Roles and permissions

What administrators, staff, volunteers and members can each see and do in Phyle, and how to invite people, change their role or turn off a sign-in.

Everyone who signs in to Phyle has one role. The role decides what they can see and change. There are four: Administrator, Staff, Volunteer and Member. This guide explains each one and shows you how to manage your team's sign-ins.

The four roles

Administrator: everything, including settings, users and giving. Administrators are the only people who can change church settings, invite users and see the activity log. Every church needs at least one.

Staff: people, groups, events, giving and messages, but no settings. Staff run the church office: they can import people, send email and texts, record gifts, and read confidential notes.

Volunteer: people, groups, events and check-in, with no giving or confidential notes. Volunteers can look people up and keep their details current, take attendance, run check-in and help with serving and care.

Member: their own profile, family, giving, groups and serving schedule. Members never see the team side of Phyle. When they sign in they go straight to the member portal.

Who can do what

Administrators, staff and volunteers all work in the same screens. The difference is what each role is allowed to reach.

Task	Administrator	Staff	Volunteer
Look up, add and edit people, households and groups	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change someone's email address	Yes	Yes	No
Remove people, households, groups or events	Yes	Yes	No
Import, export, print labels, merge or bulk-edit people	Yes	Yes	No
See allergies and medical notes on a profile	Yes	Yes	Only in check-in
Read others' confidential notes and prayer requests	Yes	Yes	No
Schedule events and take attendance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Run check-in	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set up check-in Classes & rooms	Yes	Yes	No
Schedule serving teams	Yes	Yes	Yes
Track serving Requirements (such as background checks)	Yes	Yes	No
Work follow-ups and workflow boards	Yes	Yes	Yes
Design workflows and build Forms	Yes	Yes	No
Send email and texts (Messages)	Yes	Yes	No
Giving: gifts, batches, pledges, statements, funds	Yes	Yes	No
View reports	Yes	Yes	Yes, except giving
Download reports as CSV	Yes	Yes	No
Settings: church, users, campuses, custom fields, tags, connections, billing, activity log	Yes	No	No
Reopen a closed giving batch	Yes	No	No
Erase a person's data for a privacy request	Yes	No	No

A few details worth knowing:

Confidential notes and prayer requests are hidden from volunteers, but anyone can always read the ones they wrote themselves.
Medical details (allergies and medical notes) are shown to volunteers only where they look after children: the check-in roster and its printout, and allergies on name tags.
Group and event leaders can download their own group's roster or their own event's sign-ups, even if they aren't staff.
Two-step sign-in is required for administrators and staff, because they can see giving and confidential notes. It's optional for volunteers and members. See the two-factor guide.

Items a person can't use don't appear in their sidebar, so volunteers won't see Messages or Giving at all.

Invite someone

Only administrators can invite people.

Go to Settings › Users and select Invite someone.
Enter their Name and Email. They sign in with this email, and each email can belong to only one account.
Choose a Role.
Optionally, choose Their record in People to link the sign-in to their profile. Linking lets them see their own profile, family, giving and serving schedule.
Select Send invitation.

They get an email with a link to choose their password. The link works once, for 14 days. If email isn't connected yet, Phyle shows the link on screen so you can copy it and send it yourself.

Giving someone in your directory a sign-in

From a person's profile, open the More actions menu (the three dots) and select Give them a sign-in. The invitation form opens with their name and email filled in, the Member role chosen and their record already linked. Change the role if they're on your team.

Members can also set up their own sign-in from the member portal using the email you have on file. If you turn on Let newcomers create an account in Settings › Church, anyone else can ask to join. Their requests appear under Waiting for approval at the top of Settings › Users, where you can Approve or Decline each one.

If an invitation didn't arrive or has expired

On the Users list, people who haven't set a password yet show as Invited. Open their account and select Send a new link. The new link replaces the old one.

Change someone's role

Go to Settings › Users.
Find the person (you can search by name or email, or filter by role) and select Edit.
Choose the new Role.
Select Save changes.

The change takes effect the next time they open a page. If you move someone to Administrator or Staff, Phyle will ask them to set up two-step sign-in the next time they sign in.

Phyle won't let you remove the last active administrator. To step down yourself, make someone else an administrator first.

When someone leaves the team, you have two choices.

Turn off their sign-in

This blocks access but keeps the account, so you can turn it back on later.

Go to Settings › Users and select Edit next to their name.
Turn off Can sign in.
Select Save changes.

They now show as Deactivated on the Users list.

Remove the account

Open their account and, under More, select Remove. They can no longer sign in. Their record in People isn't affected, and the work they did in Phyle is kept. You can't remove your own account.

They forgot their password. They can select Forgot password? on the sign-in screen. You can also open their account and, under More, select Create link to make a fresh link for them to choose a new password.

They lost their phone. If two-step sign-in is on, open their account and, under More, select Reset next to Reset two-step sign-in. The two-factor guide explains what happens next.

The Users list also shows when each person last signed in, which helps you spot accounts nobody uses anymore.

Next guide Two-factor sign-in