Managing Roles and Permissions

Open Settings > Roles to see the staff roles and the property roles, set the access of a role on its cards, and learn the rules of the role order.

This article is for community staff. 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. To change what a person can do, give the person a different role, or change the role.

Open the Roles page

1. Select Settings in the navigation.

2. Select the Roles tab.

To see the Roles tab, your role needs User accounts set to Add & edit. By default, only the Admin role has it.

The page has two lists:

Staff roles set what your community staff can do.

Property roles set what the people at a property can do.

The Roles tab under Settings, with the Staff roles list and the New role button

Each row shows the place of the role in the list, the name of the role and the number of its permissions. A role that holds every permission shows All permissions. A default role shows Default. Your own role shows Your role.

If your community is part of a community group, the page shows Shared across the group. The roles then apply to each community in the group, and a change applies to all of them.

How the role editor works

Select the row of a role. A dialog opens with the name of the role and its permissions.

The permissions 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, but cannot change them.

Can manage: the role can see, add and edit the records.

Full control: the role can also delete the records.

Custom shows when the card has a mix of permissions that matches no level. You cannot select Custom yourself.

To set each permission of an area, select the header of the card. The card opens and shows one row for each area, with the View, Add & edit and Delete columns. When you select Add & edit or Delete, MyWatchtower also selects View.

The Edit role dialog of the Gate Attendant role. The People & homes card is open and shows the View, Add & edit and Delete columns for each area.

The dialog tells you how many people have the role. When you select Save changes, the change applies at once to each person who has the role. MyWatchtower shows Role updated for everyone who has it. To close the dialog with no change, select Cancel.

Community roles

The default community roles are Super Admin, Admin, Supervisor, Gate Attendant and Resident.

Super Admin is the role of your integrator. You can open it and see what it gives, but you cannot change it. Only JEKA support can give this role to a person.

Admin has each community permission. Nobody can change its permissions, so an Admin always keeps the Roles page.

Supervisor and Gate Attendant are default staff roles. You can change their permissions and their names.

Resident is the community role of a person who lives at a property and has no staff role. It does not show in the Staff roles list. The property roles set what residents can do at their property.

The role order and the grant limit

The Staff roles list is in order of rank. A role higher in the list outranks the roles below it. Super Admin and Admin always stay at the top.

You can give a person only a role that is below your own role. An Admin can also give the Admin role. A role that you cannot give shows At or above your role.

You can change, move or delete only a role that is below your own role.

In a role, you can give only the permissions that you hold. A level that gives more shows a lock. A checkbox that gives more shows Not yours to grant.

To change the order on a computer, drag the handle of a row. On a phone, use the up and down arrows. Then select Save order. A new role starts at the bottom of the list. See *Reorder the Role Hierarchy*.

Property roles

The default property roles are Owner, Manager and Resident. The Tenant role is no longer used. Each person who had it is now a Resident.

Owner is always at the top of the list. Nobody can change it, so an owner can always manage their own property. You can open it and see what it gives.

You can change the permissions of Manager and Resident.

For what each property role does, see *Property Roles Explained*.

The Property roles list with Owner at the top, then Manager and Resident, and the New property role button

Create, clone, rename and delete roles

Create: select New role or New property role. See *Create a Custom Role*.

Clone: select the copy button on the row of a role. See *Clone a Role*.

Rename: you can rename Gate Attendant, Supervisor, Manager and each custom role. Super Admin, Admin, Resident and Owner keep their names. A staff role name can have up to 50 characters, and a property role name can have up to 20.

Delete: select the delete button on the row of a custom role. Then select Delete in the dialog. You cannot delete a default role. You cannot delete a role while a person has it.

View your own role

Select the row of the role that shows Your role. The dialog shows each card with its level, and the message "You can view your own role, but you cannot change it." Select Close.

The Role: Admin dialog in view mode, with the message that you can view your own role but cannot change it

Best practices

To make a role for a new job, clone the role that is nearest to it, then change the copy.

Keep the order of the list correct. The place of a role sets who can give it.

Before you remove a permission from a role, think about each person who has the role. The change applies to all of them at once.

To give the Super Admin role to a person, or to take it away, contact JEKA support.