Roles and permissions
Sageon Business has five built-in roles plus five admin-renamable custom slots. Owners and admins control who can see what via Settings → Permissions.
The five built-in roles
| Role | Sees | Edits |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Everything including billing | Everything |
| Admin | Everything except billing | Most things |
| Manager | Their projects + direct reports' HR data | Their projects |
| Member | Their own work | Their own work |
| Viewer | Read-only on assigned projects | Nothing |
The first user (you, the sign-up) is automatically Owner.
Per-section overrides
Owners and admins can change the minimum role required to view or edit each section:
- Settings → Permissions → Module access
- For each section (Projects, CRM, HR, etc.) pick the lowest role for View and Edit
- Changes take effect immediately for all users
Defaults
| Section | Default View | Default Edit |
|---|---|---|
| Business overview | Viewer | Admin |
| Portfolios | Member | Manager |
| Programmes | Member | Manager |
| Projects | Viewer | Manager |
| Timesheets | Member | Member |
| Tribe (HR) | Member | Admin |
| Pulse (CRM) | Admin | Admin |
You can loosen or tighten any of these — but some sensitive actions (billing, salary data, deletes) have hardcoded role floors that this UI can't bypass. That's a safety feature.
Custom roles
You also get 5 custom role slots that you can name however you want.
To create a custom role
- Settings → Permissions
- Find the Custom roles section
- Type a name in any of the 5 slots (e.g. "Programme Director", "Contractor", "External Reviewer")
- Click Save changes
Named custom roles immediately appear in:
- The Module Access dropdowns (so you can grant them access to specific sections)
- The Team Settings role assignment dropdown
- Sage's understanding of who you are
Where custom roles sit in the hierarchy
Custom roles sit below Viewer by default — i.e. they have less access than a Viewer until you explicitly grant them more via Module Access.
This is intentional: it means a Contractor role you've just created can't accidentally see things until you've decided what they should see.
Example workflow
- Create custom role "Programme Director" in slot 3
- Go to Module Access, set Portfolios → View = Programme Director
- Assign Sarah's role to Programme Director in Settings → Team
- Sarah can now see Portfolios; Members and above still can
Owners can never be locked out
The Owner role has full access to everything, always. No setting can lock the Owner out of any feature. This is a safety guardrail.
Transferring ownership
Currently not possible via UI — email blake@sageon.co.uk and we'll do it manually.