Managing Team Roles

Roles control what each person on your team can do. LiteWork enforces them on the server — not just by hiding buttons — so a role really is the boundary of what someone can access. Everyone has one organisation role, and there’s also a special role for giving someone access to only certain companies.

The organisation roles

Owner

The person who owns the organisation. Full control, including the things no one else can touch: billing and the subscription, and transferring ownership. There’s exactly one owner, and ownership moves only by transfer — you can’t simply promote someone to Owner.

Admin

Runs day-to-day operations across the whole organisation: create, edit, send and delete documents; manage contacts; set up payments and connect Xero; edit company settings; create companies; and invite, remove, and re-role team members. Admins can do almost everything except billing and ownership, which stay with the Owner.

Member

Does the everyday work: create, edit and send invoices and quotes, manage contacts, and manage your saved products. Members can’t delete documents, change company settings, connect Xero, or manage the team.

Viewer

Read-only access. Viewers can see documents, contacts and sync status but can’t create, edit, or delete anything — a good fit for an accountant or a stakeholder who just needs visibility.

Restricted

Owner, Admin, Member and Viewer all apply across every company in the organisation. A Restricted member is different: they get no access by default and are granted access to specific companies only. Within each company they’re given, they hold a company-level role — Admin, Member, or Viewer — that works just like the org roles above, but only there. Use it when someone should work in one company but not see the rest.

What each role can do

This covers the organisation-wide roles. (A Restricted member’s abilities depend on the company-level role they’re given in each company they can access.)

Capability	Owner	Admin	Member	Viewer
View documents & contacts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create / edit / send documents	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Delete documents	Yes	Yes	No	No
Manage contacts	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Manage saved products	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Tax rates & company settings	Yes	Yes	No	No
Set up payments (Stripe)	Yes	Yes	No	No
Connect / manage Xero	Yes	Yes	No	No
Invite / remove members, change roles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Create companies	Yes	Yes	No	No
Manage billing & subscription	Yes	No	No	No
Transfer ownership	Yes	No	No	No

Changing someone’s role

1. Go to LiteWork Settings → Team.
2. Find the person in the Active Members list.
3. Click the role dropdown next to their name and choose the new role.
4. Confirm. The change takes effect immediately and the person is notified by email.

A few rules apply to who can set what:

• Owner is transfer-only — you assign Admin, Member, Viewer, or Restricted; you can’t promote someone straight to Owner, and the owner’s own role can’t be changed without transferring ownership.
• Admins can’t create other Admins — an Admin can set someone to Member, Viewer, or Restricted, but only the Owner can grant the Admin role.
• You can’t change your own role — another Admin or the Owner has to do it.

Choosing the right role

• Admin — a business partner or office manager who needs to run the team, settings, and integrations.
• Member — someone who creates invoices and quotes and manages contacts as part of their job.
• Viewer — an external accountant or stakeholder who only needs to look.
• Restricted — a contractor or staffer who should work in one company but not see the others.

Related Articles

• Inviting Team Members
• Removing Team Members
• Transferring Ownership
• Understanding Organizations