Upcoming feature - Backdate User Role Groups: What it does, how allowed dates are calculated, and how to use it

Updated 2026-02-04 00:56:03 UTC Created 2026-01-19 00:54:30 UTC
IMPORTANT: This feature is not yet available in production. The behaviour described in this article relates to an upcoming release and is only available to organisations using the new role tab: User - roles tab - new version. Follow the release guides section for updates. 
Information in this guide is subject to change based on the final development of this feature.

Contents

Overview

This feature allows you to backdate a user's roles into a previous period. 

What this affects

This function applies to user role groups only. It does not backdate other group types.

Group type Affected
User role groups Yes
Sites, areas, containers, roles No

 

NOTE: If you expected this function to update site groups or other non-role groups, it will not. If you want to backdate these group types for a user, you will need to do this in the permissions tab of the user.

Terminology

Type Description
Group This could be a site, area, role, container, they are all groups.
Role

This is the overarching group that all role groups with the same name are linked to. This is located in organisation -> roles

For example, Educator.
Role group A role group is an individual version of the role in the organisation structure. For example, Educator in site 1 area 1 is role group 1, Educator in site 1, area 2 is role group 2. These are all linked back to the parent role Educator.
User role group A user role group is the unique version of the role group for a user. This is connected to the role group, that is then connected to the role.

When to use this feature

An example of a situation where you might want to do this is a user has been assigned to a new role or roles after the previous period has ended and you need to backdate the role into the previous period to add shifts for a payment

How allowed dates are calculated

The system determines the earliest selectable date by identifying the most recent start date across all of the user’s role groups and their related parent groups.

This ensures that the selected date is valid for every role group the user is assigned to, and prevents dates from being chosen that would fall outside the effective range of any role group configuration.

Worked example

If a user is in multiple role groups where the groups have different start dates, the earliest date you can select is the most recent start date across all the role groups.

 

Role group Start date What it means for the allowed date
Role Group A 05 January 2026 This role group is active from 05 January 2025.
Role Group B 19 February 2026 This role group is active from 19 February 2026
Role Group C 22 December 2025 This role group is active from 22 December 2025
The most recent date 19 February 2026

This is the most recent date where all role groups

are active

In the above situation, if the date to backdate should be the 05th January 2026, Role Group B in the organisation structure needs to be backdated first

  1. Open the organisation structure
  2. Click the role group
  3. Click backdate, set the date to the 19th of January 2026 and save

How to backdate user role groups

  1. Open the user profile.
  2. Click roles
  3. Click backdate roles
  4. Select the date and click save