Why roles matter
Roles do two things: they cut down on what each person has to look at, and they keep the wrong people away from the wrong buttons.
The six roles, briefly
Section titled “The six roles, briefly”| Role | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Owner | You, or whoever signs the checks. Full access including billing. |
| Admin | A co-owner or trusted general manager. Same access as Owner. |
| Manager | A working manager — sales floor, reports, work-order approvals. Doesn’t manage staff or billing by default. |
| Service Advisor | Front-counter staff. Sales and reports, drop-off and portal setup, but no cost or margin visibility and no work-order approval. |
| Technician | A tech who needs to see overview and TRACS Extended — that’s it. |
| Member | The most restricted preset. Only TRACS Extended. Use for back-shop or part-time access. |
For a full breakdown, see What each role can do.
Why this is worth setting up
Section titled “Why this is worth setting up”- A tech who only sees the Overview and TRACS Extended page can’t accidentally delete a customer or change settings.
- Reports stay visible to the people who use them (Service Advisors and up) — no one has to dig through pages they don’t need.
- Billing and Users pages stay with Owners and Admins, where they belong.
- When someone leaves the shop, removing their TracsConnect account also yanks every report, integration, and customer-record view they had.
The practical rule
Section titled “The practical rule”Start with the lowest role that lets the person do their job. So:
- Lube tech → Technician.
- Lead tech who reads WIP daily → Technician + flip on the specific reports they need with custom permissions.
- New service advisor → Service Advisor.
- Service writer who handles their own approvals → Service Advisor + flip on Approve work orders.
- Shift lead → Manager.
Only escalate the role when custom permissions would need to override more than two or three things — at that point you’re really at the next role up.
When to review
Section titled “When to review”Reassess roles when someone changes jobs in the shop, when a person moves between shops in a multi-shop tenant, when someone leaves, or when you bring on a contractor or temp who only needs access for a project.