Roles & permissions

Every person on your team sees a version of the CRM shaped to their job. A role decides what each teammate can open and change — from taking bookings to editing the menu or redrawing the floor map. This page explains how roles and permissions fit together, what each built-in role can do, and how to scope someone to exactly what they need and nothing more.

Before you begin

You manage roles from Team in the left sidebar, available on plans that include team management. Viewing your team needs permission to view team members; inviting people, changing a role, or removing someone can only be done by the owner by default. As the restaurant owner you hold every permission automatically — a teammate gets each ability only once their role grants it.

Roles and permissions, in plain terms

Two simple ideas run the whole system:

• A permission is one specific ability — for example, seeing the bookings, editing the menu, or changing the floor map. Most areas split into two sides: viewing something and changing it. Someone can be allowed to look at the menu without being allowed to edit it.
• A role is a ready-made bundle of permissions with a name, such as Manager or Employee. You give each person one whole role rather than ticking permissions one by one — it keeps things simple and consistent.

A person’s role applies across your whole organization — every restaurant in it — so a manager you add is a manager everywhere you operate. The owner always keeps every permission and can never be locked out, which is why the owner’s access can’t be reduced.

What a permission can cover

Permissions are grouped by the part of the CRM they control. The main areas are:

• Bookings and the Waitlist — take, change, and cancel reservations, and seat waiting guests.
• Customers and the Loyalty program — look up guests and run rewards.
• Menu — categories, dishes, prices, and labels.
• Floor maps and Tables — your room layout and the tables on it.
• Service periods and Time slots — the windows and start times guests can book.
• Booking page — the public page guests use to reserve.
• Restaurant settings and Organization and billing — how the restaurant and the account are configured.
• Team — the people in your organization and their roles.
• Shifts and the Activity log — on plans that include staff scheduling and audit history.

Within each area, viewing and changing are separate. That is what lets a role show someone the information they need while keeping the controls they should not touch out of reach.

The roles you can give people

Eighty-Six comes with three built-in roles. In most restaurants you will only ever hand out Manager and Employee — the Owner role stays with you.

On the Team Members list, each person carries the role you gave them.

Owner

The top account for the restaurant, usually the person who set it up. The owner can do everything: run bookings, edit the floor map, menu, service periods and booking page, and — uniquely — invite and remove teammates, change roles, and manage settings and billing. Only the owner can manage the team.

Manager

Built for someone who runs the restaurant day to day. A manager can view and edit bookings, the floor map and tables, service periods and time slots, the menu, the booking page, customers, the loyalty program and the waitlist. Managers can see the team list but cannot invite, remove, or re-role people, and cannot reach account or billing settings.

Employee

A focused, front-of-house set of tools. An employee can take and manage bookings and work the waitlist, and view the floor map, tables, service periods, customers and the menu. They cannot edit the map, menu, service periods or booking page, cannot see the Team section, and cannot open settings.

Note

The Manager role is about editing what already exists. Creating or deleting a whole floor map or menu, managing the team, and changing billing stay with the owner.

How to give someone the right access

Scoping a teammate is really just choosing the closest role, then assigning it.

1. Decide what the person actually needs to do their job — nothing more.
2. Match that to a role: Employee for front-of-house booking work, Manager for someone who also maintains the map, menu and booking page.
3. Assign the role when you invite them, or change it later from their card on the Team Members list.

You choose the role in the Role dropdown — when adding a member, or on an existing member’s card. Each option shows a short description of what it grants.

Pick a role from the dropdown. Each one is a ready-made bundle of permissions.

For the full click-by-click of adding people and changing roles, see Team members & invitations.

Worked examples

Real jobs rarely line up with a single word, so here is how to translate common needs into a role.

A host at the door who only takes bookings

Give them the Employee role. They can open Bookings to add, edit and cancel reservations, seat guests from the waitlist, glance at the floor and today’s covers, and look up a returning guest. They cannot reshape your floor map, change the menu or service periods, or see the Team section — so there is nothing for them to break.

A shift manager who keeps the map and menu current

Give them the Manager role. On top of everything a host can do, they can redraw the floor map for the night, edit the menu, adjust service periods and time slots, and update and publish the booking page — all without being able to invite staff, change roles, or open billing.

A deputy who needs to add staff and see billing

That level of access lives only in the Owner role, and it stays with you. A Manager already covers almost everything except managing people and the account itself, so choose Manager unless the person genuinely needs to run the account — in which case they would need to be the owner.

A new trainee who should look, not touch

Start them on the Employee role — the most limited option, which keeps the map, menu and settings out of reach while they learn the booking desk. There is no separate view-only role, so Employee is the safe starting point; widen them to Manager once they are ready.

What a scoped teammate experiences

Roles are invisible in the best way: people simply do not see what they cannot use.

• The sidebar shows only the sections their role allows, so an employee never sees the Team or Settings entries at all.
• If someone reaches a page they do not have permission for, they get an Access Denied message asking them to contact their administrator — rather than a broken screen.

A teammate who opens a section their role does not include sees this, not your data.

Changing a role saves right away. The person may need to refresh the page or sign in again before their new access appears.

Tips

Tip

Give the least access that lets someone do their job. It is quick to widen a role later from the member’s card, and it keeps sensitive areas — your menu, floor map, booking page and settings — safe by default.

Caution

Only the owner can manage the team and billing. Make sure you keep access to the owner account — a manager cannot add it back for you.

Related

• Team members & invitations
• Team & scheduling overview
• Roles, permissions & plans
• Core concepts & glossary