Appraisal Firewall offers lenders the ability to setup their appraisal management process with a hierarchy of users. The users types available in Appraisal Firewall are Administrators, Supervisors, and Originators. These three user types have several rights that can be assigned to them. User types and user rights are described in this training guide.


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User types and rights can be found in the Relationships screen on the Users tab. Only Administrator users have access to Relationships. Please review this guide to learn about how Appraisal Firewall can best serve you.


Administrator Users

Administrator users are the top-level type of user in Appraisal Firewall. In relation to your business, we recommend that administrators are not compensated on the closing of a loan and are salaried. This is for appraisal independence and compliance requirements. They can have any kind of interaction with appraisers per appraisal independence compliance requirements. Administrators are the first user to be setup under a lender company when a new lender is added into the system.


Once added, they can add users in their organization to the system, setup appraiser panels, and add divisions/branches of their organization into Appraisal Firewall. Administrators can setup and oversee just a single division/branch, or multiple divisions setup under your company. Administrators that oversee all divisions are called Global Administrators.


Here is basic information on what an Administrator user can do.

  • Independent of/not commissioned on Loan Production
  • Representative of a Division or Branch/Market Area (Lenders can have multiple Divisions for other products, such as a Residential division, Commercial, Refinance, Equity Lending, etc.)
  • Sets up approved Lender appraisal process, including:
    • Appraiser panels
    • Review and QC (Quality Control) processes
    • UCDP/EAD submission criteria
    • Configurations, settings, features, and system preferences
  • Sets up branches of their organization
    • Managed User lists (supervisors, originators, and reviewers)
    • Payment preferences
  • Place orders and view orders for all users
  • Designate what a user can/cannot do within a Managed User list
  • Can be restricted from modifying any users, appraisers, divisions, and settings as needed
  • For multiple branches, Administrators can be Global (administer processes over all branches) or administer processes over a single branch


Supervisor Users

Supervisor users are a middle-tier type of user in Appraisal Firewall. They usually are compensated on the closing of a loan and therefore are restricted from interacting with appraisers per appraisal independence compliance requirements. Supervisors can message appraisers; they are not able to see any appraiser information. Supervisors cannot perform any setup or configuration duties.


Supervisors can view all orders that have been placed in their division. This enables Supervisors to manage and keep track of the statuses of pending appraisals. These users add another layer of oversight to ensure appraisals are getting completed faster. Supervisors can run management reports on their own orders plus orders on any Originators that are setup under the same division/branch.


Supervisors can be under a single division/branch, or they can be a Supervisor for all divisions under a lender company. Supervisors that see orders for all divisions are called Global Supervisors. 


Here is basic information on what Supervisor users can do.

  • Usually this is a Processor-type of person who shares files with a team
  • Are commissioned on Loan Production
  • Can see all orders for all Originator users (see below)
  • Can initiate appraisal orders within the Administrator's appraiser panel and lender's approved appraisal process
  • Cannot view, add, or edit appraisers
  • Cannot view, add, or edit users


Originator Users

Originator users place orders, manage their own orders, and receive their completed appraisals back from appraisers. They cannot see any appraiser information, can only access orders they have placed, and cannot perform any setup or configuration duties. Originators can run management reports to track and manage their own orders.


Originators can work for a single division/branch, or they can be attached to all divisions setup under a lender company. Originators that are attached to all divisions are called Global Originators. Global Originators can place orders, and track and manage their own orders under all divisions of a lender company. 

Here is basic information on what an Originator can do.

  • Usually this is a Loan Officer or Processor who does not share job duties with a team
  • Are commissioned on Loan Production
  • May be inside the office on the Retail side
  • Can only see orders that they have placed, or those they have been invited to
  • Cannot view, add, or edit appraisers
  • Cannot view, add, or edit user


Read Only Users

Any user in Appraisal Firewall can be a Read-Only user. Administrators have access to this setting. The purpose of a Read-Only user is to allow a user access to Appraisal Firewall to view orders, track statuses, and view completed appraisals without being able to interact with, edit or modify any aspect of the system. Administrators, Supervisors, and Originators can all be made Read-Only.


  • Read-Only Administrators can view all orders, all settings, all appraiser information, and all users setup under their company, but they cannot interact with or edit any aspect of what they can view. They cannot place orders, send messages, add or edit users or appraisers, or modify any settings.
  • Read-Only Supervisors can view all their own orders plus orders placed by any Originator. However, they cannot place new orders, nor interact with any of the orders they can view.
  • Read-Only Originators can view the orders that they have placed or have been invited to. However, they cannot place new orders, or interact with any orders.


Administrators can make a user Read Only from the Relationships screen by viewing the Users tab, expanding the detail on a user, clicking the Edit User button, and checking the Read Only checkbox.



Restricting a User's Access to the Relationships Screen

When you set up other users as Administrators, you have the option to limit their ability to setup users, appraisers, and divisions, and only to oversee appraisal orders as an Administrator would. This is helpful when you have certain Administrators that you want to focus only on appraisal orders and appraisal workflow and to perform no setup duties. These Administrators will be able to see the appraiser information on each order.


To restrict an Administrator's access, you can apply the Restrict Access to Relationships filter either when giving a new Administrator access to the system, or you can modify an existing Administrator. Check the Restrict Access to Relationships checkbox shown here when either setting up a new user or modifying an existing user.



Global Users

Any user in Appraisal Firewall can be made a "global user" by an administrator. A global user can view all orders across all divisions setup under your lender company. Global users help to work through all the work in the divisions of your company as setup in Appraisal Firewall. Note that if you are only a single-division lender, you will not have the option to make users global. Having more than one division makes this setting available to you.


Administrators, Supervisors, and Originators can all be made global users. They will have the same set of rights when they are made a global user, meaning that an Originator will be an Originator across all divisions; a Supervisor will be a Supervisor across all divisions; an Administrator will be an Administrator across all divisions. You can easily view which users are global users and which are not by viewing the Users tab: any global user has a global icon displayed at right, as shown below.



To make a user a global user, expand a user in your list that does not have the globe icon, then move to the Divisions tab, click the Make Global button, then on the Confirm Action screen click the Approve button.



You can also limit a global user's access to divisions by going to the same screen on a global user's Divisions tab and clicking the Limit Divisions button. This will only give them access to the first division they were set up under.



Edit Profile

Use the Edit Profile button to view and edit user contact information such as email address or phone number. For administrator users, you can adjust their notification level to control the kinds of emails they receive. You can reset any user’s password to match their login email address if they forget their password using the ‘Reset back to temporary password’ feature.



Edit Settings

Within the Edit Settings tool you can mark a user as read-only (users can view orders they are assigned to and be notified on order status but cannot send messages or work within the order), change the user type (Administrator, Supervisor, Originator), and modify the features available to them.



To limit the features available to one user, use Edit Settings to remove on order options. Disabling any of the checkboxes on this screen removes the corresponding button from the designated user’s screen within an order. For instance, if the user should not be able to send a message on an order, uncheck the Send Message button and save the change. By default, users have access to all order options.