The permission report is quite simple:  It allows a Relate administrator to both view and edit the permissions settings of every component in Relate structure, plus record types and categories.  The record types and categories are shown first, then the components within Relate structure are arranged in the same heirarchy as usual.  However, components which do not allow permission settings are eliminated.  Also forms can be expanded to show fields and record types can be expanded to show their primary form.

The trickiest thing about the permission report is how to get there.  The link is found near the upper right corner of the relate structure page.

Each row of the report shows a single component with all of its permissions in abbreviated form.  There is a column for each security group or user account which has been granted security.  There is a key at the bottom explaining the abbreviations, but they are not complex as they match the first initial of each permission level.  Permission values that are grey indicate inherited permissions and blue indicates explicitly defined permissions.  The security groups are repeated every so often because the report can be very, very lengthy.  Similarly, the link to edit the permissions of each component is found in the second column from the left, instead of the usual right side because the report can become very wide.

Clicking the edit link for a component pops-up a special edit screen where only permission settings may be edited.  When permissions are edited, the permission report refreshes and shows the effect of the edit including permissions inherited from forms to fields.