Sharing one login among your staff is the quickest way to lose track of who did what. In Tabs, everyone who works in your business gets their own login.
Two words do the work here. A member is a person. A role is a set of permissions that decides what that person can see and change. You give every member one role.
Inviting someone
The only way into your business is by invitation.
- Go to Members and press Invite member.
- Enter their email address. To invite several people at once, separate the emails with commas.
- Pick the role they'll have.
- Send.
Each person gets an email. If they don't have a Tabs account yet, they sign up with that same email address first. They can then accept or decline.
Until they answer, the invitation shows on your Members page as pending, with the date it runs out.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Sent, waiting for an answer |
| Expired | Not answered within 7 days |
| Declined | They turned it down |
| Revoked | You took it back |
Resend sends a fresh email and gives another 7 days. Revoke takes a pending invitation back, and the link in their email stops working. You can always invite the same person again.
Once someone accepts, they appear on the Members page as active.
The number of people you can have depends on your plan. See account and billing.
Roles
Tabs comes with two roles. They're marked as system roles and can't be edited or deleted.
- Owner. Full access to everything, including anything added to Tabs later. The person who created the business holds it.
- Staff. A ready-made role for the people who work for you.
For most shops, two roles aren't enough. A cashier and a store keeper shouldn't be able to do the same things.
Making your own role
Go to Roles and press Create role. Give it a name, then tick what it can do. The permissions are grouped by area, and most areas split into viewing, creating, editing and removing.
| Area | Examples of what you can allow |
|---|---|
| Products | View, add, edit, remove, change sale status |
| Orders | View, create, edit, hand over, take payments, record returns, delete |
| Customers | View, add, edit, remove, manage groups |
| Stores and transfers | View, add, edit, remove |
| Suppliers | View, add, edit, remove |
| Members | View, invite, change roles, suspend, remove |
| Roles | View, create, edit, remove |
| Chat | Read, send, start chats, add people |
| Business | Edit business settings and billing |
A role needs at least one permission. You can change a role at any time, and the change applies to everyone who holds it.
Three roles that suit most shops
Cashier. Views products. Creates orders, takes payments, hands over items. Views and adds customers. Uses chat. Can't edit products or adjust stock.
Store keeper. Views and edits products, so they can adjust stock and run counts. Views and creates transfers. Views suppliers. Doesn't take payments.
Manager. Everything the other two have, plus editing orders, recording returns, voiding payments, and viewing members.
Keep a few things for yourself as owner: deleting orders, changing roles, and business settings.
What a role changes on screen
People only see what their role allows. A page they can't open doesn't appear in their menu. A button they can't use is hidden, or shown switched off with a reason.
Cost prices are a good example. They only show to someone whose role can see them. That means your sales staff can sell all day without ever seeing your margins.
Deleting a role
A role that's still assigned to someone can't be deleted. Move those people to another role first.
Changing what someone can do
Find the person on the Members page and choose Change role. Pick the new role and save. It takes effect on their very next action. They don't need to log out.
The owner role isn't in the list, because being the owner isn't something you hand out as a role. And nobody can change their own role.
When someone takes a break or leaves
You have two choices, and the difference matters.
Suspend cuts off their access straight away. Nothing is deleted. They keep their role, and you can Reactivate them whenever you like. Use it for leave, for a dispute, or while you look into something.
Remove from business ends their membership. They lose access on their next action. To bring them back you'd invite them again.
In both cases their name stays on everything they did: the orders they served, the stock they adjusted, the chats they were in. Removing a person never rewrites your history.
The owner can't be suspended or removed, and you can't do either to yourself.
The Members page
The page opens on the people who are active. Other views show everyone, suspended people, or invitations in each state. You're listed first, marked as you.
Search by name or by an invited email address. Click a person to open their page.
Seeing what a person did
A member's page has four parts:
- Their details. Name, job title, phone number and the store they work in.
- What they can do. Their role's permissions, laid out by area.
- The orders they handled.
- Their activity. A dated list of what they did in the business, which you can search and filter by date.
That last list is why separate logins matter. With a shared login, "who reduced the stock of baby milk on Thursday?" has no answer. With one login per person, it's written down.
Colleagues' profile cards
Anywhere a colleague's name or photo appears, clicking it opens a small card with their name and job title. From there you can message them, or open their full page if your role allows it.
If something goes wrong
They say the email never came. Check the spelling of the address, ask them to look in spam, then resend.
They can't accept. They need to confirm their own email address in Tabs first. Or the 7 days have passed, and you need to resend.
A page is missing from their menu. Their role doesn't include it. Edit the role, or give them a different one.
You can't invite anyone else. You've reached the number of people your plan allows.