Roles and permissions: who can do what?

In Heartsome, a person's role determines what they can see and do. Most people in your company are simply employees. Only people who genuinely handle HR, hiring or billing get extra permissions.

The roles at a glance

Employee. Everyone in Heartsome. An employee can:

• view their own profile, contract, documents and assets
• request time off and (if the company allows it) report themselves sick
• view colleagues, the org chart and Who's away
• fill in surveys and take part in review cycles

Manager. This isn't a role you assign. Someone automatically becomes a Manager as soon as at least one colleague reports to them. You set this in that colleague's employment details. For their direct reports, a Manager can:

• view the profile and edit the general details
• view contracts and assets (but not change them)
• approve or decline time off requests, and book time off
• report absence, follow it up and report recovery
• view reviews where they are the manager

What a Manager can't see: sensitive personal data (identification number, personal email address, home address, bank account number), salary, and their reports' documents. Reports of reports aren't included either. A Manager only sees the people who report directly to them.

HR admin. For whoever handles people matters. An HR admin can:

• add, invite, suspend and remove colleagues
• handle onboarding for new colleagues and leaving for colleagues who go, with the checklists that come with them
• view and edit every profile, including sensitive data and salary
• manage contracts, documents and assets
• manage everyone's time off and absence
• set up time off policies, hours tracking, teams, locations, useful links and preferences
• set up surveys and review cycles
• view and export all reports

Hiring admin. For whoever manages job openings. A Hiring admin can:

• view and manage all job openings and applications
• edit the career website and branding
• set up application forms, vacancy stages and locations

People without this role can still help with a job opening. They'll only see the openings where they've been added to the hiring team.

Billing admin. For whoever pays the bills. A Billing admin can manage the subscription, update the payment method and view invoices.

Account owner. The person who created the Heartsome account. There is always exactly one account owner. They can do everything the other roles can, and also:

• edit the general company details
• give anyone any role
• transfer the account to someone else
• delete the account

The account owner can't be suspended or removed.

One person can have several roles at once, for example HR admin and Billing admin.

Giving or removing a role

1. Go to People and click the colleague.
2. Open the Permissions tab.
3. Switch HR, Hiring or Billing on or off.

The change takes effect immediately. You'll see the message Admin permissions updated. and the change is recorded in the employee's change log.

Good to know:

• You can only give a role you have yourself. An HR admin can make someone else an HR admin, but not a Billing admin. The account owner can give anyone any role.
• You can't change your own permissions.
• You can also assign a role when adding a new colleague (step 4 — Permissions).
• Is someone leaving? Then their admin roles are removed automatically the night after their last day. If the colleague comes back later, or the leaving is cancelled after the last day, the roles don't come back by themselves. Give them again on the Permissions tab. Suspending does keep the roles.

Transferring the account to someone else

Is the account owner leaving, or should someone else manage the account? The account owner can transfer it. Only the account owner can do this. Once the account owner's leaving is recorded, "Hand over account ownership" appears as an action item on their Pulse. Do it before the last day: as long as someone is the account owner, Heartsome can't end their access.

1. Go to People and click the three dots next to the colleague.
2. Choose Make account owner.
3. Enter your password and type TRANSFER to confirm.

The colleague is then the new account owner. You keep the HR admin, Hiring admin and Billing admin roles.

The option only appears for colleagues who have accepted their invitation and confirmed their email address.

Updated on: 21/10/2026