Overview/Roles and permissions

Roles and permissions

Slate has eleven roles. A person holds exactly one, and that single choice determines their screen, their actions, and the approvals they can give. This page is the authoritative reference.

The eleven roles

Roles are grouped into six experiences. People in the same group see a similarly shaped screen; people in different groups see genuinely different software.

Role	Experience	What it is for
Owner	Leadership	The agency principal. Sees everything, including agency-wide health, money, and bottlenecks.
Admin	Leadership	Same reach as Owner for day-to-day operation, including the most sensitive operations such as voiding records and unlocking filed VAT periods.
Manager	Operations	Runs the team's day and the review pipeline. The broadest working role: can create and progress most objects.
Sales	Growth	Owns leads, the pipeline, proposals, and deal progression.
Marketing	Growth	Captures and qualifies leads; contributes to content that generates inbound interest.
Finance	Finance	Invoices, payments, expenses, VAT. Deliberately shielded from production noise.
Editor	Production	Cutting the video: assigned edits, briefs, assets, feedback, and the two-day SLA.
Videographer	Production	Capturing the footage: call sheets, shot lists, checklists, uploads, post-shoot reports.
Intern	Production	Production support with a deliberately reduced surface — cannot create projects.
Freelancer	Production	External production help, restricted the same way as an intern.
Client	Client portal	Your customer. Sees only their own projects and only the decisions that need them. Signs in with a portal link, never a password.

Approvals follow roles, not names Approvals are bound to roles, and the person currently holding the role is shown alongside it. When the Creative Director approves something, the record shows both the person and the role. If responsibilities change hands, history still reads correctly.

The permission matrix

The table below is the practical version, written in plain language. Where a cell says “own”, the person is limited to work assigned to them.

Activity	Owner / Admin	Manager	Sales / Marketing	Finance	Editor / Videographer	Client
See all projects and clients	Yes	Yes	Pipeline only	Finance view	Assigned work	Own only
Create a project	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Manage leads and pipeline	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Approve a proposal	Yes	Yes	Sales Chief	No	No	No
Approve an invoice before sending	Yes	Yes	Sales Chief	Prepare	No	No
Sign off a content plan before it reaches a client	Yes	Yes	No	No	Creative Director	No
Create a client portal link	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Record a payment as received	Yes	By permission	No	Yes	No	No
Issue and void receipts	Yes	Issue	No	Yes	No	View own
Manage expenses and credit notes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
File a VAT period	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Unlock a filed VAT period	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Run client activation checklist	Yes	Yes	No	Contribute	No	No
Reveal a stored credential	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Manage the monthly content cycle	Yes	Yes	No	No	Contribute	No
Delete a content cycle	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Capture and organise footage	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Submit an edit for quality control	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Classify a revision request	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Manage posting and performance	Yes	Yes	Marketing	No	No	No
Approve content plan / final QC	Yes	Yes	No	No	Creative Director	Plan only
Use an urgent-shoot override	Configurable	No	No	No	Creative Director	No
Approve or request changes on a video	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Manage team members and roles	Yes	Limited	No	No	No	No

Reading the matrix “Yes” means the role can perform the action. A role name in the cell means that specific role is the designated approver, regardless of who else might technically have access. “Contribute” means the role can add information to the object without being able to advance or approve it.

The matrix is not merely descriptive. Your role determines which items appear in the navigation and which screens the system will open for you — a videographer cannot reach billing by typing the address, and an accountant does not see production screens. Each role also receives its own notifications, so the work that belongs to you is the work you are told about.

The two named approvers

Two approvals are deliberately tied to specific roles rather than to general manager access. This is what makes them meaningful controls rather than permissions anyone can exercise.

Sales Chief

Currently held by Sultaan. Approves proposals before they are sent, and approves invoices before they leave the agency. Nothing commercial goes out without this sign-off.

Why it matters: pricing and terms are the most commercially sensitive things the agency sends. Requiring a single accountable approver prevents accidental discounting and inconsistent terms.

Creative Director

Currently held by Ayman. Signs off content plans, gives final approval on quality control, decides contested revision classifications, and holds the urgent-shoot override.

Why it matters: creative quality and client-facing promises converge in one accountable person, so work cannot reach a client because someone was in a hurry.

Setting and changing the two approvers

Who currently holds each role is set once in Settings › Approver roles, by an owner or administrator. Slate resolves the named person on every approval and shows them alongside the role — so a change of hands is reflected immediately, while every past decision still reads correctly.

These two roles are not optional Several rules depend on them. An invoice cannot be approved without a Sales Chief, and a content plan cannot reach a client without a Creative Director. If either is left unassigned, approvals fall back to the agency owner rather than stalling — but the accountability the role is meant to create only exists once it is set.

Delegation and absence

Because approvals bind to roles, covering for absence does not require reconfiguring rules. You either delegate the role to another person for a window, or hold the role jointly for a period. The audit trail records who actually acted and under which role, so coverage never obscures accountability.

How role changes work in practice

An administrator changes the role
Team management is available to Owners and Admins. Changing a role takes effect immediately and no historical records are rewritten.
The screen changes on next load
The person's navigation, dashboard composition, and available actions update to match their new role.
History stays accurate
Past approvals continue to show the role held at the time of the decision, so reports and audits remain truthful.
Outstanding work is reassigned deliberately
Slate does not silently move someone's queue to another person. Outstanding items are reassigned explicitly, so nothing falls through a gap during a handover.

A practical warning Avoid giving someone a broader role than they need “just in case”. The whole value of Slate's role model is that the accountant does not see production annotations and the videographer does not see billing. Broadening roles casually destroys that clarity and weakens the approval controls.

Where to go next

Read the guide for your own role first, then skim the others so you understand who to hand work to.

Roles and permissions

The eleven roles

The permission matrix

The two named approvers

Sales Chief

Creative Director

Setting and changing the two approvers

Delegation and absence

How role changes work in practice

Where to go next

Leadership

Growth

Operations