Roles and permissions

Every member of an organization holds exactly one role, and that role decides what they can see and change. Roles are the same in every organization: you pick one for each person rather than building your own. What each role can do on the Team page shows the live grid.

There are five, from least access to most. Each includes everything the ones below it can do, and everyone, whatever their role, can see the organization and its lines.

Role	What it adds
Viewer	See call history.
Member	Nothing visible yet; see below.
Manager	Manage the directory, edit a line (label, call experience, emergency address, messaging registration), and set up routing and shifts, including simulating a call.
Admin	Edit general details, manage the team and roles, open the billing portal, and read the audit trail.
Owner	Everything an Admin can, plus the standing: only an Owner can make another Owner, and an organization always keeps at least one.

Why Viewer and Member look the same

Member sits above Viewer and is meant to add the inbox, voicemails, and per-line contacts. None of those has shipped, so today a Member can do exactly what a Viewer can.

The role is still worth assigning. When those features arrive they attach to the roles already described here, so anyone you have made a Member picks them up without you revisiting the roster. That is true of the ladder generally: a new capability joins an existing rung rather than adding a new one.

Who can change roles

Changing someone’s role, inviting or adding a member, and removing one all require Admin or Owner. Three rules apply, and each refuses the change rather than half-applying it:

• You cannot assign a role above your own. An Admin can make someone an Admin, but only an Owner can make someone an Owner.
• You cannot change or remove someone who outranks you. An Admin cannot demote an Owner. Both the role the person holds now and the role you are moving them to are checked.
• The organization must always keep at least one Owner. The last Owner cannot be demoted or removed. To step down, make someone else an Owner first.

Every role change is written to the audit trail: who changed whom, from what to what.

When a change takes effect

A role change is not instant for the person it applies to. Access is attached to their session when they sign in and refreshed periodically, so someone signed in at the moment you change their role keeps their previous access for up to about fifteen minutes. If it needs to apply immediately, ask them to sign out and back in.

Invited and suspended members

A person who has been invited but has not yet joined has no access at all until they accept, and does not count as an active user. The same is true of a suspended member: the row stays so you can see them and restore them later, but nothing is granted while they are in that state.