Roles & Permissions

A role is a job description for your site: a bundle of permissions you give to people together. Build a role once, assign it to everyone who does that job, and change it in one place when the job changes.

The Roles screen with the list of roles on the left and the users of the selected role on the right

Users → Roles. Each role shows how many permissions and users it has. Select a role to see its people.

Roles, permissions and users

Term	Meaning
Permission	One thing a person may do, such as edit page or manage booking appointments.
Role	A named set of permissions, such as Content editor or booking-manager.
User	A person. Their abilities are the permissions of all the roles they have.

Create or choose a role → Tick its permissions → Assign people to it → They see the matching menus

Menus and buttons in the admin panel appear only when the person has the matching permission. If a menu item is missing for someone, the reason is almost always their role.

Built-in roles

Role	Purpose
Super Admin	The site owner. This role passes every permission check, including permissions added by plugins later. It cannot be deleted, and you cannot remove it from yourself. Give it to as few people as possible.
User	A plain account with no admin permissions, for visitors who only use the public site.
booking-admin	Full access to the Booking module.
booking-manager	Manage bookings, services, staff and reports.
booking-provider	Staff members: manage their own schedule and appointments.
booking-customer	Customers: access their own booking area.

The Booking roles appear when the Booking module is installed. You can edit them, or create your own roles next to them.

The Roles screen

Control	What it does
Role list (left)	Every role with its description, the number of permissions and the number of users. The gear icon opens a menu with Edit and Delete.
Users of the selected role (right)	The people who have the role, with their email, status and the date they were added. The search box filters this list.
Assign Role	Opens a list of people who do not have the role; tick them and save.
Unassign	Tick people in the list and choose Unassign to take the role away from them. You cannot unassign yourself.
Create Role	Starts a new role.

The Assign Role dialog listing users who do not yet have the role

Assign Role lists the people who do not have the role yet.

Creating and editing a role

The role editor with the permission matrix grouped by area

The role editor. Permissions are grouped by area; each row is a resource and each column an action.

Open Users → Roles and choose Create Role (or Edit in the gear menu of an existing role).
Type the Name and a Description that explains who the role is for.
Tick the permissions. You can start from another role (see below).
Check the Summary card on the right: it shows how many permissions are selected and how many people have the role.
Choose Create or Update. The change applies at once to everyone with the role.

Working with the permission matrix

Control	What it does
Area headings (Advertisements, Booking, Menus, Pages, Plugins, Blog, Roles, Support…)	Permissions are grouped by area. The badge shows how many of that area’s permissions are selected (for example 3/6). All and None at the right of the heading tick or clear the whole area.
Rows and columns	Each row is a resource (for example Appointments); the columns are the actions: Manage (see the section and its list), View, Create, Edit and Delete. A dash means the action does not exist for that resource.
Special permissions	Single permissions that do not fit the grid, such as Import website templates, Install plugins, Activate plugins, Approve booking refunds or Download tickets. They sit in a list under the area.
Search permissions	Type to show only the matching permissions.
Copy from role… → Apply	Copies the permissions of another role into this one. A fast start for similar roles; adjust afterwards.
Select all / Clear all	Ticks or clears every permission. Use Clear all to build a very restricted role from scratch.
Selected only	Hides everything that is not ticked, so you can review exactly what the role allows.
Default	Marks the role as the one to give automatically to new users. The role that visitors receive when they register is chosen in Settings → General → Default User Role; keep the two consistent.

Manage vs. create / edit / delete

Ticking Manage lets a person open the section and see its list. To let them add, change or remove things they need Create, Edit and Delete as well. A role with only Manage is effectively read-only.

What the permissions control

Area	Permissions	Used in
Users	manage users, create users, edit users, manage profile	Users and Profile
Roles	manage roles, create roles, edit roles, delete roles, manage permissions	This screen
System	manage dashboard, application operations, manage updates, manage settings, manage languages	Dashboard, Updates, Settings, Languages
Pages	manage, create, edit, delete page	Pages
Blog (Posts)	manage, create, edit, delete post; view, create, edit, delete category; view, create, edit, delete tag	Blog Posts and Categories & Tags
Menus	manage, create, edit, delete menus; manage widgets; import website templates	Menus, Widgets, Website Templates
Advertisements	manage, create, edit, delete advertisements	Advertisements
Plugins	manage, install, activate, delete plugins	Plugin Manager
Support	view all tickets, answer tickets, close tickets, download tickets, manage ticket categories	Support Tickets
Booking (about 35 permissions)	Dashboard, calendar, appointments (incl. status, check-in, reschedule), services, categories, custom fields, staff and schedules, customers, locations, extras, packages, coupons, taxes, payments, refunds (view, approve, change amount, decline, retry), invoices, notifications, reports, settings, and the staff and customer cabinets	Booking
TruCommerce (about 58 permissions)	Products, categories, attributes, promotions, orders, customers, reviews, channels, locations, shipping and tax records, stock, reports, point of sale and more, each with manage / create / edit / delete	TruCommerce

Be careful with these

Grant manage settings, manage users, manage roles, install plugins, manage updates, payment and refund permissions only to people you would trust with the whole site. Anyone who can manage roles can give themselves more power.

Designing good roles

Think in jobs, not people. Content editor, Receptionist, Store operator, Support agent. Then assign people to jobs.
Start small. Use Clear all or copy a close role, then add only what the job needs.
Test before rolling out. Create a test user with the role, sign in as them in a private window and check the menu.
Re-check after installing a plugin. New modules add new permissions. Existing roles do not get them automatically (except Super Admin).
Review the Summary. A role used by many people deserves a periodic look.

Deleting a role

Open the gear menu of a role you no longer need and choose Delete. People who had the role lose its permissions immediately. The Super Admin role cannot be deleted.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to do
A menu item is missing for someone	Open their role and tick the permission of that area (use Search permissions). Ask them to reload the page.
A person sees “403” or “Unauthorized”	They opened an address their role does not allow. Add the permission or remove the link they used.
I cannot find a permission for a new plugin	Open the role editor and look for the plugin’s area. If the plugin is not activated, its permissions are not listed.
New registrations get the wrong role	Check Default User Role in Settings → General.

Users · Profile & Account Security · Plugin Manager