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 exactly one, and it can’t be deleted or have its permissions changed.
Manager	Catalog, selling, discounts, returns, inventory, reports, and viewing customers — but not staff or settings.
Cashier	Sell, apply discounts, and view customers.
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:

Permission	What it allows
Manage catalog	Create and edit items, categories, and attributes.
Sell	Ring up sales at the register.
Apply discounts	Apply discounts during a sale.
Process returns	Refund and return completed sales.
Manage inventory	Adjust stock levels and counts.
View reports	See sales and inventory reports.
Manage settings	Change business and location settings.
Manage staff	Add staff, set PINs, and manage roles.
Deliver orders	Fulfil and complete delivery orders.
View customers	View customer records and their order history.

Create a role

1. Press New role.
2. Give it a name — something your team will recognise, like Floor Supervisor.
3. Switch on the permissions it should have.
4. 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 Users → Register (register staff) or Users → Back office (back-office logins).