Understand roles vs seats
When to use this
Use this before you change user access, especially when someone still cannot do the right work after an access update.
What you need first
- Permission to manage users in Settings.
- A clear description of what the person should be able to do.
Steps
1. Treat seat as the main access preset for what the person can see and do in the account. 2. Treat role as a separate account role that some admin and manager actions still check. 3. When a person changes job function, change the seat first. 4. When a person needs higher or lower authority inside the account, review the role as well. 5. If the person is a Client seat user, also check their company scope.
What happens next
- A seat change updates the preset access they receive in that account.
- A role change updates account-level authority such as admin or manager behavior.
- If you change only one control when the problem depends on both, the user can still look blocked.
If it goes wrong
- If you changed role but the person still cannot reach the screen, check whether the seat preset is wrong.
- If you changed seat but the person still cannot manage admin-level work, check whether the account role is too low.
- If the person is a client user and sees nothing useful, confirm that at least one company is assigned to them.