Summary: Group mapping automates how users are distributed across your organization's structure (business units and departments) and topic-based groups, such as HR News, Operations News, New Hires, or Management Team. Groups can be public, restricted, private, or secret, and can only be created by users with the right permissions. This guide explains how to create rules that place users into the correct Business Units, Departments, and Groups based on their HR data.
1. Overview of group mapping
The Group mapping dashboard gives you a central view of all active rules in your sync configuration. It shows the target group, the logic (expression) used to select users, the assigned roles, and the total number of users currently affected by each rule.
- Group hierarchy: toggle the Group rules by parent switch to organize your rules by your organizational structure (for example, all local departments nested under their parent Business Unit).
- Mass management: from this dashboard you can delete all rules, export your current mapping to a CSV file, or import new rules from an external CSV for bulk updates.
2. Creating a new group mapping rule
Setting up a rule follows a structured five-step process so you can check accuracy before anything goes live.
Step 1: Select target group. Choose the target group from your network. You can search through all public and private groups. The system hides already assigned groups to help you stay organized.
Step 2: Configure mapping rules. Decide which users should belong to the selected group:
- All users: automatically adds every person in your HR file to this group (useful for company-wide groups).
- Specific rules: use the Expression editor to build a set of logical rules. You can filter by attributes like Department, Division, External ID, or Job Title. As you build a rule, the editor shows a real-time preview of exactly which users match your criteria. For more on expressions, see Guide to Custom expressions in User Sync.
Step 3: Define roles. Define the permission level users will have within this specific group:
- Member: users with this role have standard access.
- Admin: users with this role are granted administrative rights over the group.
- Conditional roles: you can create logic to only assign the Admin role to specific users within that group (for example: "If job title is 'Store Manager', set as group admin").
Good to know: role mapping is the preferred mechanism for assigning permissions in Business Units, Departments, and Groups. See Understanding Role mapping and its options in User Sync.
Step 4: Mandatory status. Determine how much control users have over their membership:
- Yes (Locked): the user is placed in the group and cannot leave it manually.
- No (Unlocked): the user is added automatically but can leave the group if they choose.
- Conditional rules: you can create logic so that specific users within the group cannot leave (for example: "If job title is 'Store Manager', set as mandatory").
Step 5: Review. The final stage shows a side-by-side comparison of the Updated rule versus the Original rule. This lets you audit the impact of your changes on individual users before saving.
3. Advanced mapping expressions
Speakap's expression engine supports complex "and/or" logic for nuanced organizational requirements. For example, a single rule can target multiple departments at once:
department == "Customer Success Team" or department == "Tech Support Team"
This keeps cross-functional groups populated even as your internal department names evolve. For more on expressions, see Guide to Custom expressions in User Sync.
4. Unmapped users alert
At the top of the Group mapping dashboard, Speakap shows a notification if there are unmapped users based on your current field selection. Click Configure fields to make sure the sync is looking at the correct HR data points and to minimize the number of users who end up without a group assignment. This matters: depending on your options, unmapped users may be excluded from getting an account in Speakap at all. Correct mapping is also required for targeting the right people with the right content.
Still stuck?
Email us at technicalimplementations@speakap.nl with your network name and the mapping rule you are working on, and we'll help you out.