Lesson 2 of 7 · 9 min

Roles and access levels

The five built-in access levels and what each one can do.

Lesson 2 of 7

MatterFirst has five access levels arranged as a fixed hierarchy. Higher levels inherit everything below them, so choosing a role is really choosing how far up that ladder someone sits.

Before you start

  • Admin or Owner access to change other people's access on People & roles.

The five access levels

From most to least privileged: Owner, Admin, Manager, Staff, and Read-only. Each has a numeric level — Owner 100, Admin 80, Manager 60, Staff 40, Read-only 20 — and every level inherits the abilities of the ones beneath it. In practice: Owner controls billing and the subscription plan; Admin manages people, firm settings, kinds of work, and automations; Manager runs the team — Home › Team, cover, automations, reports, and matter teams; Staff work the matters and leads assigned to them; Read-only can view but not change anything.

The hierarchy is fixed — there is no per-role editor

Each ability is tied to a required access level. For example, managing org settings and users needs Admin, running automations and viewing reports needs Manager, creating matters needs Staff, and changing the subscription plan needs Owner. You choose a person's level; you don't edit what a level grants. There is no 'fine-tune permissions per level' screen — the levels are fixed, so access is predictable across every firm.

  1. 1

    Set a person's access level

    On People & roles (/app/settings/team), click a person to open Edit person. Access lists the levels, with a sentence under it saying what the chosen one can do; Save changes to apply it. Choosing a Job suggests the access that job usually has. When you invite someone, the same Access choice is in Invite your team — minus Owner, which can't be granted by invitation.

  2. 2

    Check what each level actually grants

    Choose Compare access (in the page's ⋯ menu, or under Access in Edit person). It lays the five levels side by side in the same plain words the platform uses everywhere, so you can assign access with confidence instead of guessing from the label. The Who can do what tab lists everyone's access, to download or sign off as a review.

  3. 3

    Note what invitations can (and can't) grant

    Invite your team offers every level except Owner. Owner is absent by design — ownership is given deliberately, not handed out with an invite. Once someone has joined, an owner can move them to any level in Edit person.

Tips & pitfalls

  • There's no screen for fine-tuning what each level can do. The access levels are fixed, so what an Admin or Manager can do is the same in every MatterFirst firm.
  • Owner (100) is the only level that can change the subscription plan and the firm-wide default rate; Managers (60) get day-to-day billing but not plan changes.
  • You can't change your own access — ask another owner if you need to move yourself down.

Key takeaways

  • Five fixed levels: Owner 100, Admin 80, Manager 60, Staff 40, Read only 20 — each inherits the ones below.
  • Access levels are assigned, not authored: there is no screen to edit what a level grants.
  • Invitations exclude Owner; Compare access is the in-app reference.
Managing team members Organising your firm into teams

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