---
tags:
  - 🏷️topic/💾software/colleague
  - 🚩purpose/ℹ️documentation
---
Colleague Operator accounts (`OPERS` [[Colleague/Files & Tables|file]]) are created using **SOD**. This sets the Colleague login username and allows access to Colleague UI, WebAdvisor, and Colleague Studio. Operator records can exist without an associated [[Colleague/Registry & Resources|Web User]] record.

Security classes in Colleague are attached to `OPERS` records, and this is what determines access to most of Colleague and associated applications. However, interactive access to applications is a separate field, unique to Operator records.

*`OPERS` Equivalents* are dummy Operator accounts that cannot be logged in with. You can specify if an Operator is going to be used like this in **SOD**. They can be assigned security classes and application access like normal Operators.

Operator records (both normal ones and Equivalents) can be used in lieu of security classes, or `OPERS` records on Web Users. Security classes and application access for the Operator are cascaded down to the applied object. This is particularly useful to give access to a Web User without creating an Operator specifically for them. This is how employees and students would access WebAdvisor, by being assigned `WEBSTUDENT`/`WEBSTAFF`/etc. in **DRUS**.