> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bumara.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Team and roles

> Every role in Bumara, exactly what each can see and do, and how to choose the right one.

Roles control what each person can open and change. Getting them right is how you keep salaries,
bank details and identification numbers seen only by the people who need them.

## The roles

| Role                   | For                            | Scope                                          |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- |
| **Owner**              | The business owner             | Everything, including billing and plan changes |
| **Admin**              | Operations or office manager   | Everything except billing and plan changes     |
| **Finance**            | Accountant or bookkeeper       | Money, filings and reports                     |
| **HR / Payroll**       | HR manager or payroll officer  | Employees and pay runs                         |
| **Department manager** | Team lead                      | Their own department only                      |
| **Employee**           | Any member of staff            | Their own records only                         |
| **Viewer**             | Auditor, adviser, board member | Read-only                                      |

## What each role can do

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Owner">
    Everything. Uniquely can:

    * Change the subscription plan
    * Manage billing and payment methods
    * Remove other Owners
    * Close the organisation

    Have at least two Owners. A single Owner who is unreachable leaves nobody able to change the
    plan or manage billing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Admin">
    Everything an Owner can, except billing, plan changes and removing Owners.

    * All compliance work, including requesting submissions
    * All invoicing
    * All payroll, including sensitive employee data
    * All inventory
    * Invite and manage team members
    * Change organisation settings
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Finance">
    * Full invoicing: invoices, quotes, payments, customers, vendors
    * File statutory returns
    * View salaries and payslips
    * View employee bank details
    * **Cannot** see NRC, passport or TPIN
    * **Cannot** run a pay run
    * View all reports
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="HR / Payroll">
    * Full employee records, including NRC, passport, TPIN and bank details
    * Run and approve pay runs
    * Manage loans, allowances and deductions
    * Generate and distribute payslips
    * **Cannot** file statutory returns

    The separation from Finance is deliberate: the person who runs the pay run is not the person
    who files the returns.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Department manager">
    * View employees in their own department only
    * View payslips for their own department
    * Submit monthly inputs for their team
    * **Cannot** see NRC, passport, TPIN or bank details
    * **Cannot** export data
    * **Cannot** run payroll
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Employee">
    * View their own payslips
    * View and update their own contact details
    * Nothing about anyone else
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Viewer">
    Read-only across what they are granted. Cannot create, edit, approve or submit anything.

    Right for auditors, board members and advisers who need visibility without the ability to
    change anything.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Sensitive data — the reference table

Check this before assigning any role:

| Data                   | Owner | Admin  | Finance | HR / Payroll | Dept manager | Employee | Viewer |
| ---------------------- | ----- | ------ | ------- | ------------ | ------------ | -------- | ------ |
| Names and departments  | Yes   | Yes    | Yes     | Yes          | Own dept     | Own      | Yes    |
| NRC, passport, TPIN    | Yes   | Yes    | **No**  | Yes          | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |
| Bank account details   | Yes   | Yes    | Yes     | Yes          | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |
| Salaries and payslips  | Yes   | Yes    | Yes     | Yes          | Own dept     | Own      | Yes    |
| Export employee data   | Yes   | Yes    | Yes     | Yes          | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |
| Run a pay run          | Yes   | Yes    | **No**  | Yes          | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |
| File statutory returns | Yes   | Yes    | Yes     | **No**       | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |
| Request submissions    | Yes   | Yes    | Yes     | **No**       | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |
| Change billing         | Yes   | **No** | **No**  | **No**       | **No**       | **No**   | **No** |

## Choosing a role

Ask two questions:

1. **What do they need to do this month?** Not what they might one day need.
2. **What should they not see?** Salaries and identification are the ones that matter.

| If they                                   | Give them          |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------ |
| Own the business                          | Owner              |
| Manage the office and everything in it    | Admin              |
| Post invoices and reconcile payments      | Finance            |
| Manage staff and run payroll              | HR / Payroll       |
| Lead a team and submit their attendance   | Department manager |
| Just need their own payslips              | Employee           |
| Audit or advise without changing anything | Viewer             |

<Note>
  When in doubt, choose the narrower role. Widening access takes ten seconds when someone asks.
  Narrowing it after they have seen something is not possible.
</Note>

## Location assignments

If you operate from more than one location, assign staff to the ones they work at. Inventory
figures and dashboards then show only their locations.

An unassigned user in a multi-location business may see nothing at all in inventory — which is
usually the intended behaviour, not a fault.

## Changing a role

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Settings, then Team">
    Find the person.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose Change role">
    Effective immediately.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Tell them">
    Bumara does not notify people about role changes. Someone who suddenly cannot see a page they
    used yesterday will report it as a fault.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Removing someone

Remove leavers the same day.

Their work is not deleted — invoices they raised, payroll they ran, documents they uploaded all
remain, and the timeline still records that they did it. Your audit trail must survive staff
turnover.

<Warning>
  Removing someone from your team does **not** revoke their authorisation to act for you with a
  regulator. If they were your authorised representative, replace that separately. See
  [Authorised representative](/compliance/authorised-representative).
</Warning>

## Separation of duties

For a business of any size, keep these apart:

| Keep separate                               | Why                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Running payroll and approving it            | No single person both calculates and authorises pay          |
| Running payroll and filing returns          | Bumara enforces this by role                                 |
| Recording payments and reconciling the bank | The classic control against misappropriation                 |
| Making stock adjustments and counting stock | The person who can make stock disappear should not verify it |

In a very small business one person often does everything. If so, the compensating control is that
the owner reviews — the audit trail is what makes that review possible.

## Reviewing access

| Check                                 | How often              |
| ------------------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| Everyone in the list still works here | Monthly                |
| Roles match what people actually do   | Quarterly              |
| At least two Owners                   | Ongoing                |
| External consultants still engaged    | At each engagement end |
| Nobody has more access than they need | Quarterly              |

<Note>
  Related: [Invite your team](/start/invite-your-team) and
  [Security and privacy](/account/security-and-privacy).
</Note>