Team and departments

Team is where your firm's people live. Each member gets their own login, sees only what you grant them, and can be assigned work, made responsible for a client, or set as the reviewer on a filing.

Before you start

• You must be a firm administrator to add or change members.
• Departments help but are not required. Set them up under Settings, then Departments.

Add a member

1. Open Team under Firm in the left menu.
2. Click Add Employee, top right.
3. Enter their name and email — the email is their login and must be one nobody at your firm already uses.
4. Choose their role:
   • Employee — sees only the parts you grant. Free, and you can have as many as you like.
   • Admin — full access to everything, including billing and the team itself. Each one takes a paid seat.
5. Set their department and level.
6. For an employee, tick the parts of the product they should see — leads, compliance, invoices, and so on. Grant what the job needs; the menu shows only what is ticked.
7. Save. They are invited by email and set their own password.

Reuse an access set

Permission Templates saves a combination of modules under a name — "Compliance executive", "Billing clerk" — so the next hire is set up in one click instead of a dozen ticks.

See the shape of the firm

Switch List to Hierarchy to see who reports to whom. Reporting lines are not decoration: they decide who approves an expense claim and who is escalated to when a client goes quiet.

Departments

Departments group people by the work they do — Taxation, Audit, Legal. They are how the team screen filters, and how workload is read across the firm. Manage them under Settings, then Departments.

When somebody leaves

Deactivate them rather than deleting. They can no longer sign in, while everything they did — tasks, filings, notes — stays attached to their name. Reassign their open tasks first, from the task list.

What the system does on its own

• Sends the invitation and lets the new member set their own password.
• Hides what they cannot use. A member without invoicing does not see Invoices in the menu, and typing the address does not get them in either.
• Counts seats. Administrators count against your plan; employees never do.
• Routes approvals down the reporting line — an expense claim goes to that person's manager.
• Sends managers a weekly roll-up of their team's backlog.

What you cannot do (and what to do instead)

• You cannot add the same person twice. One email, one member. If they moved departments, edit the existing record.
• You cannot delete the firm owner from here. That account owns the firm and its subscription.
• A deactivated member cannot sign in, and reactivating is how you let them back.
• You cannot add an administrator beyond your seat count. Add a seat on Billing & Subscription, or make the person an employee with the access they need — employees are free and unlimited.
• Employees cannot create, delete or reassign tasks. That belongs to managers and partners.

Common questions

Employee or Admin?

Admin only for people who genuinely need billing and firm-wide settings. Everyone else is an employee — free, and can still be granted every working module.

Why can a colleague not see Invoices?

Either their access does not include it, or the module is off for the whole firm. Check their row on this screen first.

Someone left mid-job.

Reassign their open tasks in bulk from the task list, then deactivate them.