# Manage reusable roles > PositiveForm guide · User roles · ROLE-001 > Canonical page: https://positiveform.com/guides/roles/manage-user-roles/ > This Markdown: https://positiveform.com/guides/roles/manage-user-roles.md **Summary:** Create, duplicate, edit, import, export, or remove reusable permission roles. Role changes validate server-defined capabilities and do not silently change… **Who can do this:** Studio owners, Organization owners **Required access:** `organization.owner` **Where in PositiveForm:** `/settings/roles` **Status:** Verified on 2026-07-29 against PositiveForm build `9096f81`. ## Who this is for This guide is for the **organization owner**. Roles decide what your staff can reach, so only an owner can create, change, or delete them. A role is a reusable bundle of permissions. A staff member holds everything from all of their roles, plus any direct grants given to them individually. Roles are the maintainable way to run this: change the role once and everyone holding it changes with it. ## Before you begin - Think in jobs, not people. **Front desk**, **Manager**, and **Billing manager** are roles; "Kim's permissions" is not. - Know that a role never affects ownership. Owners hold every permission, and nothing you do here can grant or remove that. - Locations do not narrow a role. Roles apply across the whole organization, so a person's home location does not restrict what their role lets them do. ## Steps ### See the roles you have 1. Click **Settings** in the left navigation, then click **User roles**. 2. Each role is listed with its description, the permissions it carries, and how many staff hold it. A role nobody holds is marked **Not assigned**. ### Create a role 3. Click **New role**. 4. Optionally pick a **Start from a job template (optional)**, or leave it on **Blank custom role**. Choosing a template creates or opens this studio's own editable copy; the template itself is never changed. 5. Give it a **Name** that describes the job, for example `Front desk`, and use **Description (optional)** to say what the role is for. 6. Tick the permissions it should carry under **Permissions**. They are grouped by area, and each one describes what it allows. Read the note above them: everyone with a staff login can already view the console, so a role adds authority rather than granting basic access. 7. Watch for the **High impact** badge. It marks the permissions worth pausing over, such as **Delete operational records**, **Manage studio billing**, and **Approve billing changes**. 8. Click **Save role**. PositiveForm checks your choices against the permissions the server actually defines, so a role cannot claim something that does not exist. The editor also has a **JSON configuration** tab, which shows the same role as a definition you can read or paste. Use it when moving a role between studios; otherwise stay on **Configuration**. ### Change or copy a role 9. Open an existing role to edit its name, description, or permissions. Saving changes it for everyone who holds it. 10. Each role in the list carries actions for editing, duplicating, exporting, previewing, and deleting it. Duplicating confirms with **Role duplicated** and leaves the original untouched. ### Move a role between studios 11. Use **Import JSON** to paste a role definition, and the export action on a role to copy its definition out. PositiveForm validates the definition and shows you what it will create **before** anything is saved, so a bad paste is refused rather than half-applied. ### Delete a role 12. Delete a role you no longer use. Check the assignment count first: deleting a role removes the permissions it was giving everyone who held it. ## Expected outcome Saving confirms with **Role saved**, and the role appears in the list with its permissions and assignment count. Deleting confirms with **Role deleted**. The change takes effect for every staff member holding that role, without touching their other roles or their direct grants. Assign a role to someone from their profile; see [Manage staff access](https://positiveform.com/guides/staff/manage-staff-access/). Nothing here changes ownership. Owner authority is not editable from this page. ## Screenshots ![The User roles list, each role with its permissions and assignment count](https://positiveform.com/guides/media/ROLE-001/20260729T013000Z/001-roles-list.webp) ![The New role editor, with the job-template starter, the Configuration and JSON configuration tabs, and permissions grouped by area with High impact badges](https://positiveform.com/guides/media/ROLE-001/20260729T013000Z/002-new-role-editor.webp) ## Recovery If you save without a name, PositiveForm refuses with **The role needs a name.** If saving fails, you get **Could not save that role.** with the reason, and the role is unchanged. Your edits stay on screen. If a pasted definition is rejected, PositiveForm says **That role definition is not valid.** or asks you to enter valid role-definition JSON first. Nothing is created until a definition validates, so a bad paste cannot half-apply. If deleting fails, you get **Could not delete that role.** and the role stays. If you delete a role by mistake, recreate it and reassign it to the affected staff. There is no undo, which is why the assignment count is worth reading first. ## Related guides - [Preview a role safely](https://positiveform.com/guides/roles/preview-user-role/) — see the console as a role sees it before you give it to anyone. - [Manage staff access](https://positiveform.com/guides/staff/manage-staff-access/) — assign roles to a person and inspect what they end up with. --- Source: PositiveForm customer guides, https://positiveform.com/guides/. Every guide as one file for AI assistants: https://positiveform.com/llms-full.txt. Guide index: https://positiveform.com/llms.txt.