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People and roles

Who can sign in to your organization, and what each person may see and change.

People are managed in Settings › Users. Only an owner or an admin can invite people, change their roles or end their access. Every change anyone makes in Manifold is recorded under their name, so people are never deleted: you deactivate them instead.

The Users screen

The table lists everyone who belongs to the organization.

Membership
owner, admin or member. A red Deactivated chip means the person can no longer sign in to this organization. Hover it to see the date.
Roles
What a member may do. Owners and admins show Owner or Admin here: they can do everything, always, and their roles are not edited. A member with no roles shows no roles yet.

Owners, admins and members

Owner
Owns the organization. Can do everything, including making another person an owner.
Admin
Runs the organization. Can do everything an owner can, except make someone an owner.
Member
Can do only what their roles allow. A member with no roles can sign in but sees nothing until you give them one.

Inviting someone

  1. Open Settings › Users.
  2. Enter their email under Invite by email.
  3. Set Role to member or admin, then choose Invite.
  4. If you invited a member, give them roles once they have joined (below).

They get an email inviting them to join. They sign in, or create an account with that address, and choose Accept on their organizations screen. They must confirm their email address before they can accept.

Invitations not yet accepted are listed under Pending invitations. Choose Cancel beside one to withdraw it. There is no resend button: if someone lost the email, cancel the invitation and invite them again.

Only an owner can make someone an owner.

The Users screen has no button yet to make an existing member an admin, or an admin a member. Until it does:

  • Not joined yet? Cancel their invitation under Pending invitations and invite them again with Role set to admin.
  • Already a member? Give them the roles for the work they do (below).
  • To change it anyway, email hello@getmanifold.io.

Giving a member roles

  1. Choose Edit in the member's Roles column.
  2. Tick the roles they need. A person can hold several.
  3. Choose Save.

A person holds everything each of their roles allows. Changes reach them within 15 minutes, without signing out.

Fulfilment
Takes orders and quotes in the admin, and picks, packs and ships them. Use it for someone who keys in phone or email orders.
Receiving
Books deliveries in against purchase orders.
Stock control
Counts, adjusts, transfers and writes off stock.
Purchasing
Raises purchase orders, supplier invoices and landed costs.
Merchandising
Keeps the catalog, prices and sales channels, and sees the margin on orders.
Finance
Sees stock valuation, cost of goods sold and the ledger, and the margin on orders, and records payments.
Store
Sells across the counter. The counter screen is coming; until then the role gives no screen of its own.
Wholesale rep
Takes wholesale orders for companies, without seeing what the stock cost or the margin on an order. The order-form screen is coming; until then the role gives no screen of its own.
Sales manager
Everything a wholesale rep does, and sees the cost and margin on orders and quotes, and the stock on order from suppliers.
Analyst
Reads and builds reports.
Data migration
Imports and exports data in bulk, and can create the records an import brings in.

Only owners and admins change the organization's settings, see billing, erase a person's data or go live. Those are not in any role.

Ending someone's access

Choose Deactivate on their row.

Their access to this organization ends within 15 minutes. The organization drops off their list, and they cannot open it again. Their name stays on everything they did. They keep their Manifold account and any other organizations they belong to.

To undo it, choose Reactivate. They get back exactly the membership and roles they had. You cannot deactivate yourself, and only an owner can deactivate another owner.

Keeping an owner

Every organization must keep at least one active owner with a confirmed email address. Manifold refuses any change that would leave none. To step away as the last owner, first pick someone to take over. They must be active and have confirmed their email.

  1. Choose Make owner on their row. The button is shown to owners only.
  2. Ask the new owner to choose Deactivate on your row.

How people sign in

With an email and password, or with Google when the sign-in screen shows it. Each person can add passkeys (a fingerprint, face or security key) and connect Google on their own Settings › Security page: open the organization menu in the sidebar and choose your name. That page is personal: it applies to you in every organization you belong to.

Outside businesses and agents

  • Partners. An agency, 3PL or bookkeeper working for you is invited in Settings › Partners by its handle, with the most its staff may do. Ask the partner for their handle. Its staff are not your users and do not appear in Settings › Users. Their changes show under their own name and the partner's.
  • AI agents. An agent acts as the person who connected it, never with more than that person's roles. See AI agents.

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