---
title: Roles and access
summary: Understand how roles and permissions decide which menus, buttons and approvals you see, and who to ask when something is missing.
order: 6
menu: Company settings > General > Roles
route: /rolesadmin
who: Anyone can read this page. Seeing the list of roles needs the View Roles permission. Creating or changing a role needs Add or Edit.
---

A role is a named set of permissions. An administrator gives each person one or more roles, for example **SITE ENGINEER** or **PROJECT MANAGER**. The roles decide what you can see and do in Superwise. If a menu item or a button is missing, your roles do not include the permission for it.

## How permissions work

A permission has two parts: an area and an action. An area is a part of Superwise, such as Purchase Orders or Material Deliveries. The actions are:

| Action | What it lets you do |
| --- | --- |
| View | Open the screen and read the records. The menu item appears. |
| Add | Create new records. The create button appears. |
| Edit | Change existing records. |
| Approve | Approve or reject records. |
| Delete | Delete records. |

If you have more than one role, Superwise adds their permissions together. If any of your roles has a permission, you have it.

## What you can see on your own screen

- Your roles are written in the account menu and on your [profile](sign-in-and-password.md#how-to-change-your-profile).
- A menu group appears only if you can View at least one screen in it. See [Find your way](find-your-way.md).
- The list **Needs your action** on the [dashboard](the-dashboard.md) shows a kind of record only if one of your roles can Approve it.
- **Company settings** appears only if your roles allow the company pages.

![The account menu showing your name, e-mail address and roles above the Profile item.](../media/shell-account-menu.png)

## How to see the roles of your company

1. Click **Company settings** at the bottom of the left menu.
2. Click **General**, then **Roles**.

The list has two columns: **NAME** and **REPORTS TO**. **REPORTS TO** shows the role above this role.

![The Application Roles list with the Add Role button marked 1.](../media/roles-and-access-role-list.png)

## How to create a role

You need the Add permission for Roles.

1. On the list of roles, click **Add Role** (mark 1 in the picture above).
2. Type the name in **Role Name** (mark 1 in the next picture).
3. Choose **Reports To** (mark 2) if the role has a role above it. This is optional.
4. In the table, tick the actions this role may do for each area. Use **All** to tick every action of one area.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the form and click **SAVE**.

The table groups the areas, for example Masters, Project Setup and Site Report. Each row is an area. The columns are **View**, **Add**, **Edit**, **Approve** and **Delete**.

![The Create/Edit Roles form. Mark 1 is Role Name and mark 2 is Reports To. The table of areas is below them.](../media/role-form-privileges.png)

## How to give a role to a person

An administrator does this in **Company settings > General > Users**. On the user form, choose one or more roles in **Roles**. The field is required. The form also has **Projects** and **Departments**. See [Users](../general/index.md).

## Who to ask

| Problem | Ask |
| --- | --- |
| A menu item is missing | Your administrator. Ask for the View permission on that area. |
| A button such as **Approve** is missing | Your administrator. Ask for the Approve permission on that area. |
| A project is missing from the project picker | Your administrator or project manager. You may not be added to that project. |

## Rules to know

- A missing menu item means no permission. It does not mean the feature is gone.
- Permission is checked for each area. You can approve purchase orders and still not approve RA bills.
- The approval workflow of a record also decides who approves each step. See [Approvals in plain words](approvals-in-plain-words.md).
- Changing a role changes the access of everyone who has it.

## If something goes wrong

| What you see | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| You can open a list but there is no create button | Ask for the Add permission. |
| You can open a record but cannot change it | Ask for the Edit permission. |
| Needs your action says "Nothing is queued for you" | Your roles do not have Approve permission for these records on this project. |

## Related pages

- [Approvals in plain words](approvals-in-plain-words.md)
- [Find your way](find-your-way.md)
- [Words we use](words-we-use.md)