Roles and permissions explained

Overview#

Everyone in TradesWork has exactly one role in your company. The role decides which menus they see, which buttons appear and what the server lets them change. Roles are fixed sets, so you never have to tick hundreds of boxes: pick the role that matches the job. If someone can't do something, the button is hidden rather than greyed out.

Before you start#

• Only Owners and Admins can invite people and change roles (Settings › People › Employees & Role Permissions).

• Only an Owner can make someone else an Owner, or change or deactivate an Owner.

• A company always needs at least one active Owner.

Steps#

Choose the right role#

1. Open Settings › People › Employees & Role Permissions.

2. Use the list below to choose the role for each person.

3. In the People table, pick the role from the drop-down next to their name and press Save. For new people, choose the role in Invite someone before you press Send invite.

What each role can do#

Owner

• Everything in TradesWork, including billing, settings, every report and every record.

• Only the Owner can reopen a closed accounting month, make or change other Owners, and use Download everything (.zip) to export all company data.

Admin

• Everything an Owner can do, except reopening a closed month, managing Owners and the full data export.

• Typical for an office manager or general manager.

Dispatcher

• Books and edits customers and jobs, runs the dispatch board, assigns and moves appointments, and works the follow-up board.

• Manages board settings, technician skills and hours, zones and work streams, and runs the AI dispatcher (plans need approval to apply).

• Sees the live truck map and route playback, hears call recordings and coaches CSRs on call scorecards.

• Runs the warehouse and purchase orders, warranty desk and refrigerant compliance, and installs.

• Can't change company settings, the price book, invoices or payments.

Customer service (CSR)

• Answers calls and the CSR inbox, books jobs, creates and edits customers, and works the follow-up board.

• Sees the call log, makes calls, sees the truck map, shares portal links and sends review requests.

• Sees only their own graded calls, never teammates'. Can't hear other people's recordings.

Technician

• Works only in the TradesWork Field app; the office web app sends them to the field app.

• Sees only the jobs they're assigned to. Sells estimates, builds and sends invoices, and takes payments on those jobs.

• Clocks in and out, shares location after accepting the monitoring notice, works their own truck stock, logs refrigerant, starts draft warranty claims and sees their own pay.

• Technicians are the seats you pay for. See Technician seats and how billing counts them.

Sales rep (comfort advisor)

• Sells in the home from the Sales view of TradesWork Field (made for iPad, works on a phone). See Sales view in the TradesWork app.

• Sees only the sales appointments and jobs they're assigned to, like a technician. Looks up and adds customers and locations.

• Captures the walkthrough, photos and existing equipment, builds and presents proposals, takes the signature, sells memberships, starts financing applications and records a deposit on their own jobs.

• Works their own follow-up: reminders, notes and resending the proposal link. Sees their own numbers and pay.

• Can sign in to the office site: they see Customers and the price book (read only). No dispatch board, accounting, reports or settings.

• Sales reps don't count as technician seats today.

Sales manager (sales director)

• Everything a Sales rep can do, plus the Team tab in the Sales view: the team's open proposals, a leaderboard (sold, close rate, goal, pipeline, visits today, pay this period) and each rep's day, read only.

• Only works opportunities they own; a rep's own follow-up stays with the rep.

Accounting

• Reads customers, jobs, invoices and reports. Creates invoices, records payments and issues refunds.

• Manages the QuickBooks sync mapping and fix-it queue, job costing, the invoice review queue, payroll export, supplier bills (enter and approve), tax-exempt certificates and service agreement billing.

• Doesn't see the live truck map or dispatch.

Viewer

• Read-only: customers, jobs, price book, invoices, reports, the call log, timesheets, inventory and most dashboards.

• No edit controls are shown anywhere. Good for a bookkeeper who only looks, a business partner or an outside analyst.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › People › Employees & Role Permissions: assign and change roles, deactivate people.

• Settings › Operations › Branches: you can limit some people to their own branches.

• Settings › Dispatch Board › Zones, Move-up & Work Streams: when work streams are enforced, dispatchers see only their stream. Owners and Admins always see the whole board.

• Settings › Integrations › API Application Access: API keys and connected apps get scopes, not roles.

Tips#

• Give the fewest powers someone needs. You can always change a role later; it takes effect on their next page load.

• Use Viewer instead of sharing an Owner sign-in with your accountant or a partner.

• Dispatchers can't edit the price book or invoices on purpose. If your dispatcher also bills, consider Admin.

• Every change is recorded in the audit trail with who made it.

Troubleshooting#

• "You can't change your own role" → nobody can change their own role. → Ask another Owner or Admin.

• "A company needs at least one owner" → you tried to demote or deactivate the last Owner. → Make someone else an Owner first.

• An Admin can't pick Owner in the role list → only Owners can grant the Owner role. → Ask an Owner.

• A technician can't open the office website → that's by design: technicians use the field app. → Give them a different role if they also work in the office.

• Someone can't see a menu → their role doesn't include it, so it's hidden. → Check the list above and change the role if needed.

FAQ#

Can I make a custom role? Not today. TradesWork uses nine fixed roles so permissions stay simple and tested.

Does changing someone to Technician change my bill? Yes. Technicians are billed seats; every other role is free. The seat count updates on its own.

What happens when I deactivate someone? They can't sign in to your company any more. Their history (jobs, notes, payments) stays.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

ServiceTitan lets you build roles from a long list of individual permissions. TradesWork uses fixed roles that match the common ServiceTitan setups: Dispatcher, CSR, Technician, Accounting and a read-only Viewer. Where ServiceTitan had a specific permission (for example creating agreement templates or listening to recordings), TradesWork gives it to the role that usually holds it.