Laravel 5 Calling a class within a controller - php

Question

Pre-info: Laravel 5 is my first framework I've used besides our custom framework that we've created over the years. I'm still wrapping my head around the concepts but its mostly all there. I have page calls, authorization checks, form submission and db queries all working.
The issue: In the past I would create a new class "Access" and I'd call the function desired wherever I'd need to:
$access = Access::getAccessByAccount($accountID);
My hope is to do the same in laravel somehow and be able to call this public function from within a controller.. I just don't know how to call it and where to actually store the function.
Here is a sample of the function I'd like to call:
public function getAccessByAccount($accountID){
//Grab all access rights set to given account ID
$accessList = DB::table('element_access')
->join('element', 'element.id', '=', 'element_access.element_id')
->select('element.name as element', 'element_access.permission as permission')
->where('element_access.account_id', $accountID)
->get();
//Return $access[element] = permission list or false if no access rights are assigned to account ID
if(is_array($accessList)){
$access = array();
foreach($accessList as $item){
$access[$item->element] = $item->permission;
}
return $access;
}else{
return false;
}
}
Here is how I'd like to somehow be able to call it in a controller:
<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers\Portal\Admin;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
class AdminController extends Controller {
public function showAdminDashboard(){
$access = Access::getAccessByAccount(Auth::id());
if($access['admin-dashboard'] == 'r'){
return view('portal.admin.dashboard');
}
}
}
EDITS:
Here is the solution I came up with with the help of the checked solution.
Created new file: app\Library\Access.php
<?php namespace App\Library;
use DB;
class Access{
public function getElementAccessByAccount($accountID){
//Grab all access rights set to given account ID
return DB::table('element_access')
->join('element', 'element.id', '=', 'element_access.element_id')
->select('element.name as element', 'element_access.permission as permission')
->where('element_access.account_id', $accountID)
->get();
}
}
To call the function:
$access = new \App\Library\Access;
$accessList = $access->getElementAccessByAccount(Auth::id());

Answer 1

If I was in your shoes, I would store all classes of custom functionalities to the app/services directory.
Access class
<?php namespace App\Services;
class Access
{
public static function getAccessByAccount($accountID) {
//Grab all access rights set to given account ID
$accessList = \DB::table('element_access')
->join('element', 'element.id', '=', 'element_access.element_id')
->select('element.name as element', 'element_access.permission as permission')
->where('element_access.account_id', $accountID)
->get();
//Return $access[element] = permission list or false if no access rights are assigned to account ID
if (is_array($accessList)) {
$access = array();
foreach($accessList as $item){
$access[$item['element']] = $item['permission'];
}
return $access;
} else{
return false;
}
}
}
Controller
<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers\Portal\Admin;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
class AdminController extends Controller
{
public function showAdminDashboard() {
$access = \App\Services\Access::getAccessByAccount(\Auth::id());
if($access['admin-dashboard'] == 'r') {
return view('portal.admin.dashboard');
}
}
}