Roles — admin, editor, viewer

Every workspace member has one of three roles: admin, editor, viewer. They define what they can do in the workspace.

Three logics behind:

• Admin = can do everything, including structural decisions
• Editor = can work with data but doesn't change structure
• Viewer = watches, doesn't touch

When to pick admin

• Yourself on the workspace you created (admin by default)
• The partner in a symmetric family where both have equal voice
• A co-founder in a shared workspace (e.g. you and your sibling jointly managing the beach house)

Remember admins can do destructive things like delete the workspace or remove other admins. Give the role only to people you trust at that level.

When to pick editor

The default role for most cohabiting family members:

• The partner if you want to keep the workspace under your admin control
• A flatmate who pays their share and marks their expenses but doesn't administer
• An adult child who has a FamSpend account but doesn't manage structure

Editor can do the daily work (add bills, mark as paid, edit amounts) but doesn't touch the structure.

When to pick viewer

Rarer but useful cases:

• An elderly parent who wants to keep an eye on expenses but doesn't want to risk a misclick
• An advisor (accountant, financial planner) who helps you see but doesn't edit
• You in someone else's workspace where you were invited for consultation

Viewer can change nothing, not even the status of an expense. It's read-only.

The last admin can't be stripped

A workspace must have at least one admin. If you're the only admin:

• You can't remove the admin role from yourself
• You can't remove yourself from the workspace
• If you want to leave or change role, promote someone else first

This avoids leaving an orphan workspace with nobody to administer it.

Changing a member's role

From Settings → Members, click the member, pick the new role, save. The change is immediate.

Common example: you gave the partner editor, after a few months you promote them to admin (because they now also handle invites and Centers). One click.

What does NOT change between roles

All roles see the same things. There are no "admin-only expenses", no "private Centers". A workspace is completely transparent inside — what changes is who can modify.

If you want privacy between people, the answer isn't the role — it's creating two separate workspaces (e.g. one personal, one family).

Security: what the role is NOT

Roles are application authorization, not data security. A viewer can still see everything — it's not a "limited view permission".

If you have data some members shouldn't see, viewer isn't enough: you have to separate into different workspaces.