---
title: Roles and permissions explained
slug: roles-and-permissions-explained
category: Team Management
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/roles-and-permissions-explained
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-09-10
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Roles and permissions explained
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Roles & Permissions**, and **Team Members** for individuals.

Three things stack, and knowing which one to reach for saves a lot of clicking.

## 1. The role

The broad category a person belongs to: **owner**, **manager**, or **staff**. This sets the overall shape of what they see.

Some things are owner-only whatever else you do — Billing, Business Profile, Payment Settings. There is no permission that grants a manager access to your subscription, and that is intentional.

**Co-owners have the same access as the owner.** Only add one for someone who genuinely shares the business.

## 2. The role template

Within a role, a template is a named bundle of permissions you apply to several people. "Front desk", "Groomer", "Bather" — define once, apply to everyone doing that job.

This is where you should spend your effort. Templates mean a new starter is set up correctly in one action, and a change to how a job works applies to everyone doing it.

## 3. The per-person override

An individual adjustment on top of their template, for the genuine exception — the senior groomer who can also process refunds.

Overrides are a trap in quantity. Two or three across a team is fine; a dozen means nobody can predict what anyone can do, and you should be making another template instead.

## What permissions cover

Permissions are granular and grouped by area — clients, pets, appointments, reservations, products, reports, and so on. Within each, viewing, creating, editing and deleting are separate.

Some worth knowing about specifically:

- **Viewing a client versus viewing their contact details** are separate. Staff can work from a schedule without having every client's phone number.
- **Editing an appointment versus editing its price** are separate. This is usually the right line for front-desk staff.
- **Cancelling, completing and reverting a status** are separate from editing.
- **Deleting is always separate from editing.** Very few people need delete.

## A sensible starting point

- **Staff** — see the schedule, view clients and pets, edit pets, create and edit appointments, take payment. No deleting, no reports, no pricing.
- **Manager** — the above plus reports, refunds, permissions, and staff scheduling.
- **Owner** — everything, including billing.

Start restrictive. Adding a permission when someone asks takes ten seconds, and it tells you what people actually need. Starting permissive and clawing back is a conversation nobody enjoys.

## Changes need a fresh session

Permission changes are picked up when the person's session refreshes. Someone promoted ten minutes ago may still be carrying their old access until they sign out and back in — that is the first thing to check when a change "did not work".

## Who can change what

Only owners and managers can change roles, templates and overrides. Staff cannot alter their own permissions.

If someone reports a missing feature, work through *I can't see a feature other people can* before changing anything — role, permission and plan are three different causes and only one of them lives here.