# Invite your team and set roles

> Invite people from Settings → People, give each one a role and a pay rate, add their photos, and have them turn on phone notifications.

Invite your team from **Settings → People**. Each person gets a role, which decides what they can see and do. The database enforces it, not just the screens, so a role holds everywhere, including in Claude and ChatGPT.

## Invite someone

1. Open **Settings → People** and choose **Invite someone**.
2. Enter their email and choose their role.
3. Choose **Send invite**. They get an email with a link to join.

Crewtavo also offers **Copy invite link**, so you can text the link too, for example when the email lands in spam. Haven't [connected email](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/email/) yet? The invite says **Invite ready** instead of **Invite sent**: copy the link and text it to them.

The link works once and expires after a day. Only send it to that person, since whoever opens it gets into their account.

## See who hasn't joined yet

Until someone sets up their account, **Settings → People** shows **Invite pending** under their name, with when their link went out. If it expired or never arrived, choose **Resend invite**. Crewtavo emails them a new link and offers **Copy invite link** again. Once they've signed in, **Invite pending** goes away.

To take someone off the team, choose **Remove** next to their name, then **Remove access**. They're signed out right away, their visits, time and notes stay on record, and you can restore access later.

## Add photos

A photo makes it easier to tell people apart. It shows wherever their initials did: on the **Schedule**, on visits, in **Timesheets**, in team chat and in **Settings → People**.

- **Your own:** open **Settings → Profile** and choose **Add a photo**. On a phone you can take one with the camera or pick one from your photos.
- **Someone else's** (owners and admins): in **Settings → People**, choose the circle with their initials, then **Add a photo**. Only an owner can change another owner's photo.

To change or take one off, use **Change photo** or **Remove photo** in the same places.

Crewtavo crops each photo to a square around the middle (a little higher for a tall photo), so pick one with the face near the center. Photos are kept with your business's other files and only your team can see them.

## Set pay rates

In **Settings → People**, **Labor cost / hr** is each person's hourly pay. Their approved hours are paid and costed at it, under **Timesheets → Pay** and in each job's costs.

For pay per square, per job or per day, choose **Piece rates** under it. Owners see it, and so do admins whose role has **Job costs and profit**. See [piece pay](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/timesheets-and-pay/#piece-pay).

## Roles

Every business starts with these roles. Rename them, change them, delete them or make your own under **Settings → Roles**.

| Starter role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| General manager | Runs the business day to day. |
| Office manager | Books work, schedules crews, sends quotes and invoices, and approves time. |
| Operations manager | Schedules crews and keeps jobs on track. |
| Foreman | Runs their crew: schedules its visits, assigns its people and sees its time. No prices. |
| Employee | Works their own visits. |

Every role on your team is built on one of six access levels: **Owner**, **Admin**, **Office**, **Estimator**, **Crew lead** and **Field crew**. Only an owner can make someone else an owner.

There's a seventh level, **Subcontractor**, for the businesses you hire. You don't pick it here, and subs aren't listed under **Settings → People**: a sub gets it with a sign-in from their page under **Subcontractors**. It shows them only their own jobs, their price on each and their paperwork. See [Work with subcontractors](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/subcontractors/).

With [Careers](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/careers/) installed, **Applicants** shows only to roles with **Job applicants and hiring**: owners, the **General manager** and the **Office manager** to start with. Field crews never see applications or résumés.

On the **Schedule**, someone with the **Employee** role (field crew) sees only the visits they're on, and the jobs and clients behind them, never prices. A **Foreman** and everyone above sees the whole schedule. To give someone work, put them on a visit: see [who's on each visit](https://crewtavo.com/docs/jobs/schedule-and-routes/#see-whos-on-each-visit).

:::note[A Foreman can't approve time to start with]
The starter **Foreman** role runs their crew and sees its time, but it doesn't include **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)**. To let your foremen approve their crew's hours, open **Settings → Roles**, edit **Foreman** and tick it.
:::

For everything each access level and area allows, including which clients a crew lead or field crew can see, see [What each role can see and do](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/roles-and-permissions/).

## Get notifications on phones

Each person turns on their own notifications under **Settings → Profile**, and chooses what also comes by email or text. Phone notifications are free and need no setup. The full steps, including fixing notifications a phone has blocked, are in [Your profile, notifications and Crewtavo on your phone](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/your-profile-and-phone/).

- **iPhone:** open Crewtavo in Safari, choose **Share → Add to Home Screen**, then open it from the Home Screen and turn notifications on there.
- **Android, or a computer with Chrome or Edge:** choose **Install the app** when the browser offers it.

Crews can keep working with no signal. Their updates go out once Crewtavo is open again with signal. On Android, if the app is closed by then, a notification says how many are waiting.

Source: https://crewtavo.com/docs/getting-started/invite-your-team/ (last updated 2026-10-28)