When someone joins your workspace, they get two separate things: a role and a seat.
- The role decides what they can do to the workspace itself — invite people, change billing, remove members.
- The seat decides the maximum level of access they can have on any project — view only, or view and edit.
These are independent. An admin can have a viewer seat. A regular member can have an editor seat. The two settings answer different questions.
For the broader picture of how this fits with project access and teams, see Access Control Overview. For the workspace-settings UI walkthrough (logo, units, switching workspaces), see Manage Workspace.
Roles
| Role | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Owner | Full control of the workspace. Owners can do everything admins can, plus manage other owners and change ownership. A workspace must always have at least one owner. |
| Admin | Day-to-day workspace management. Admins can invite and remove members, change seat types, create and manage teams, and share projects. Admins cannot change the role of an owner or another admin, and cannot promote someone to owner. |
| Regular | Ordinary workspace member. Can create and use projects based on the access they've been given, but cannot manage other members or change workspace settings. |
| Guest | A limited member — usually someone outside your organization who only needs access to specific projects. Guests do not automatically see projects that are shared with "the whole workspace". They only see projects they've been added to directly or via a team. |
A few rules that come up in practice:
- You cannot remove the last owner of a workspace. Transfer ownership first.
- Owners cannot change or remove other owners — each owner manages themselves.
- Admins cannot modify or remove other admins or owners. Escalate to an owner if needed.
Seats
A seat is a billing concept — the workspace pays for a number of seats of each type, and each member occupies one.
| Seat | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Editor | Can view and edit projects, up to whatever access they've been given. An editor seat + edit access on a project means they can actually edit. |
| Viewer | Can only view projects, even if they have edit access on paper. If a viewer-seated member is granted edit access on a project, they still can't edit — the seat caps what they can do. |
| Field worker | A specialized seat for mobile/field data collection through Field Apps. |
The important rule: the seat is a ceiling, not a grant. Giving someone a seat does not give them access to any project. Giving them access to a project does not let them edit if their seat doesn't allow it. Both need to be in place.
Billing
Billing is kept separate from everything else. Only owners can see or change billing information. This includes:
- Viewing invoices and payment methods.
- Starting or changing a subscription (checkout, upgrading, downgrading).
- Cancelling or reactivating a subscription.
- Managing the Stripe customer portal.
Admins can manage seats (assigning a member to Editor vs Viewer), which affects how many paid seats you're using — but admins cannot see the actual bill, change the plan, or update the payment method. If you need someone handling billing day-to-day, make them an owner.
For details on the Billing tab itself (seat counts, plan features, usage tracking), see Billing and plans.
Common questions
"We promoted someone to admin but they still can't edit a project." Role and seat are separate. Check their seat — if it's Viewer, they can't edit anything regardless of their role.
"I want a contractor to only see one project." Invite them as a Guest. Then share the specific project with them directly. They won't see any of your other projects, even ones shared with the whole workspace.
"How do I give someone full power over everything?" Make them an Owner with an Editor seat.