Overview

In Kayako, each user account is assigned to a particular role with different permissions. Customer user accounts, for example, have only limited access to some Help Center features. Owner accounts, on the other hand, have full permissions on Kayako's settings and configurations like changing subscription plan.

In this article, we will go over the five out-of-the-box user roles (Customer, Collaborator, Agent, Administrator, Owner), the individual permissions that each role has, and the steps necessary for changing the role for a particular user.

 

Information

Refer to the following linked sections to learn more:

• Understanding the different user roles available
• Changing the role of a user

Understanding the different user roles available

To control which users have access to specific features, Kayako has five standard user roles, each with different permissions:

Role	Description
Customer	All new users are customers by default. They can sign in to the Help Center to start and keep an eye on their conversations with your support team.
Collaborator	This role allows users other than your agents to view conversations and leave private notes on conversation timelines. Collaborators let you loop internal stakeholders into important conversations, without having to buy each one a seat on your account. Learn more in our article on collaborators.
Agent	This role allows users to manage and respond to conversations and Help Center content without giving them access to Kayako's configuration options.
Administrator	More power, more responsibility. This role grants support managers and other power users access to a broad range of permissions for customizing and configuring Kayako. Administrators and Owners can change the user roles in Kayako.
Owner	The most powerful of all the user roles in Kayako. When your organization signs up for Kayako, the initial user account that is created will automatically be assigned to the owner role. You can also assign the owner role to additional users. This can be done by the owner user account only. In addition, only the owner role can assign the Owner role or delete another Owner account. An owner cannot delete or disable their own account.

Note: When calculating pricing, any user in the Agent, Admin, or Owner role counts as one agent. Each plan allows for a set number of Collaborator users as well, and there is no limit on your Customer users - we know you will have loads!

 

The following table describes the permissions for each user role:

PERMISSIONS	CUSTOMER	COLLABORATOR	AGENT	ADMIN	OWNER
HELP CENTER PERMISSIONS
Log in to the Help Center	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Submit & reply to conversations	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
View help center articles	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Edit their user profile	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Edit existing help center articles		✓	✓	✓	✓
Publish help center articles			✓	✓	✓
Manage the Help Center			✓	✓	✓
CONVERSATION PERMISSIONS
Access the agent area		✓	✓	✓	✓
Be assigned to conversations			✓	✓	✓
Post private notes to conversations		✓	✓	✓	✓
Reply publicly to conversations			✓	✓	✓
Split and merge conversations			✓	✓	✓
Trash conversations			✓	✓	✓
USER & ORGANIZATION PERMISSIONS
Create and update users and organizations			✓	✓	✓
Delete customer users and organizations			✓	✓	✓
Manage teams				✓	✓
Delete staff users and teams				✓	✓
Manage roles and permissions				✓	✓
Grant or revoke the Owner role					✓
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION PERMISSIONS
Access the admin area				✓	✓
Manage endpoints				✓	✓
Manage channels				✓	✓
Manage brands				✓	✓
Manage conversation views				✓	✓
Manage conversation macros				✓	✓
Manage localization				✓	✓
Manage automations				✓	✓
Manage SLAs and business hours				✓	✓
Manage conversation fields				✓	✓
Manage custom user and organization fields				✓	✓
Manage system configuration				✓	✓
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT PERMISSIONS
Access account management					✓
Change subscription plan					✓
Update billing information					✓

Note: Permissions for Administrator and Agent user roles can be further customized under Roles and permissions in the Admin area. If you are on the Scale or Enterprise plan you will also be able to add custom roles.
Learn more in our article about customizing user roles.

Changing the role of a user

Now that you have a good idea of what the different user roles do, let us look at how to change the role for a particular user. Each user account is assigned to a specific user role. You can change this assignment at any time by editing their user profile.

Note: To edit user roles in Kayako, you will need an administrator account with the "Manage roles and permissions" permission, which is available for Administrators and Owners by default. However, only the Owner role can assign an 'Owner role' to another user account.

Follow these steps to change the role of a user account:

1. Sign in to Kayako and go to the agent area.
2. Search for and open the user profile you want to edit.
3. From the Role field, select the user role you want to assign them.
4. Click the Submit or Update Properties button to save your changes.
5. When changing the role to or from Customer, a warning dialog box will pop up and ask you to confirm the change.