# Staff roles and permissions

> Academium SMS Help › Employees
> For: School Owner, School Admin
> Web page: https://helpcenter.academium.com.ng/academium-sms/article/sms-roles-and-permissions
> Last updated: 2026-10-06

A **role** decides what a member of staff can see and do. Everyone in the same role has the same permissions; you change what a person can do by changing their role, or the role's permissions.

## Who can manage roles

The **School Owner** and **School Admins** manage roles from **Employees → Staff Permissions**. A school admin cannot change their own role or the School Owner's role.

## The built-in roles

| Role | Typical use |
| --- | --- |
| School Owner | Everything, including settings, branches, devices and the subscription |
| School Admin | Day-to-day running of the school and its staff |
| Teacher | Teaching and assessment |
| Accountant | Fees, accounts, payroll and tax |
| Receptionist | Front desk and prospective students |

You can create your own roles, such as *Bursar*, *Head of Year* or *Librarian*, and rename them.

## Setting permissions

Choose a role to see its permissions, grouped into cards by module. For each permission there are four separate rights:

- **View**: see the records
- **Add**: create new records
- **Edit**: change existing records
- **Delete**: remove records

So a role can be allowed to *see* a record without being allowed to *change* it.

Use **search** to find a permission, **expand / collapse** to open the cards, and the **"all"** toggle at the top of a column to tick every box in it.

## Built-in limits

Some built-in roles can never be given certain areas, whatever is ticked, so that a mistake cannot hand them out:

- **Teachers** and **Receptionists** can never access money and accounting.
- **Accountants** can never access teaching and assessment.

On the permissions screen, areas a role is barred from are hidden, with a count of how many are hidden. These limits do not apply to roles your school creates.

## Some things are only for the owner or admins

A few pages are tied to the role itself rather than to permissions. For example, **Devices & Access**, **School Branches** and **Subscription** are for the School Owner, and **Session Settings** and **Staff Permissions** are for the School Owner and School Admins.

## Common issues

**A member of staff cannot see a menu item.** Check their role's **View** permission for that module. Also check the module is turned on for your school and included in your plan.

**I ticked a box but it did not stick.** The role may be barred from that area by a built-in limit (see above). Create a new role for that person instead.

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