Roles and permissions
What each role can do and how location scoping works.
Rowie has four roles. The owner role is set automatically at signup. Admin and staff are assigned when you invite someone from the Staff page in the vendor portal. POS and Kitchen system accounts are auto-created per location (see Staff, POS and kitchen logins).
Owner
- Created at signup, one per organisation.
- Full access to every surface (portal and mobile).
- The only role that can manage Billing (Rowie subscription).
- Manages Stripe (Banking), other owners, and admins.
- Cannot be demoted or deleted without transferring ownership.
Admin
- Full vendor-portal access org-wide. Sees aggregated data across every location, no location switcher.
- Can take payments on the mobile POS.
- Can invite staff, configure the organisation, manage banking.
- Cannot manage billing (the Rowie subscription) or transfer ownership.
Staff (User role)
- Scoped to one or more specific locations assigned by an owner or admin.
- Mobile POS only. The invite modal labels this role "User. App only access" and warns "Users can only access the Rowie mobile app and are limited to the menus you assign below." Users do NOT have a vendor portal login.
- Takes payments on the mobile POS, scoped to the assigned locations.
- The mobile app's Account → Location picker lets a user switch between assigned locations when they have access to more than one.
POS / Kitchen system accounts
- Non-personal accounts auto-created by Rowie, one POS and one Kitchen account per location.
- Sign in with email (e.g.
pos-<id>@rowie.io) plus a password generated or set on the location card in Organization. - Scoped to the single location they belong to.
- Can take payments on the mobile POS only. No vendor portal access.
- Filtered out of staff analytics so they don't pollute by-employee breakdowns.
Location scoping cheat sheet
| Capability | Owner | Admin | Staff (User) | POS / Kitchen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor portal | Yes (org-wide) | Yes (org-wide) | No | No |
| Mobile POS payments | Yes | Yes | Yes (per-location) | Yes (per-location) |
| Stripe / Banking | Yes | View-only | No | No |
| Invite / manage staff | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Organization settings | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Billing (Rowie subscription) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Analytics | Yes (org-wide) | Yes (org-wide) | No | No |
What "scoped" actually means
When a staff or POS/Kitchen account is signed in on the mobile app, every action is tied to the location they're working at. Sessions, orders, products at that location, bookings, and floor plans are all filtered to that location. Owners and admins skip the filter entirely and see aggregated data across all locations.
If a staff member has access to multiple locations, the mobile app's Account → Location picker switches between them. It only appears when they have access to more than one.