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 roles on the People & Access page.

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 users, org settings, workflows, and automations; Manager runs the team — the workload board, coverage, 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 role' screen — the levels are fixed, so access is predictable across every firm.

  1. 1

    Set a person's access level

    On People & Access (/app/settings/team), the 'Access' dropdown on each row lists all five levels. Change it and it saves immediately. When you invite someone, the same choice appears in the invite modal — minus Owner, which can't be granted by invitation.

    The Access dropdown is where a role is assigned; hovering an option shows its plain-language description.
  2. 2

    Check what each level actually grants

    Below the table, expand 'What can each access level do?'. This discloses the same plain-language description for all five levels that the platform uses everywhere, so you can assign access with confidence instead of guessing from the label.

  3. 3

    Note what invitations can (and can't) grant

    Reopen the 'Invite Team Member' modal and look at its role list: Admin, Manager, Staff, Read-only. Owner is absent by design — ownership is transferred deliberately, not handed out with an invite. Existing members can still be moved to any level (including your firm's needs) from the table's Access dropdown.

Tips & pitfalls

  • There's no screen for fine-tuning what each role 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 level — assign a colleague first 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.
  • Roles are assigned, not authored: there is no screen to edit what a level grants.
  • Invitations exclude Owner; use the 'What can each access level do?' disclosure as the in-app reference.
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