How do I create custom roles or tweak permissions?

Edit what each role can do, build up to five custom roles, and override permissions for an individual staff member.

You change what roles can do on Settings → Roles and permissions, and fine-tune a single person from their staff record.

Available on Plus plan and above — on Free the page shows a locked notice instead. Only Owners and Admins can view or edit role permissions; deleting a custom role asks you to confirm your password.

Edit a built-in role

• Open Settings → Roles and permissions. The list on the left is your 22 permission areas — Bookings, Walk-ins, Customers and so on — each showing which roles can reach it. The first entry, Which roles your team uses, lists the roles themselves; Owner is marked Full access and can't be edited.
• Click the area you want (for example Bookings). It opens as one table: a row per permission, a column per role. Tick or untick the box where the permission and the role meet. Related boxes adjust themselves automatically — for example, granting an "edit" permission also grants the matching "view".
• Permissions your plan and products don't include aren't listed — a line under the table counts them, for example "2 more with Pro", with See plans. Any ticks already saved on them are kept, so they come back as they were when you add the plan or product.
• Click Save changes in the bar at the bottom of the page. You'll be asked to confirm your identity, once per role you changed. The confirmation reads: "Saved. Staff who are signed in will see changes after they refresh."

Use Preview as beside any role, in Which roles your team uses, to open the timeline exactly as that role would see it — a quick sanity check before you save. The same section's What each role reaches panel lists the areas each role can open, and the ones it never sees.

Create a custom role

• In Which roles your team uses, click Add custom role. Give it a name, then choose its Starting permissions — the Host role's everyday permissions are ticked to begin with, so untick what it shouldn't do and tick anything else. Permissions your plan and products don't include aren't listed; a line under each area counts them, for example "2 more with Pro". Click Create role. You can have up to 5 custom roles.
• To fine-tune it later, open an area and tick or untick the new role's column, then Save changes.
• Rename and Delete sit beside each custom role. Deleting warns you: staff still holding that role lose all permissions until you move them to another role.

Override one person

• Go to Staff, click the staff member's name, then click Open profile. Their profile opens on the Permissions tab: what they can do, in plain sentences, and each change made just for them as a chip. The "See what … sees" button beside Change role shows the menu their permissions open on the staff portal — every page, open or hidden, with any changes you haven't saved yet included.
• Switch the everyday jobs on or off under "Change what … can do" — or pick Single permissions to change one permission at a time. A switch changed from the role is marked "just for" them. Anything your plan doesn't include isn't listed at all — a quiet line under the job or the area says how many more a higher plan would bring, and which plan brings the first of them (for example, 4 more with Complete).
• Click Save changes in the bar that appears (Discard puts everything back). The chip's ✕ takes one change away again straight away, with no password.

You can do the same while editing someone: click Edit, go to the Role step, switch on Change single permissions for them, then click Save changes on the review. Changing their role there keeps the changes made just for them.

You can't override your own permissions or the Owner's, and a few rows are marked "Owner only" — Plan & Billing, Edit security, and the Roles and permissions editor rows can never be granted to other roles or through an override (security policy and roles stay with the owner; the built-in Admin role keeps its standard access). Changing overrides needs the "Override per-staff permissions" permission (Owners and Admins by default).

Related: What can each role do? · How do I add a staff member? · Why can't my staff see a page or button?