# Roles and permissions: what each person can see and do

> Each person's access level (Owner, Admin, Office, Estimator, Crew lead or Field crew) decides which clients, jobs and money they reach, and their role can switch areas off within it. What each level sees and does, the starter roles, and how to make and change roles.

Everyone on your team has a role, and every role is built on an access level. The access level decides which clients, jobs and money someone can reach at all. The role then switches areas on or off within that level, like **Invoices and payments** or **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)**. The database enforces both, not just the screens, so a role holds everywhere, in Claude and ChatGPT too.

To invite someone and give them a role, see [Invite your team and set roles](https://crewtavo.com/docs/getting-started/invite-your-team/). This page is the full reference.

## The access levels

There are six levels for your team. **Settings → Roles** lists them under **Built-in roles**, with what each one reaches:

| Access level | What Crewtavo says it reaches |
| --- | --- |
| **Owner** | "Everything, including billing and ownership" |
| **Admin** | "Everything" |
| **Office** | "All clients, jobs and money" |
| **Estimator** | "Clients, requests, quotes and the schedule. No invoices" |
| **Crew lead** | "Schedules and staffs their own crew, sees its time. Sees the whole schedule. No prices" |
| **Field crew** | "Only their own visits and time. No prices" |

A few things only an owner can do:

- Make someone else an owner, or change another owner's role or remove their access.
- Make a password reset link for an admin. (Nobody can make one for an owner: owners reset their own.)
- Download everything under **Settings → Your data**.
- Keep a key file for getting back in. See [Sign in, reset a password and get back in](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/sign-in/#the-owners-key-file).

An owner always has every area, and no role can take one away. Admins can be limited by their role.

There's a seventh level, **Subcontractor**, for the businesses you hire. You don't give it out here: a sub gets it with a sign-in from their page under **Subcontractors**, and sees only their own jobs, their price on each and their paperwork. See [Work with subcontractors](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/subcontractors/#give-a-sub-their-own-sign-in).

## The areas a role can include

These are the 15 areas (permissions) you switch on or off for a role, with the levels that can have each one. A role can only include areas its level allows.

| Area | What it opens | Levels that can have it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Quotes and sales** | Making and sending quotes, adding and changing requests and jobs, **Packages**, and seeing what a job is worth | Admin, Office, Estimator |
| **Invoices and payments** | **Invoices**, payments, Stripe deposits, refunds, the invoices on a job or client, and autopay: inviting clients, **Approve charge** and **Charge card**. Owners and admins with it also get **Settings → Payments**. Without it, invoices are hidden completely. | Admin, Office |
| **Job costs and profit** | A job's costs, expenses and profit, **Timesheets → Pay**, pay rates and piece rates, equipment costs, and labor cost in **Metrics** | Admin, Office |
| **Finance and metrics** | **Metrics**, and **Finance** (which also needs **Invoices and payments**) | Admin, Office |
| **Marketing** | **Marketing** once [Crewtavo - Marketing](https://crewtavo.com/docs/clients/marketing/) is installed (campaigns, reviews, referrals, social posts and promo codes), and **Website** if you edit your site from Crewtavo | Admin, Office |
| **Automations** | **Settings → Automations** and **Settings → Client notifications**. Owners and admins need it, with **Marketing**, to change automated campaigns and when clients are asked for reviews and referrals. | Admin, Office |
| **Schedule the whole team** | Booking, moving and assigning visits for every crew | Admin, Office, Estimator, Crew lead |
| **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)** | Approving time. Office staff approve everyone's, a crew lead their crew's. | Admin, Office, Crew lead |
| **Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms** | Changing the price list, **Weather rules**, **Document style**, **Contract terms**, **Custom fields**, **Online booking**, **Crews** and **Checklists**. Owners and admins with it also get **Settings → Storage**. | Admin, Office |
| **Write and edit guides** | Writing and changing guides in the **Knowledge base** | Admin, Office |
| **Manage people and roles** | **Settings → People** and **Settings → Roles** | Admin |
| **Connect apps** | **Apps**, **Settings → Calendars** and **Settings → Email** | Admin |
| **Manage equipment and maintenance** | Adding and changing equipment and its maintenance schedules | Admin, Office, Estimator, Crew lead |
| **Subcontractors, their paperwork and pay** | **Subcontractors** | Admin, Office |
| **Job applicants and hiring** | **Applicants**, once [Careers](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/careers/) is installed | Admin, Office |

Someone given an access level directly (under **Built-in** in the role picker) has every area that level allows. A **Field crew** role has no areas: "This level sees only their own visits and time."

Some areas only control changing things. Without **Quotes and sales**, someone at the Office or Estimator level can still open quotes but not change them. Without **Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms**, they can still see the price list and checklists.

## The starter roles

Every business starts with five roles. Change them, delete them or make your own.

| Starter role | Access level | Areas it starts with |
| --- | --- | --- |
| General manager | Admin | Every area except **Connect apps** |
| Office manager | Office | Every area Office can have |
| Operations manager | Office | **Quotes and sales**, **Job costs and profit**, **Finance and metrics**, **Schedule the whole team**, **Approve timesheets**, **Write and edit guides**, **Manage equipment and maintenance**, **Subcontractors, their paperwork and pay** |
| Foreman | Crew lead | Only **Manage equipment and maintenance** |
| Employee | Field crew | None |

What that means day to day:

- A **General manager** can't open **Apps** or **Settings → Calendars** until you switch on **Connect apps** for the role.
- An **Operations manager** doesn't see **Invoices**, **Finance**, **Marketing**, **Automations** or **Applicants**, and can't change the price list, crews or checklists.
- A **Foreman** schedules and staffs their own crew's visits and sees their crew's time, but can't move another crew's visits, and **can't approve time** out of the box. To let foremen approve their crew's time, edit the role and switch on **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)**.
- An **Employee** sees only the visits they're on.

## What each level sees in the sidebar

With every area its level allows:

| Sidebar | Owner, Admin | Office | Estimator | Crew lead | Field crew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Home** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **My day** | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| **Schedule** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Their own visits |
| **Team chat** (once installed) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Clients** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only theirs |
| **Requests** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only theirs |
| **Quotes** | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **Jobs** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only theirs |
| **Invoices** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Drive** (once installed) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **Marketing** (once installed), **Website** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Finance**, **Metrics** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Timesheets** | Everyone's | Everyone's | Their own | Theirs and their crew's | Their own |
| **Applicants** (with Careers) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Subcontractors** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Equipment** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Knowledge base** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Apps** | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| **Settings** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

Once the Paving or Roofing app is installed, the business also has **Paving** or **Roofing**, for owners, admins, office staff and estimators with **Quotes and sales**. On a phone, everyone gets **My day** in the bar at the bottom. See [Find your way around](https://crewtavo.com/docs/getting-started/home-screen/).

## Which Settings tabs each level gets

| Settings tab | Owner | Admin | Office | Estimator | Crew lead, Field crew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Profile**, **AI assistants**, **Terms and license** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Company**, **Schedule and routes**, **Maps**, **Web address**, **Hosting** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Payments** (autopay) | Yes | With **Invoices and payments** | No | No | No |
| **Storage** | Yes | With **Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms** | No | No | No |
| **Price list** | Yes | Yes | Yes | See only | No |
| **Packages** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| **Weather rules**, **Document style**, **Contract terms**, **Custom fields**, **Online booking**, **Crews**, **Checklists** | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **People**, **Roles** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Email**, **Calendars** | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Automations**, **Client notifications** | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **Your data** | Yes | No | No | No | No |

**Web address** and **Hosting** only show on a Crewtavo you run for your own business (Hosting only on Railway). A tab that needs an area disappears when the person's role switches it off.

## What each level can do

Owners can do everything. For the others, with every area their level allows:

| | Admin, Office | Estimator | Crew lead | Field crew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Clients and properties** | See all, add and change | See all, add and change | See all, can't change | Only the clients they have visits for |
| **Requests** | See all, add, book assessments | See all, add, book assessments | See all, can't change | Only ones they have a visit for |
| **Quotes (estimates)** | Make and send | Make and send | No | No |
| **Jobs** | See all, add and change, with prices | See all, add and change, with prices | See all, the work but no prices | Only the jobs they have a visit on, no prices |
| **Job costs and profit** | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Schedule** | Book, move and assign anyone | Book, move and assign anyone | See it all; book, move and staff their own crew's visits | See their visits, start and finish them, add notes; can't move them |
| **Invoices, payments and autopay** | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Drive** (once installed) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **Timesheets** | See and approve everyone's; pay | Their own | Their crew's; approve their crew's, not their own | Their own |
| **Equipment** | Add, change, log | Add, change, log | Add, change, log | See it, log hours, miles, service and repairs |
| **Price list** | Change | See only | No | No |
| **Marketing**, **Automations** | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Finance and Metrics** (reports) | Yes | No | No | No |
| **Knowledge base** | Read and write guides | Read | Read | Read |
| **People and roles** | Admin only | No | No | No |
| **Apps** | Admin only | No | No | No |

A crew lead's own crew means the crews they're on, set in **Settings → Crews**. With **Schedule the whole team** switched on, a crew lead schedules every crew, the way an office does. See [Set up crews and checklists](https://crewtavo.com/docs/jobs/crews-and-checklists/) and [Run the schedule day to day](https://crewtavo.com/docs/jobs/run-the-schedule/).

Gate codes and access instructions on a property show to owners, admins and office staff at all times. Anyone else sees them only while they're on an unfinished visit there, today or tomorrow.

Calendars added from Google, Outlook and others show on the schedule for everyone except field crew.

## Drive and the Trash

**Drive** is for owners, admins, office staff and estimators, once an owner or admin with **Connect apps** installs [Crewtavo - Drive](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/drive/). No area switches it on or off within those levels. Crew leads and field crew don't get Drive.

The [Trash](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/drive/#the-trash) keeps every file deleted anywhere in Crewtavo for 30 days, whether or not Drive is installed, and everyone on the team can open it (search for "Trash"). What each person sees there goes by who could see the file before:

- Owners, admins, office staff and estimators see Drive's files and folders, and the photos and other files deleted elsewhere.
- Receipts show to people with **Job costs and profit**, subs' paperwork to the office with **Subcontractors, their paperwork and pay**, and résumés to the office with **Job applicants and hiring**.
- Anyone else sees only what they deleted themselves.
- Only owners can **Delete forever** or **Empty Trash**. Everything else is deleted for good after its 30 days.

## Marketing

- **Marketing** is for owners, admins and office staff with the **Marketing** area, once an owner or admin with **Connect apps** installs [Crewtavo - Marketing](https://crewtavo.com/docs/clients/marketing/). They send campaigns, ask for reviews and referrals, reply to Google reviews, post to social media and make promo codes.
- Changing automated campaigns, and when clients are asked for reviews and referrals, also takes **Automations**, and only owners and admins can. Only owners and admins change your review link and the referral credit and offer.
- Anyone who makes quotes (owners, admins, office staff and estimators) can ask one client for a review or referrals from the client's or the job's menu, like **Ask for a review by email**, without the **Marketing** area.
- Connecting [Google Business Profile](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/google-business-profile/) and [Facebook & Instagram](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/facebook-and-instagram/) takes **Connect apps**, like any app.

## Autopay

- Owners, admins and office staff with **Invoices and payments** invite clients to [autopay](https://crewtavo.com/docs/billing/autopay/), pause it, take a saved card off, choose **Approve charge** on a charge that waits for an OK, use **Charge card** and make refunds.
- **Settings → Payments**, where autopay's terms, timing and limit are set, is for owners, and admins with **Invoices and payments**.
- Only an owner can record that clients whose cards came in from Stripe already agreed to be charged (**These clients agreed to be charged automatically**).
- A charge for work an AI assistant marked done always waits for the office's OK. See [Connect Claude and ChatGPT](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/claude-and-chatgpt/#autopay-waits-for-your-ok).

## Storage

- **Settings → Storage**, which shows how much room your photos and files take, who's using it and your business's limit, is for owners, and admins with **Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms**. See [Manage storage space](https://crewtavo.com/docs/hosting/storage/).
- Only owners give one person, or everyone with a role, a storage limit of their own: with **Storage limit** under the person in **Settings → People**, or on a role in **Settings → Roles** (**Storage limit for everyone with this role**). A person's own limit comes before their role's. Owners are never limited.
- Owners and admins get a notice when storage reaches 80% and 95% of the limit.
- Crews always finish the job: visit and quote photos, receipts and subs' paperwork are never turned away, whatever the limits.

## Giving admin access asks for your password

Admin access is the **Owner** level, or the **Admin** level with any of **Connect apps**, **Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms** or **Manage people and roles**: what it takes to change Stripe, your business's email or who's on the team. Crewtavo asks for **Your Crewtavo password** whenever you:

- invite someone with admin access, or resend their invite;
- change someone's role to one with admin access ("This gives Sam admin access, including payments, email and who's on the team.");
- save a role that didn't have admin access and now does;
- make a password reset link for someone with admin access.

Every owner hears about it, in Crewtavo and by email. Signed in with Google or a link and have no password yet? Set one under **Settings → Profile** first, within 10 minutes of signing in. See [Change your password](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/sign-in/#change-your-password). An AI assistant can't give anyone admin access.

## Make a role

Owners, and admins whose role has **Manage people and roles**, set up roles.

1. Open **Settings → Roles** and choose **New role**.
2. Type a **Name**, like "Salesperson".
3. Pick the **Access level**: **Admin**, **Office**, **Estimator**, **Crew lead** or **Field crew**. The line under it says what that level reaches. A role can't be an owner or a sub.
4. Under **Can use**, switch on the areas this role gets. A new role starts with everything its level allows, and picking another level starts again from that level's areas.
5. Choose **Create role**.

Each role shows as a card with its level, how many people have it and its areas, or "Their own work only" when it has none.

## Change or delete a role

To change one, choose the pencil on its card, change it, then choose **Save role**. It changes for everyone who has the role. If you pick another access level, the areas that still apply stay on, and everyone with the role moves to the new level.

To delete one, choose the bin on its card, then **Delete role**. If people have it, Crewtavo says so: "2 people have this role. They keep Crew lead access."

:::caution
People whose role you delete keep its access level with **every** area that level allows. For example, deleting **Foreman** leaves its people as a built-in **Crew lead**, who can schedule every crew and approve their crew's time. Give them another role first if that's more than you want.
:::

## Change someone's role

1. Open **Settings → People**.
2. In the **Role** column, pick their new role. Your own roles are under **Your roles**, and the access levels on their own under **Built-in**.

Crewtavo says "Role changed". A few limits:

- You can't change your own role.
- Only an owner can make someone an owner, or change an owner's role.
- To change the role of someone whose access you removed, choose **Restore** first.

## Why can't someone see or do something?

- **"You don't have access to this"** means the screen isn't part of their role. "Ask an admin if you need it."
- **No New job or New request button:** their role doesn't have **Quotes and sales**.
- **Can't move a visit:** without **Schedule the whole team**, a crew lead can only move their own crew's visits, and office staff and estimators can't move any.
- **Can't approve time:** their role needs **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)**. Nobody approves their own time as a crew lead.
- **Price list is greyed out:** they can see it but not change it. That needs **Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms**, which estimators can't have.
- **No prices on a job:** crew leads and field crew never see prices, invoices or pay rates.
- **No Drive or Marketing in the sidebar:** it isn't installed yet (an owner or admin installs it from **Apps**), or their level doesn't get it. Marketing also needs the **Marketing** area.

Claude and ChatGPT never get more than the person who connected them. See [Connect Claude and ChatGPT](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/claude-and-chatgpt/). Team chat channels go by role too: see [who sees what in Team chat](https://crewtavo.com/docs/connections/team-chat/#who-sees-what).

Source: https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/roles-and-permissions/ (last updated 2026-11-04)