Understanding Team Roles and Permissions

Introduction

Every person in your organization has a role that decides which parts of the dashboard they can see and change. You can use a ready-made role, set access area by area, or save your own roles to reuse.

This article explains each role, the access levels, and what someone sees when they don't have access to an area.

In this article

• The Owner
• Ready-made roles
• Access levels
• Custom access and saved roles
• When someone doesn't have access
• Common questions

The Owner

The Owner is the person who created the organization. They can see and change everything, and a few things belong to the Owner alone:

• Buying, changing or cancelling plans and seats
• Creating, editing and deleting saved roles
• Giving someone Admin access or access to User management
• IOSS, under Custom Clearance in the sidebar

Nobody can edit, deactivate or remove the Owner. To change who owns an organization, contact our support team.

Ready-made roles

When you invite someone or edit their permissions, the Role list offers three ready-made roles:

• Admin. Can do almost everything the Owner can, including billing, API keys and managing team members. Admins can see your plans but can't change them.
• Member. Can view and edit shipments, tracking pages, notifications, apps and API keys. No access to billing or team management.
• Viewer. Read-only across shipments, tracking pages, notifications, apps and analytics. No access to anything else.

Here's what each one gives, area by area:

You can only give people access up to your own level. An Admin can invite and manage team members, but can't make someone else an Admin or give them access to User management.

Access levels

Each area is set to one of these levels:

Full access appears on two areas. On Invoices & Billing it lets someone see your invoices and open them. On User management it lets someone manage team members, since a view-only version of that page wouldn't be useful.

Tracking Analytics is always view only. People with access can still filter the figures and generate reports, there's just nothing to edit. Subscriptions goes no higher than View only, because only the Owner can change plans.

Two areas also decide who can use pages under Organization: Organization settings controls who can edit the organization Profile, and User management controls who can see the Audit log.

Custom access and saved roles

You don't have to stick to a ready-made role. Change any area in Access by area and the role switches to Custom, which applies to that one person.

If you're the Owner, you can save custom access as a role, so the next person gets the same access in one click:

1. With Role set to Custom, click "Save these settings as a role".
2. Enter a Title (up to 64 characters) and, if you like, a Description (up to 160 characters).
3. Click "Save". If you're inviting someone rather than editing their permissions, the role is saved when you click "Send invitation".

You can also create a role without giving it to anyone yet. In the Roles section, below the member list on Organization > Team members, click "New role", fill in the title, description and access by area, then click "Create".

Saved roles appear in the Role list under your organization's roles, and anyone who can manage team members can give them to people. A few rules apply:

• You can save up to 5 roles. Once you reach 5, you can still give someone custom access, you just can't save it as a new role.
• You can only delete a role that nobody has, including pending invitations and deactivated members.
• Only the Owner can create, edit or delete saved roles.

When someone doesn't have access

If a person opens an area they don't have access to, they see a screen telling them so, with a prompt to ask the organization's owner or an admin.

This is normal, not an error. It often happens straight after switching organizations, because each organization sets its own access for you.

Common questions

Can I give someone access to just one area?

Yes. Pick the closest role, then change the areas you need in Access by area. Their role shows as Custom.

Why does someone's role show as Custom?

Their access was changed from a ready-made or saved role in at least one area.

When do changes take effect?

The next time the person does something in the dashboard. They don't need to sign out or sign in again.

Next steps

• How to Invite and Manage Team Members
• How to Join and Switch Between Organizations
• What Is Ship24 Team and How Does It Work

Updated on: 02/11/2026