---
title: Roles
summary: Create a role and choose what it can view, add, edit, delete and approve in each area. Use a view-only role for people who only read.
order: 3
menu: Company settings > General > Roles
route: /rolesadmin
who: People who have the View Roles permission. Creating needs Add and changing needs Edit. Deleting needs Delete.
---

A role is a set of permissions. You give a role to a user, and the user can then do what the role allows. For example, a Site Engineer role can add material receipts, and an Accountant role can approve bills. One user can have more than one role.

For every area of Superwise, a role has up to five permissions:

| Permission | What the user can do |
| --- | --- |
| **View** | Open the screens of the area and read the records. |
| **Add** | Create new records. |
| **Edit** | Change existing records. |
| **Delete** | Delete records. |
| **Approve** | Approve or reject records that wait for approval. |

Area means a part of Superwise, such as Projects, Purchase Orders or Work Orders. Each permission is a tick box. Without **View**, the user does not see the area.

## Before you start

- Decide what each job in your company needs to do. Write it as a short list, for example "Storekeeper: add and edit material receipts, view purchase orders".
- Decide who reports to whom. A role can report to another role, for example Site Engineer reports to Project Manager.

## How to create a role

1. Open **Company settings** in the left menu, then **General**, then **Roles**.
2. Click **Add Role** (mark 1 in the first picture).
3. In **Role Name** (mark 1 in the second picture), type the name, for example Site Engineer.
4. In **Reports To** (mark 2), choose the role this role reports to. This is optional.
5. In the table, find each area the role needs. Tick the permissions in the columns **View** (mark 3), **Add**, **Edit**, **Approve** and **Delete**. Tick **All** (mark 4) to give all five.
6. Scroll to the end of the table and click **SAVE**. A message says that the role was created.

![The list of roles. The mark 1 is the button Add Role and the mark 2 is the three dots of a row.](../media/role-list.png)

![The role form. The mark 1 is Role Name, the mark 2 is Reports To, the mark 3 is the column View, and the mark 4 is the column All.](../media/role-form.png)

The columns of the table have icons. The eye is **View**. The plus is **Add**. The pencil is **Edit**. The tick is **Approve**. The bin is **Delete**.

## How to make a view-only role

A view-only role can read but cannot change anything.

1. Click **Add Role** and type a **Role Name**, for example Auditor.
2. For each area the person needs to read, tick only **View**. Leave the other boxes empty.
3. Click **SAVE**.

## How to change a role

1. In the list of roles, click the three dots at the end of the row (mark 2 in the first picture).
2. Choose **Edit**.
3. Change the name, the role it reports to, or the ticks. Click **SAVE**.

To see who has a role and what it allows, choose **Details** in the same menu. A side panel shows **List of users in this role** and **Role Privileges**.

## How to delete a role

1. In the list of roles, click the three dots at the end of the row.
2. Choose **Delete**.
3. Read the question and click **Confirm**.

The roles that report to the deleted role move up to its parent.

## What the columns mean

| Name | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Name** | The name of the role. |
| **Reports To** | The role above this role. The chart above the list shows all roles as a tree. |

## How the ticks work together

- **View** is the base. When you tick **Add**, **Edit**, **Approve** or **Delete**, Superwise also ticks **View**.
- When you tick **Add**, Superwise also ticks **Edit**, and the other way round.
- When you remove **View**, Superwise also clears the other four permissions of that area.
- The areas **Projects**, **Users** and **Roles** always keep **View**. Superwise shows a message if you try to remove it.
- Some areas need **View** of another area to work. When you tick **View** for such an area, Superwise ticks **View** of the other area too.
- When you remove **View** of an area that other areas need, a box **Confirm Action** lists the areas that may be affected. Click **Remove All** to continue or **Cancel** to keep it.
- **All** is ticked by Superwise when the area has all five permissions.

## Rules to know

- A role name is required.
- A role cannot report to itself or to a role below it. The message is "Circular hierarchy in roles is not permitted. Please change the parent role".
- You cannot delete a role that is a step in an approval workflow. See [Approval workflows](approval-workflows.md).
- You cannot delete the only role that has access to a document folder.
- You cannot delete a role when a user has only that role. The message names the users. Give those users another role first. See [Users](user.md).

## If something goes wrong

| What you see | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| The Role Name field is required. | Type a name for the role. |
| Circular hierarchy in roles is not permitted. Please change the parent role | Choose another role in **Reports To**. |
| Role cannot be deleted as it is part of Approval Workflow | Remove the role from the workflow first, then delete it. |
| Role cannot be deleted as this is the only role present in Document Folder access. | Add another role to the folder, then delete this one. |
| User(s) ... will not be able to login | Give the named users another role, then delete this one. |
| Project View right is mandatory | Keep **View** ticked for **Projects**. The same applies to **Users** and **Roles**. |

## Related pages

- [Users](user.md)
- [Approval workflows](approval-workflows.md)
- [Projects](project.md)
- [Company setup masters](index.md)