Team, roles and trainees

One inspector becomes two, then an assistant joins, then a trainee. At that point a tool built for a single person becomes a problem: either everyone sees everything, revenue included, or nobody can work.

Six roles, defined by job

• Owner: sees everything, and is the only one who sees company figures and the subscription. This role transfers rather than being assigned.
• Admin: manages the team, the settings and production. Does not touch the money.
• Inspector: produces inspections and reports. Does not invoice.
• Reception: books, opens files, sends to clients, invoices and follows up. Does not inspect.
• Bookkeeper: the amounts and the exports. No reports, no photos.
• Trainee: sees only the jobs they have been assigned to. Produces, but sends nothing to a client.

Thirteen permissions, set one by one

The role is a starting point, not a cage. Each member then has an access screen where thirteen permissions are ticked individually, grouped in the order a job unfolds:

• Files: view, view ALL files, create, edit, move to trash.
• Production: inspect (photos, findings, editor and AI), manage the firm's library.
• Clients: client and agent directory, send to client.
• Money: invoice, view company figures.
• Administration: manage the team and settings, manage the subscription.

The four permissions that open money or governance are flagged as sensitive on screen. Granting one by accident is precisely what an owner is trying to avoid, and a grey checkbox among twelve others would not prevent it.

The checkbox that creates the walls

'View ALL files' is the most interesting permission of the set. Unticked, it turns any role into a walled profile: that person only sees the jobs they were assigned to.

That is what makes the trainee role possible without writing a special rule in their name, and it is also what lets two inspectors work side by side without seeing each other's files, when that is what you want.

You only pay for the people who inspect

This is the part most software charges differently. A seat is billed only if the person produces reports:

• A receptionist who books, opens files and invoices: no billable seat.
• A bookkeeper who comes for the exports: no billable seat.
• A trainee: no billable seat either. They are supervised and unpaid, and charging for them would take back with one hand what the mentorship programme gives with the other.
• An inspector who produces: one seat.

The subscription screen shows the count: how many seats your team occupies, how many are covered, and how many members cost nothing. And if a seat is missing, nobody is cut off. You are told, and you adjust when it suits you.

A lock, not a hidden button

Plenty of tools call it 'roles' when they mean hiding buttons. That is not security, it is decoration: the data stays reachable by anyone who asks for it another way.

Here the interface does hide the buttons, but that is not where the permission lives. Every request is filtered by a rule enforced inside the database. A member without the right to see a file does not receive it, even if the screen were bypassed. The lock holds on its own.

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