View As and Impersonation Sessions

View As lets authorized office staff open MaidCentral Pulse with another user's access. It is useful for reproducing portal problems, confirming permissions, and helping a user who cannot describe exactly what is on their screen.

Pulse records who started the session, who they viewed as, the selected company and branch, and the required reason. Actions taken during the session are attributed to both the viewed user and the original staff member.

warning

View As is not a read-only preview. Actions you take can change live company data. Confirm the selected user before continuing, avoid unrelated changes, and exit as soon as the support task is complete.

Who Can Use View As

Access depends on both the User Impersonation feature and role permissions.

Role	Start View As	Review or terminate sessions
Global Administrator	Yes	Yes
Super Administrator	Yes	Yes
Host Administrator	Yes	Yes
Group Administrator	Yes	Yes
Administrator	Yes	Yes
Office	Yes	No
Sales	Yes	No
HR Admin	Yes	No
Payroll Admin	Yes	No
Technician or Customer	No	No

Your effective access must be strictly above the person you want to view as. You cannot select yourself, a user at the same access level, a higher-level user, or a system account. Pulse also checks company, branch, and permission boundaries before starting a session and whenever the session refreshes.

For example, an Office user can view an eligible Technician or Customer, but cannot view another Office, Sales, HR Admin, Payroll Admin, or Administrator user. An Administrator can view eligible office and portal users in branches the Administrator can access.

Customers are eligible View As targets alongside employees, provided they have a portal login.

note

An actor with cross-tenant reach (Global Administrator, Super Administrator, or a Host Administrator) can only view as a user in a tenant they are allowed to reach. Global and Super Administrators reach every tenant. A Host Administrator is confined to their own organization unit and the units beneath it — the same set of tenants the franchise portal shows them.

note

The User Impersonation feature is on by default. An Administrator can turn it off for a branch under Settings → Integrations & System → Pulse Features, which hides View as User for everyone in that branch. If View as User is missing, ask your administrator to confirm both the feature and your role permissions.

Start from the User Menu

1. Open your user menu in Pulse.
2. Select View as User.
3. In View As Another User, choose the Employees or Customers tab.
4. Search by name or email. The Customers tab is search-only — type at least 2 characters before any results load, and results are capped at 100 matches (a note tells you when the cap is hit, so you know to narrow your search further).
5. On the Employees tab, optionally use Filter by role to narrow the results.
6. Select the intended user and verify the displayed email, role, and company.
7. Enter a Reason — a support ticket number and the issue being checked works well. A reason is required; you cannot start the session without one.
8. Select View as name.

Pulse clears account-specific cached data and opens the workspace for the selected user. Technicians open in the technician portal, customers open in the customer portal, and office users open in the office workspace.

On the Employees tab, the selector shows up to 50 eligible results. If the expected user is missing, narrow the search and verify that the user belongs to the current company and an accessible branch.

Start from a Customer, Technician, or the Contacts Grid

To preview the customer portal as one of your customers, start View As from that customer. You can start View As directly from several surfaces, using the same shared confirmation dialog and Reason field described above:

• Open a customer profile and select View as Customer. The action appears only when the customer has a linked portal account and you are allowed to view as that user. You can also select View as Customer in the customer's Customer Portal Account card, at the bottom of Overview (the User Account tab in Classic), where it is grayed out when the customer has no portal login.
• Open a technician profile and select View as Technician. The action appears only when the technician has a linked user account and is an eligible target.
• From the Contacts grid, open a customer's quick actions menu and select View as Customer. This gives you the same shortcut available on a customer's profile page without opening the record first. It is grayed out when the customer has no portal login, and appears only when you are allowed to view as that user.

Each of these entry points pre-fills who you are about to view as; you still confirm and enter a reason in the dialog before the session starts.

Know When View As Is Active

An amber banner stays at the top of Pulse throughout the session. It reads You are viewing as name, shows the viewed user's roles, and includes Exit View As Mode.

While the banner is visible:

• The viewed user's roles, permissions, company, branch, and employee context control what is available.
• Your normal administrator permissions are not added to the viewed account.
• Actions can update live data and are included in audit history.
• You cannot start another View As session.
• The session can last for up to one hour. Access tokens are shorter-lived and are rechecked as they refresh.
• The branch selector is hidden. Opening a quote from another branch switches the session to that branch; exit View As to choose a branch again.
• The viewed user's email address and two-factor setting cannot be changed from their Profile page during the session.
• The license agreement prompt does not appear, and it can't be accepted on the viewed user's behalf.

Always confirm the banner names the intended user before opening private information or making a change.

Exit View As Mode

1. Find the amber banner at the top of the page.
2. Select Exit View As Mode.
3. Wait while Pulse restores your original identity, company, branch access, and cached data.

Pulse returns you to the office dashboard with your normal access. Use the banner action instead of closing the browser so the session receives a recorded end time.

If Pulse cannot safely restore an older session, it asks you to sign in again. This protects against restoring an identity from incomplete legacy session data.

Review Recent Sessions

Administrators with the View Sessions permission can monitor View As activity:

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Administration.
3. Open Impersonation Sessions.
4. Use refresh to load the latest activity.

The page shows active sessions and sessions started within the last 24 hours.

Column	What it shows
Impersonator	The staff member who started View As
Viewing as	The account being viewed
Started	When the session began
Ended	When the session ended, if applicable
Reason	The explanation entered when the session started
Status	Active or Ended
Actions	Terminate for an active session

A session is considered active when it has no recorded end and started less than one hour ago. Use refresh before responding to a security concern so you are looking at the newest state.

Terminate an Active Session

Use termination when another staff member cannot exit, left a session open, or no longer has a business reason to continue.

1. Open Settings > Administration > Impersonation Sessions.
2. Locate the active session.
3. Verify both the Impersonator and Viewing as names.
4. Select Terminate.
5. Review the warning and select Terminate again.

Termination revokes the View As refresh-token chain and records the session end. It does not sign the viewed user out of their own normal sessions.

An access token already issued to the View As browser can remain valid for up to 15 minutes. Termination prevents it from renewing. If you are handling a security incident, continue monitoring and follow your company's incident process during that remaining window.

Tips and Best Practices

• Make the reason specific and useful — Pulse requires one, but a vague entry still tells a future auditor nothing. Include a support ticket number or a short description.
• Verify the user's name, email, role, company, and branch before starting.
• Ask for appropriate approval before opening private customer, payroll, or payment information.
• Do not send messages, save records, or change settings unless the support task requires it.
• Never share screenshots containing private or regulated information.
• Exit immediately after testing.
• Review active sessions during security investigations and terminate sessions without a current business purpose.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to do
View as User is missing	Ask an administrator to confirm the feature is enabled and your role has List and Start permissions.
The expected user is not listed	Clear the filters. The user may be at the same or a higher role level, outside the current company or accessible branches, or missing a linked account.
Typing a customer's name shows no results	The Customers tab requires at least 2 characters before it searches. Type more of the name or try their email instead.
"Showing the first 100 matches" note appears	Your search matched more customers than the picker displays. Narrow the search (for example, add more of the name or use the email) until the customer you want appears.
View as Customer is missing or grayed out (profile or Contacts grid)	Confirm the customer has a portal login and is eligible under your access level.
View as Technician is missing	Confirm the technician has a linked user account and is eligible under your access level.
Cannot start a session because Reason is blank	A reason is required on every entry point. Enter a short description before selecting View as name.
Pulse reports an active session already exists	Return to the active session and select Exit View As Mode before starting another.
The banner shows the wrong user	Select Exit View As Mode immediately, then start again after verifying the selection.
Exit Failed appears	Retry once. If the session has already ended or cannot be restored, sign in again.
Permission required appears on the sessions page	You may be allowed to start View As but lack the separate View Sessions permission.
A terminated browser still has access	Its current access token can remain valid for up to 15 minutes. It cannot refresh the terminated View As session.
An older session is missing	The page shows active sessions and sessions from the last 24 hours. Use the audit process for older history.

View As won't start: the account is locked or View As is unavailable

What you see	What to do
"This user's account is locked or deactivated" appears	The person's login is locked, or they were terminated. View As can't start for a locked account. Unlock the account or reactivate the employee first, if that is appropriate.
"View As is temporarily unavailable" appears	Pulse couldn't confirm that no other View As session is starting for you. Wait a minute and try again.

Related Articles

• User Management — Review user accounts and sign-in access
• Roles & Permissions — Understand role-based access
• Audit Log — Review recorded changes and activity
• Contact Detail Workspace — Work with customer records and portal access
• Technician Profile Workspace — Manage technician profiles and portal tools