Merge Templates & Tracks: Sharing and Permissions

You can control who is able to see, edit and share your merge templates and tracks. Privileges decide who can manage them at all, and a sharing setting on each template and track decides who else can see it, so a principal can lock in an agency-wide standard while an agent builds and keeps their own.

This article covers the privileges, the sharing options, how to publish agency-wide defaults, and why Rex sometimes stops you narrowing a template's sharing.

Who Can See and Edit Merge Templates and Tracks?

Two things work together:

Privileges decide whether a user can create and manage merge templates and tracks at all. These are set by an administrator and apply across the account.
The sharing setting on each individual template or track decides who else can see that particular item.

A user needs the privilege first. Sharing then controls what they see within it.

The Privileges Explained

There are two separate privilege sets, and they work independently of each other:

Merge Templates - controls who can manage email, SMS and letter merge templates
Track Templates - controls who can manage tracks

Each has the same pair of options:

Privilege	What the user can do
Manage Own	Create and manage their own merge templates or tracks
Manage All	See and manage every merge template or track across the agency

⚠️ Please Note: Selecting Manage All automatically selects Manage Own as well. You cannot grant one without the other, so expect to see both ticked on any user who has Manage All.

Because the two sets are independent, you can let someone build tracks without letting them change merge templates, or the other way around. A user who can manage tracks but not templates can still attach an existing template to a track reminder.

What Can Someone Do With No Privileges?

Neither privilege granted does not mean the user is locked out. They can still:

View existing merge templates and tracks
Apply a track to a contact, listing or property record
Use an existing merge template to send an email, SMS or letter

What they cannot do is create, edit, archive or delete them. Archive, delete and library options are hidden rather than shown and disabled.

This is the default state, so a new user has view and apply access until you grant them something more.

How Do I Grant These Privileges? 🔒

Merge Templates and Track Templates privileges are granted the same way as any other advanced privilege in Rex, by adding them to a privilege set and applying that set to the relevant users.

For the full process, see:

Admin, Settings & Other Lists: Privileges: Advanced Privileges Mode for turning on and working with advanced privileges
Admin, Settings & Other Lists: Privileges: Creating Privilege Sets for building a set and applying it to users
Admin, Settings & Other Lists: Privileges: Advanced Privileges List for the complete list of available privileges

As a rough guide, give Manage Own to agents who should build their own templates and follow-up plans, and Manage All to principals and office admins responsible for maintaining the agency's standards.

How Do I Choose Who a Template or Track Is Shared With?

Every merge template and track carries a Share with setting. You set it when creating the item, and you can change it later by editing it.

The options are:

Myself (private) - only you can see it. Use this for drafts and for anything you do not want other agents editing or copying.
My Team - visible to the users in your permission group.
Specific User Groups - visible to the user groups you nominate.
Everyone - visible across the agency. This is applied automatically when a template is published to a library.

If you want your own version of a template or track that somebody else owns, duplicate it and edit the copy rather than changing the original. See Admin, Settings & Other Lists: Merge Templates: Creating and Editing Templates and Admin, Settings & Other Lists: Tracks: Creating and Editing Tracks.

Which Sharing Options Can I Use?

The options available to you depend on your privilege:

Your privilege	Share with options available
Manage Own	Myself (private), My Team
Manage All	Myself (private), My Team, Specific User Groups

⚠️ Please Note: Everyone is not chosen from this list. It is applied automatically when a template or track is published to a library from the parent account.

You will see a template or track when it is shared with Everyone, shared with your permission group, shared with a user group you belong to, or it is your own. Holding Manage All means you see everything across the agency regardless of its sharing setting.

How Do I Publish an Agency-Wide Template or Track? 🔒

Agencies running more than one Rex account can push a standard template or track out to every account from the parent account.

From System Template Management in the parent account, add the template or track to a library.
Rex checks for accounts and tracks already using it, and shows a warning listing what it found. Read this before confirming.
Confirm. Rex automatically sets the item's sharing to Everyone, so it flows through to child accounts.

⚠️ Please Note: Once a template is in a library its sharing cannot be narrowed while it remains there. Remove it from the library first if you need to restrict it.

For more on how libraries work across multiple accounts, see Admin, Settings & Other Lists: Template Libraries.

Why Can't I Change the Sharing on This Template? ⚠️

Widening a template's audience is always allowed. Narrowing it is sometimes blocked, and this is deliberate rather than a fault.

Always allowed: Myself to My Team, Myself to Everyone, My Team to Everyone, and any other change that lets more people see the item.
Blocked with a validation message: My Team to Myself, Everyone to My Team, Everyone to Myself, and any other change that lets fewer people see it, when either of the following is true.

Rex blocks the change when:

A track still depends on the template. Restricting it would break the track for everyone using it.
The template is part of a library.

The change is stopped rather than quietly applied, so nothing breaks underneath someone else. To narrow the sharing, first remove the template from the track that depends on it, or remove it from the library, then change the sharing.

How Do I See How a Template Is Shared?

Each merge template and track shows a Shared with label, so you can tell at a glance how it is shared without opening it.

The templates and tracks table also has a Shared with filter, which is the quickest way to audit your setup, for example to find everything still set to Myself that should be shared with the team.

If you open a template you do not have permission to edit, a banner appears telling you so.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I create or edit a merge template?
The most likely reason is that you have neither Merge Templates privilege. Without one you can use existing templates but not manage them. Ask your account administrator to review your privileges.

Why can't I see a template a colleague built?
It is probably shared with Myself, or with a permission group or user group you are not in. Ask them to widen the sharing, or duplicate a version of your own.

I am trying to make a template private and Rex won't let me. Why?
A track still depends on it, or it is part of a library. Remove it from the track or the library first. See Why Can't I Change the Sharing on This Template? above.

Why is Manage Own ticked when I only selected Manage All?
This is intended. Manage All includes Manage Own and selects it automatically.

Can someone manage tracks but not merge templates?
Yes. The two privilege sets are independent, so you can grant one without the other.

Can I share a template with just one other person?
No. Sharing works at the level of yourself, your permission group, nominated user groups, or everyone. There is no per-user, per-office or per-branch sharing.

Do these privileges control who can send a merge?
No. They control who can create and edit templates and tracks. Whether a user can see merges other people have sent is a separate privilege. See Emails, SMS & Letters: Merge Permissions.

Someone left the agency. What happens to templates shared with Myself?
A user with Manage All can see and manage every template and track across the agency, including private ones, so they can be reassigned or reshared.

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