---
key: choose-a-built-in-role
title: Choose the right built-in role for a team member
audience: staff
section: administration/team-access
routes: ["/settings/org/users", "/settings/org/rbac/roles"]
permissions: ["users.read"]
features: ["settings.org.users"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Choose a built-in role for office or field work, including junior and senior technician choices, and give it to a team member.
keywords: [which role, role for technician, dispatcher role, bookkeeper role, office manager, read only access, accountant login, owner, admin, cashier, store manager]
related: [add-a-team-member, change-a-team-members-roles, create-a-role, check-what-a-user-can-access]
---

In the sidebar, open **Administration**, then choose **Team & Roles** under **Team & Access**. The page address is `/settings/org/users`. You pick roles when you add someone (**Add user**) or later from **Edit roles** on their row.

Every new organization gets the same core roles, named for how a trade business runs. The same one-line description shows beside each role when you pick it.

## Steps

1. Read the list below and find the person's day-to-day work.
2. Add the person with **Add user**, or open **Edit roles** on their row.
3. Turn on the matching role. If someone wears two hats, such as a technician who also does the billing, turn on both roles: a person gets everything any of their roles allows.
4. Press **Add** or **Save roles**.

## The core roles

- **Owner**: the business owner. Can do everything, including billing, the plan and closing the account. Nova support sets up the owner; the role is not offered on **Team & Roles**.
- **Admin**: runs the office. Everything except owning the plan and billing, and closing the account.
- **Dispatcher**: runs the board. Every work order, the Schedule and every customer; creates and assigns work and sends customer messages. No invoices, pricing or settings.
- **Technician**: in the field. Their own work orders, schedule, time, notes, photos and checklists, and the customer's contact details. Can change their own customer photo. No pricing, costs or other people's time. It is the organization's default role: new members start with it unless another role is assigned.
- Junior technician: the same field-work access as Technician. Their customer photo is managed by an administrator by default.
- Senior technician: the same field-work access as Technician, including changing their own customer photo. This does not give team administration, pricing or cost access.
- **Bookkeeper**: does the money. Quotes, invoices, payments, statements, expenses, purchase orders and reports; records payments taken by cash, cheque or transfer, takes card payments (in the office, by pay link or with Tap to Pay), saves a customer's card and sets up their scheduled and recurring card charges, and sees bank deposits, card payments and disputes. Cannot change work orders, the Schedule or people, and cannot pause or close Nova Payments, change the payout account or refund a card.
- **Read-only**: sees everything and changes nothing. Good for an outside accountant's sign-in or a partner who wants to look in.

When your plan includes Counter Sales (POS), two more roles appear: Cashier (rings up sales, takes payment, opens and closes their own till) and Store Manager (refunds, returns, cash adjustments, closing registers and approvals for cashiers).

## What you see

- The person's roles show as tags in the **Roles** column of **Team & Roles**.
- The built-in roles carry a **Template** tag on **Roles & Permissions**. Your admin can adjust what each one allows there, and **Reset to template** puts Nova's version back. See [[create-a-role]].
- Photo self-service is a separate permission, Change your own customer-facing photo. To block it for one person, use a deny override; see [[give-a-user-a-permission-override]]. Roles add access together, so assigning Junior technician alongside Technician or Senior technician does not remove photo permission.

## If something looks different

- A role you expect is missing: it is the Owner role, which only Nova support assigns and which the **Roles** column does not show, or it is Cashier or Store Manager while your plan does not include Counter Sales (POS).
- A role name you do not recognise: your admin made it. Its description says who it is for.
- The person still cannot do something their role should allow: see [[check-what-a-user-can-access]].

[[route:/settings/org/users|Open Team & Roles]]

Junior and Senior technician inherit the organization’s Technician workspace experience unless you set up a separate experience for that role. This inheritance does not grant additional permissions.