication is used. | Use the external provider’s recovery process for an externally authenticated account. |
| Two-factor authentication | Additional authentication settings where the feature is enabled. | Follow the approved security and recovery procedure; do not weaken another person’s protection as routine troubleshooting. |
| Connected accounts | External identities and supported personal service connections linked to the account. | A connection is not automatically the source of every profile field. |
| Preferences | Language, time zone, notification scheme, interests, and other supported experience choices. | The available choices still depend on platform and organization configuration. |
| Skills | Supported earned, imported, or manually maintained competence evidence. | Verify the source, level, and any expiry instead of treating every Skill as equivalent evidence. |
| Legal permissions | Supported privacy-policy and questionnaire-consent information. | Do not give or change another person’s consent without the appropriate basis and process. |
Know who owns each field
| Possible source | Typical use | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| User or authorized profile edit | Information that the person or a permitted support role maintains directly. | The correct account and field-level editability. |
| Import | Controlled creation or maintenance of a defined population. | Identifiers, update behavior, the latest template, and what happens to existing values. |
| SSO or integration | External identity, employment, membership, or other agreed business information. | The source of truth, mapping, update timing, and departure handling. |
| Questionnaire or onboarding form | Authenticated responses that may update supported profile fields. | Whether the question writes to the profile and whether submission can replace an existing value. |
| Organization or staff relationship | Membership, management scope, and Immediate Manager assignment. | The actual relationship between accounts, not only a descriptive Company, department, or manager name. |
If a corrected value later returns to its earlier state, identify the next import, login mapping, integration update, or questionnaire submission before editing it again.
Support identity and access safely
Password, two-factor authentication, and connected-account questions concern how the person proves their identity. Confirm the sign-in route before applying a local solution. A local password reset is not the correct recovery path for every SSO-managed account, and a second account is not a safe workaround for a matching problem.
Connected accounts may also represent calendar, document, or other supported service connections. Treat them according to their actual purpose rather than assuming that every connection controls login.
Understand learning and achievement evidence
| Record | Use it for | Important boundary |
|---|---|---|
| My trainings | A convenient view of relevant learning, status, progress, and completion information. | Use the activity participant record or report when the profile card does not explain the case. |
| Transcript | A shareable PDF learning-history document with the supported date scope and fields. | It does not list every cancelled or expired participation state. |
| Certificates | Issued credential records and their supported validity information. | Course completion alone does not prove that a certificate was issued or remains valid. |
| Skills | Configured competence evidence from supported earned, imported, or manual sources. | Interpret the method, level, and expiry before using a Skill for a decision. |
| Historic learning | Approved evidence brought forward from another process or system. | A user-account import alone is not evidence that learning history was imported. |
Review other connected information
Where enabled, the profile can also provide access to Balance, Orders, Incentives, Communities, and a supplemental questionnaire. These areas connect the person with other platform records, but they do not all belong to the core profile.
- Balance, Orders, and Incentives support commercial or reward questions. Verify the underlying Transaction or accounting record before drawing a financial conclusion.
- Communities show community membership or participation. This is not the same as organization membership.
- Supplemental questionnaire presents configured information collected through the associated form. Visibility and editing depend on configuration and permissions.
Review preferences, biography, and legal choices
Preferences can include language, time zone, notifications, interests, and newsletter choices where enabled. Verify the result in the user experience rather than treating a saved value as proof that every dependent rule or translation is available.
A Biography can support a professional introduction. Files included in a biography can be available through direct public links, so do not place confidential documents or private learner information there.
Legal permissions and consent records require particular care. Visibility does not authorize a support user to make the choice on another person’s behalf. Use the organization’s designated privacy or consent process where a correction is required.
Use account change history
Authorized roles can use More → Account change history where that action is available. It provides a field-level record of relevant account and profile changes and can help establish when a value changed during an investigation.
Account change history is not a complete learning, certification, enrollment, integration, or commercial audit trail. Use the corresponding activity, credential, Transaction, or source-system record for those questions.
Verify the support outcome
| Support task | Evidence of a dependable result |
|---|---|
| Identity correction | The intended User ID is unchanged, the correct account was updated, and the authoritative source agrees with the result. |
| Sign-in support | The person can use the intended authentication route and no duplicate account was created. |
| Preference update | The saved value produces the intended experience within the available configuration. |
| Achievement question | The relevant activity, certificate, Skill, transcript, or historic-learning record confirms the conclusion. |
| Organization or manager change | The relationship appears in its own management view, including My staff where applicable. |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| A corrected field returns to its earlier value | Identify whether an import, SSO mapping, integration, or questionnaire owns the field and when it next updates. |
| Expected training or achievement evidence is missing | Check the activity participation, account identity, completion criteria, certificate or Skill source, and any expiry. |
| A field is visible but cannot be edited | Confirm the support role, organizational scope, field configuration, and source ownership. |
| The user is not visible | Check organization scope, profile-access limits, filters, account status, and the selected User ID. |
| An organization or Immediate Manager change is not reflected | Verify the relationship in its dedicated management view, including My staff where applicable. |
FAQ
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Why is a profile field visible but not editable?
Visibility does not always include permission to change the value. Check the support role, organizational scope, field configuration, account context, and whether an import, SSO mapping, integration, questionnaire, or another process owns the field.
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Is Account change history a complete audit trail for everything connected to a user?
No. Account change history helps investigate relevant account and profile-field changes. Use the corresponding Training Activity, progress, certificate, Skill, Transaction, integration, or source-system record when the question concerns learning, credentials, commercial activity, or connected-system updates.
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Which profile record should I use to verify a learning achievement?
Use the record that proves the specific outcome. Training Activity participation and progress show the learning journey, a certificate shows the issued credential and its validity, Skills show configured competence evidence, and historic learning records approved evidence brought forward from another process. These records are related but not interchangeable.