Understanding Permissions in Assembled – Assembled
How permissions work
Assembled uses roles to bundle permissions. Each person is assigned one or more roles. A role defines what that person can access across the product.
Permissions are organized in layers:
- Role — The label assigned to a person (for example, Team Lead, Manager, or a custom role you created).
- Feature permissions — What pages and actions the role can use (view schedules, edit schedules, publish schedules, view reports, manage people, and so on).
- Event type permissions (optional) — For schedule editing, you can further limit which event types someone can edit or request changes for (for example, lunch breaks vs. time off).
- Data restrictions (optional) — Some roles only see data that matches the person's filters (queues, teams, sites). Restricted sites on a person's profile can also limit what they see.
Custom roles are common. Many companies duplicate a default role (such as Team Lead) and change a few settings. Two people with similar job titles may have different access if they are on different roles or custom variants.
Only users with permission to manage roles and permissions (typically Admin) can change what a role allows. Go to Settings → Roles and permissions to view and edit roles.
For detailed steps on creating roles, editing permissions, and assigning roles to people, see Managing roles and permissions.
Default roles at a glance
When you create a role, you start from a template. These are the built-in templates and typical use cases:
| Role template | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Basic agent | Vendor or part-time agents who only need to view their own schedule. |
| Standard agent | Agents who view their schedule and submit requests (time off, schedule changes). |
| Team lead | Leads who view and edit team schedules, use realtime, and view many reports. |
| Manager | Managers who edit schedules, manage people (for selected roles), approve requests, publish schedules, and access broader reporting. |
| Admin | Administrators who configure company settings, integrations, and all roles and permissions. |
Important: Template names describe defaults. If your company uses custom roles (for example, "Team Lead – APAC"), permissions may differ from the table above. Always check the role in Settings → Roles and permissions, not just the job title.
The Admin role cannot be edited. All other roles can be customized or duplicated.
Schedule permissions (the most common source of confusion)
Schedule access is split into several permissions. A user might be able to edit events but still be blocked from other schedule actions.
View schedules
Controls whether someone can open the staffing schedule and whose schedule they see:
- Can view all agents' schedules
- Can view only their own schedule
- No schedule viewing access
Edit schedules
Controls whether someone can change events on the timeline:
- Can edit all agents' schedules
- Can edit only their own schedule
- Can request schedule changes (submits changes for approval instead of applying them directly)
- Can edit schedules with custom permissions — Per–event-type rules (see below)
If edit access is set to custom permissions, open the event-type settings for that role to see which event types allow Can edit, Can request changes, or Has no edit access.
Publish schedules
Publish schedules is separate from Edit schedules.
In the product, this permission is described as: Publish the contents of test schedules to the live default schedule.
It also controls access to recurring events (see next section). Users without Publish schedules may still edit individual non-recurring events but cannot create or edit recurring event series.
Other schedule-related permissions
Depending on your plan and configuration, roles may also include:
- Schedule uploads — Upload schedules from CSV
- Restore schedules — Restore previous schedule versions
- Manage templates — Create and apply schedule templates
- Approve and deny event change, overtime, and shift swap requests
Recurring events: why Team Leads often cannot edit them
A frequent support scenario: a Team Lead can edit regular events but sees "You do not have permission to edit recurring events" when clicking Edit recurring event details…
This happens because recurring events require both of the following:
- Recurring events enabled for your company (an account-level capability).
- The Publish schedules permission on the user's role.
The default Team lead template includes Edit schedules but does not include Publish schedules. That is why Team Leads are blocked from editing recurring series (such as recurring lunch breaks) even when they can edit one-off events.
How to give Team Leads access to recurring events
An Admin (or anyone with Can manage roles and permissions) should:
- Go to Settings → Roles and permissions.
- Open the Team Lead role (or your custom Team Lead role).
- Under Schedule (or Staffing → Schedules, depending on your navigation), find Publish schedules.
- Enable Can publish schedules.
- Save the role.
Users already assigned that role will get the updated access on their next page load (they may need to refresh).
Note: Publish schedules also allows publishing test schedules to the live schedule. If you only want leads to manage recurring lunches — not full publish rights — consider creating a custom role duplicated from Team Lead with only the permissions you need, or contact support@assembledhq.com to discuss your workflow.
What Team Leads can do without Publish schedules
With Edit schedules only, Team Leads can typically:
- Add and edit single (non-recurring) events
- Change times on individual occurrences where allowed by event-type permissions
They cannot:
- Create new recurring event series from the timeline toolbar
- Use Edit recurring event details… to change the series rule, participants, or pattern
Event type permissions
When a role uses custom permissions for schedule editing, access is defined per event type.
For each event type, you can set:
- Can edit — Direct edits on the schedule
- Can request changes — Changes go through your approval workflow
- Has no edit access — No changes for that event type
If someone can edit most events but not one type (for example, Lunch or Break), check:
- Their role's Edit schedules setting (custom vs. edit all).
- The event type list under that role's schedule permissions.
Reports, realtime, and settings
Permissions are grouped by area in the role editor, for example:
- Schedules — View, edit, publish, uploads, restore, templates, time off, overtime, shift swaps
- Reports — Team performance, agent scorecard, trends, schedule analytics, and others
- Realtime — Realtime overview and analysis
- People — View people, manage people, or manage only people with certain roles
- Company settings — Integrations, event types, queues, API keys, roles and permissions
- Assist / AI agents — Separate permission groups if your company uses those products
If a page is missing from the navigation entirely, the user's role likely has no access for that feature — not a loading issue.
For AI agent–specific permissions, see AI Agents permission guide.
Restricted sites and data restrictions
Some users only see data for certain sites, teams, or queues:
- Restricted sites on a person's profile limit which site's data they see.
- Data restrictions on a role can limit reports and realtime to data matching the user's filters.
Symptoms include empty reports, missing agents on the schedule, or "no permission" on pages that peers can access. Compare the affected user's filters and restricted sites with a user who has working access.
In Roles and permissions, look for settings such as Restrict data access everywhere by user filters or Restrict data access by user filters for specific features or pages.
Assigning roles to people
Roles are assigned on the People page when creating or editing a person.
- Only roles you are allowed to assign appear in the dropdown (for example, Managers may only assign certain roles).
- Changing a person's role takes effect after they refresh or sign in again.
- If someone was recently promoted, confirm their role was updated — not only their team or title fields.
Troubleshooting checklist
When someone reports a permissions issue, work through this list:
| Check | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Exact message | Copy the tooltip or error text (for example, "edit recurring events"). |
| Role name | People → user → which role(s) are assigned? |
| Custom role? | Settings → Roles and permissions → open that role and compare to the default template. |
| Schedule: view | Can they see the schedule at all? |
| Schedule: edit | Edit all, edit own, request only, or custom event types? |
| Schedule: publish | Required for recurring events. |
| Event type | If custom permissions, is that event type set to Can edit? |
| Restricted sites / filters | Do they have restricted sites or filter-only data access? |
| Feature enabled | Recurring events and some settings depend on account capabilities — ask support if unsure. |
Common issues and fixes
"You do not have permission to edit recurring events"
Cause: Role lacks Publish schedules, or recurring events are not enabled for your account.
Fix: Enable Can publish schedules on the role (see Recurring events above), then have the user refresh.
User can view but not edit the schedule
Cause: Role has View schedules but not Edit schedules (or only Request access).
Fix: Update the role under Edit schedules, or switch the user to a role with edit access.
User can edit some event types but not others
Cause: Custom permissions with per–event-type restrictions.
Fix: On the role, open custom event type permissions and set the relevant types to Can edit (or Can request changes if you use approvals).
Manager cannot assign Admin role to someone
Cause: Manage people permissions may limit which roles a Manager can assign.
Fix: An Admin must assign elevated roles, or expand Create, edit, or delete certain people to include the needed roles.
Page or settings item is missing from the menu
Cause: Role has no permission for that feature.
Fix: Compare with an Admin user's navigation, then add the corresponding permission to the role.
Permissions changed but user still blocked
Fix: Ask the user to hard refresh the browser or sign out and back in. Confirm they are on the updated role (not a duplicate custom role).
Who can change permissions?
- View roles and permissions — Can open the roles page and see settings (read-only).
- Manage roles and permissions — Can create, edit, and duplicate roles and change policies (typically Admin only).
If you do not see Settings → Roles and permissions, your account does not have access. Contact an Admin at your company.
Still need help?
Email support@assembledhq.com with:
- The affected user's email and role name(s)
- The exact page and action (with screenshot if possible)
- The full permission error message
- What you already tried (for example, enabled Publish schedules on Team Lead)