When no default role fits a job in your community, make your own role. A role is a named set of permissions. Each person who has the role gets the same permissions. MyWatchtower has no permissions for one person only, so the role is how you set what a person can do.
If a role that you have is near what you need, copy it instead. See *Clone a Role*.
The Roles page has two lists:
- Staff roles set what your community staff can do.
- Property roles set what the people at a property can do, such as owners and managers.
Before you start
- To open the Roles tab, your role needs User accounts set to View and Add & edit. By default, only the Admin role has them.
- You can give a new role only the permissions that you hold. A level that gives more shows a lock. A checkbox that gives more shows Not yours to grant.
Create a staff role
1. Go to Settings > Roles.
2. In the Staff roles list, select New role. The New role dialog opens, and each card shows No access.
3. In Role name, type a name that tells what the role is for. Use 50 characters or fewer, and do not use the | character.
4. Set the access on each card. See *Set the access on a card* below.
5. Select Create role. MyWatchtower shows Role created.
Each staff role needs a name of its own. You cannot use the name of a default role, such as Admin, Supervisor or Gate Attendant, with any mix of capital and small letters.
Set the access on a card
The permissions of a role are in cards. Each card holds a group of related areas. A staff role has seven cards: People & homes, Visitors & entry passes, Entry activity, Cameras & clips, Doors & devices, Incidents & alerts and Community management.
On each card, choose a level:
- No access: the role cannot see the areas of the card.
- Can view: the role can see the records.
- Can manage: the role can see, add and edit the records.
- Full control: the role can also delete the records.
A level gives a permission only where the area has it. For example, an area with no delete permission is the same under Can manage and Full control.
To give single permissions:
1. Select the header of the card. The card opens and shows one row for each area.
2. Select the checkboxes in the View, Add & edit and Delete columns. A dash shows where an area does not have that permission.
When you select Add & edit or Delete, MyWatchtower also selects View. While Delete is on, View stays on and shows Included.
When the checkboxes match no level, the card shows Custom. You cannot select Custom yourself. It only tells you that the card has a mix of permissions.
On a phone, each card has a list of levels in place of the buttons.
Create a property role
1. Go to Settings > Roles.
2. In the Property roles list, select New property role.
3. In Role name, type a name of 20 characters or fewer. Each property role needs a name of its own, so you cannot use Owner, Manager or Resident.
4. Set the access on each card. A property role has four cards: People & home, Visitors & entry passes, Entry activity and Property management.
5. Select Create role. MyWatchtower shows Property role created.
A property role needs at least one permission. Until you give one, Create role is not available, and the dialog shows Select at least one permission for this role.
If the save fails
The dialog stays open and shows the reason in red. Nothing is saved. Correct the name or the permissions, then select Create role again. To close the dialog with no change, select Cancel.
After you create the role
- The new role goes to the bottom of its list. A role higher in the list outranks the roles below it, and a person can give only the roles below their own. To move the role up, see *Reorder the Role Hierarchy*.
- Nobody has the new role until you give it to a person. To give a staff role, go to Access > User List, select the person, and choose the role in User Role.
- When you change a role later, the change applies at once to each person who has it.
- You can rename or delete a staff role that is below your own role. You can delete a role only when nobody has it.
- If your community is part of a community group, the roles are shared across each community in the group. A change applies to all of them.
For more about the default roles, see *Managing Roles and Permissions*.