Roles & permissions

A role is a bundle of permissions you assign to a staff member — it decides what they can see and do. Every employee has exactly one role. Settings → Roles is where you review and manage them.

You need the Manage staff permission (owners have it) to manage roles.

The roles you start with

Swann Retail sets you up with a few ready-made roles, and you can add your own:

Role	Can do
Owner	Everything. There’s always at least one owner, and the role can’t be deleted or have its permissions changed.
Manager	Catalog, selling, discounts, returns, inventory, reports, customers, and quotes — but not staff, settings, stations, or write-offs.
Cashier	Sell, apply discounts, view customers, and work with quotes.
Driver	Fulfil and complete delivery orders. Handy if you run deliveries; harmless if you don’t.

The owner role is marked with an Owner badge. You can rename it, but its permissions are always the full set.

You’ll also see a Register Device role in the list. It carries no permissions and is used behind the scenes when a tablet signs in as a register — you don’t assign it to staff, and you can leave it as it is.

The permissions

When you create or edit a role you turn each permission on or off. The last column shows which of the ready-made roles start with it (the owner always has every permission):

Permission	What it allows	Ready-made roles that have it
Manage catalog	Create and edit items, categories, and attributes.	Manager
Sell	Ring up sales at the register.	Manager, Cashier
Apply discounts	Apply discounts during a sale.	Manager, Cashier
Process returns	Refund and return completed sales.	Manager
Manage inventory	Adjust stock levels and counts.	Manager
View reports	See sales and inventory reports.	Manager
Manage settings	Change business and location settings.	Owner only
Manage staff	Add staff, set PINs, and manage roles.	Owner only
Deliver orders	Fulfil and complete delivery orders.	Driver
View customers	View customer records and their order history.	Manager, Cashier
Manage quotes	Create, edit, and send customer quotes.	Manager, Cashier
Manage stations	Bind registers and devices to receipt printers.	Owner only
Write off invoices	Void an invoice or write off what a customer owes as uncollectible.	Owner only

Some actions need two permissions at once. Working with quotes needs Sell as well as Manage quotes, and voiding an invoice or writing it off needs Sell as well as Write off invoices.

Permissions that are always on

Some permissions depend on others, so Swann Retail keeps them switched on for any role that needs them:

A role with Sell, or with any back-office permission (Manage catalog, Manage inventory, Manage settings, Manage staff, Manage quotes, or Manage stations), always has View customers and Manage quotes.
A role with Manage settings always has Write off invoices.

When you create or edit a role, these permissions show as switched on and locked, with a line underneath saying why — Always on for this role — it can sell or manage the store. for View customers and Manage quotes, and Always on for this role — it can manage settings. for Write off invoices. To switch one off, first switch off the permission that brings it; the lock lifts as soon as nothing else on the role needs it.

Write-offs are deliberately left out of Sell: a cashier can take payments but can’t wipe out what a customer owes.

Create a role

Press New role.
Give it a name — something your team will recognise, like Floor Supervisor.
Switch on the permissions it should have.
Press Create.

A role can start with no permissions and have them added later. A common one to create is a reports-only role for your accountant — turn on only View reports (see Inviting your team & accountant).

Edit or delete a role

Edit to rename a role or change which permissions it has. Changes apply to everyone who holds that role.
Delete to remove a role. A role that still has staff assigned to it can’t be deleted — move those people to another role first. Deleting can’t be undone, and the owner role can never be deleted.

Good to know

Assign roles to your people under Settings → Users → Register (register staff) or Settings → Users → Back office (back-office logins).