Managing user permissions is essential for the security and efficiency of any system. Whether assigning permissions to employees, clients, or contractors, in Productive, the process is simple and intuitive.

In this article, we'll walk you through the steps of changing a user's permissions, allowing you to tailor access levels to your organization's needs.

Before adding users, such as Employees and Contractors, ensure that you have a sufficient number of paid seats in your account.

Employees (paid seats) can be assigned one of these default system permission sets:

Note that any restricted-access permissions sets mean that the users will need to be manually added to a project or budget for them to see and work on it!

👉 For more information on Employee permissions, please check out the following article: User Permissions Overview.

Admins can manage everything, including cost rates and general organization-level settings.

Managers can oversee projects and deals, with access to all deals containing pertinent financial details excluding cost and profit. They don't have access to cost rates and organization-level settings. This permission set grants access to all deals and projects.

Similar to regular managers, those with restricted access can manage projects and deals, accessing all relevant financial information except for cost and profit. They can't access users' cost rates and organization-level settings.

This permission set limits access to deals and projects only where the user is defined as a member. Managers with restricted access can create projects and add budgets.

In addition to all the information a manager can see, the Profitability Manager also has access to the budget's profit and revenue information as well as the profit of the whole organization.

​Profitability managers can oversee projects and deals, with access to all deal-related financial information. However, they can't access users' cost rates and organization-level settings. This permission set grants access to all deals and projects.

Similarly, restricted profitability managers can oversee projects and deals, with access to relevant financial data but not to cost rates or organization-level settings. Their access is limited to deals and projects where they are defined as members.

The coordinator sits between a staff member with extended permissions and a manager. This user has access to everything project-wise, besides project financials (budgets and profitability).

Coordinators can access, schedule, and add people to projects, overseeing time components within budgets and approving time off but without access to financial data or approving time entries. They enjoy full project access, however, they do not have permission to add, edit, and delete projects on their own.
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​Restricted coordinators have similar permissions but are confined to projects they are members of, maintaining the same limitations on financial data and time entries while overseeing time budgets and approving time off.

Staff is a role with a basic set of permissions. Staff members can manage tasks and task lists and collaborate on projects.

Staff members can't access company settings, financial information, or cost rates.

They can't manage people and client companies or see other people's time entries by default.

Staff members have access to all projects they are a part of, where they can manage tasks, task lists, and collaborate with others. They can view their own tracked time, logged lexpenses, and bookings but cannot access organizational settings or financial information.

Staff (with CRM access): In addition to regular staff privileges, those with CRM access can also manage people and client companies within the projects they are involved in.

Staff (with CRM and time access): Building on the previous permissions, staff members with CRM and time access can also view and manage other people's bookings, worked time, and service estimates on budgets.

Staff (with time access): Similarly to the previous category, staff members with time access can view and manage other people's bookings, worked time, and service estimates on budgets, but without CRM access.

Client Staff members (not counted as paid seats) have specific default permissions that enable them to effectively collaborate and manage tasks:

Additionally, clients can gain access to budgets and timesheets if you grant them the Client Manager permission set.

You can also create custom client permissions using the Permission Builder. For more information, take a look at this article.
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Contractors in Productive, who count as paid seats alongside employees, have one specific default permission set.

While they do not have various permission options to choose from, contractors can perform the following actions: