Help centre / People & access / Roles: who can see and do what
Roles: who can see and do what
Everyone in your workspace has a role that decides what they can see and do. Trustees approve and vote, advisors help but never approve, volunteers see only their own tasks, and administrators look after users and settings. Capabilities add one extra job on top.
What is a role?
Everyone who signs in to your workspace has a role. The role decides which pages they can open and which buttons they can press. An administrator sets it when they add the person, and can change it at any time on the Users & roles page (under Admin & settings).
Looking is always safe. Opening a page never changes anything.
The roles in plain words
- Administrator looks after the workspace itself. They add and remove users, change settings and connect other services.
- Trustee (Director) has full governance access. Only trustees and administrators can approve things, like approving a set of minutes or adopting a policy. Binding votes are theirs too.
- Advisor is for an accountant, independent examiner or consultant. They can view and draft almost everything, but they can never approve anything. See Give an advisor limited access.
- Council President and Council Member suit charities with a wider council or management group. Council members can raise items and join discussions. They only vote where the board has delegated that decision.
- Volunteer sees the projects and tasks they're assigned to, plus meetings that are meant for them, and nothing else.
A worked example
At Meadowbank Community Trust, the seven board members are all Trustee (Director). The chair is also an Administrator, so she can add new users. Their bookkeeper is an Advisor. The person who runs the summer fair is a Volunteer, so he sees his fair tasks and nothing about money or safeguarding.
What if someone needs one extra job?
Sometimes a person needs one more power without a bigger role. For that, an administrator can grant a capability on the Users & roles page. A capability adds a small, named job on top of a role:
- Fundraising: add supporters, record donations and log Gift Aid.
- Treasurer: maintain the funds register and the income mapping, and export finance data.
- Minutes secretary: draft and edit meeting minutes.
- Impact reporter: record impact measures and the evidence behind them.
A capability never includes approving. Formally approving minutes or adopting a policy always stays a trustee's act.
Can I lock myself out?
No. You can't remove your own administrator role, and you can't disable your own account. We record every role change in the audit history, so you can always see who changed what, and when.
The governance behind this: our free guide on charitycontrol.org explains the why in plain English.