Your regional manager signs into the panel in the morning and finds not just the 8 branches they’re responsible for, but all 60 locations across the country. Their role is set to “Editor” — but a role alone doesn’t answer the question “which branches?” When an agency manages the locations of dozens of clients, or a franchise headquarters oversees hundreds of branches under one roof, giving everyone access to everywhere is neither safe nor practical.
According to Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 74% of breaches involve the human element — stolen credentials, mistakes, and above all excessive, misconfigured access rights. Sentimaps’ per-location access control feature cuts this risk at the root by granting each team member access only to the locations they’re responsible for. On top of that, you can now connect multiple Google accounts to a single organization, bringing together every branch that lives under a different Google login into one panel.
Why Roles Alone Aren’t Enough
We introduced Sentimaps’ role-based access control (Admin, Editor, Member) previously. A role defines what a person can do: reply to reviews, generate reports, change settings. But in a growing organization there’s a second question: where can they do it? Per-location access adds exactly this second dimension, making it the natural next step for RBAC.
Roles Answer “What,” Locations Answer “Where”
It may be correct for an Editor to reply to reviews. But an Editor responsible for the İzmir region usually shouldn’t be able to reply to a review for a branch in İstanbul. Role permissions alone can’t draw this line; they hand the same permission set to everyone across the entire organization. Location scope lets you keep the role intact while narrowing access down to the relevant branches only.
A Real Need for Agencies and Multi-Branch Brands
This need shows up most clearly in two scenarios. Agencies manage the locations of many independent clients under a single organization; the team member responsible for one client shouldn’t see another client’s data. Franchises and chains want a clear access hierarchy across regional managers, branch leads, and the headquarters team. In both cases, the “one role, all locations” model breaks down fast.
| Scenario | Role-only model | Role + per-location scope |
|---|---|---|
| Regional manager signs in | Sees every location in the organization | Sees only their assigned branches |
| Replies to a review | Can reply anywhere their role allows | Can reply only within their locations |
| Reports and analytics | Org-wide, including other regions | Limited to their locations only |
| A new branch is added | Instantly visible to everyone | Visible only when explicitly granted |
| Risk of acting on the wrong branch | High | Contained by scope |
The last row is the crux: location scope isn’t just a view filter, it’s a security boundary that prevents acting on the wrong branch by accident.
How Per-Location Access Works
Scoping a Member to Specific Locations
On the Settings → Members screen, each team member’s location access appears next to their role: either “All locations” or the number of branches they can reach. To scope a member, open Edit Locations from the row menu. The dialog gives you two options:
- All locations: The member can access every location the organization has today and any added in the future. This is the default behavior for every pre-existing member.
- Specific locations: You limit access to the branches you pick one by one. A scoped member must be assigned at least one location; the selection can’t be left empty.
The change takes effect immediately, and on their next request the member begins to see only their permitted locations.
Sensitive Actions Are Enforced Server-Side
Location scope is not just about hiding things in the interface — that would be a weak protection, easily bypassed. Scope is enforced on the server side, in every service the request passes through:
- Lists are filtered: Lists such as reviews, analyses, business facts, and automation rules are automatically reduced to only the permitted locations for a scoped member.
- Individual actions are verified: If the member tries to reach a location outside their scope, the request is rejected with a 403.
- It fails closed: If a member’s scope can’t be resolved for any reason, the system assumes “no access” rather than leaving the door open when in doubt.
Super-admins, unscoped (all-location) members, and internal service-to-service calls are exempt from this check, so legitimate full access is never filtered by mistake.
Consistent at Every Layer
The authorization decision isn’t made once and forgotten. The API gateway signals downstream services, via a header, that a request comes from a scoped member; the review, location, company, and analysis services each evaluate that signal with their own access guard. So the same rule applies no matter which door you come through. Organization-management actions — such as team and Google connections — additionally require the relevant management permission; an ordinary member can’t change roles or remove integrations.
Connecting Multiple Google Accounts
Why One Google Login Isn’t Enough
The branches of large brands don’t always sit under a single Google Business Profile account. Because of acquired businesses, regional teams, or profiles created at different times, locations can be spread across multiple Google logins. On systems that allow only one connected account, these brands either leave some branches out or have to merge accounts by hand. Sentimaps removes that limitation.
Connecting, the Primary Account, and Importing
From Settings → Integrations, click Connect Google to add as many Google accounts to an organization as you need. Connections belong to the organization, not to a single user; a record is kept of which team member linked it, but access is shared across the team. For each connected account you see:
- Account details: Display name, email, and the date it was connected.
- Location count: How many branches are managed through that connection.
- Primary account: The connection used by default for the organization; you can make another account primary at any time.
- Reconnect warning: If an account’s authorization expires, you’re alerted with a “Needs reconnect” badge.
For each connection you can pull branches in bulk from Google Business Profile with Import Locations. That way, locations under different logins come together side by side in one Sentimaps organization — reviews, analyses, and rank tracking all under the same roof. And when you stop using an account, you can disconnect it with a single click.
What Changes for Agencies and Franchises
Together, the two features untangle the two knots that trip up multi-location operations most often:
- Agency model: Import each client’s portfolio from separate Google accounts, and scope team members to their own clients’ locations only. An account manager neither sees nor replies to another client’s data.
- Regional structure: Scope regional managers to their branches and branch leads to a single location, while the headquarters team sees the whole picture with all-location access.
- Acquisitions and growth: If a new brand or group of branches arrives under a different Google login, you connect that account and assign it to the relevant team — without disrupting the existing setup.
Least privilege is also a compliance matter: regulations like KVKK and GDPR expect access to personal data to be limited to people with a legitimate business need. Granting team members only the locations they need puts that data-minimization principle into practice.
Conclusion: The Right Access, at the Right Branch, for the Right Person
A role tells you what your team can do; location scope tells you where they can do it. Put together, a growing agency or franchise network can scale access without making it either too loose or unmanageable. And with multi-Google-account support, no matter how many different Google logins your branches are spread across, you bring them all into a single panel.
According to Gartner, data-driven businesses achieve 23% higher revenue growth. Making sure that data flows to the right people, only for the branches they’re responsible for, is the most concrete way to grow trust and control at the same time.
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