Capability: control

Roles you write yourself

Estimark ships six built-in roles, and where none of them fits you write your own: a role is a name and the exact set of capabilities you tick, and it replaces the preset rather than sitting on top of it. There are 217 capabilities in eighteen groups, from “See jobs they are assigned to” to “Release retention” and “Export payroll files”. On top of whichever role somebody holds you can grant or revoke a single capability for that one person, and set what they may commit and approve in pounds.

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Where six fixed roles run out

The QS who must not run payroll

A quantity surveyor has to see margin on every job and must never reach a pay rate. With six roles to choose from they end up an admin, and an admin can do the lot.

The apprentice and the HR module

Buying the HR module should not mean the newest lad on the books can read everybody’s salary, NI number and bank details. Owning a feature and being allowed to use it are two separate questions.

All of the phone or none of it

A labourer who can only see the jobs he is on still needs the COSHH sheet for the drum he is about to open, and still has to be able to write down an accident.

Authority nobody wrote down

The order that went out at £40,000 was approved by somebody. Six months on, working out who, and whether they were allowed to, is an afternoon of going through email.

Capability: how it works

How does a custom role work?

You give it a name, a description and the capabilities it carries, and it replaces the built-in preset for anybody you put on it. What you save is the complete set rather than a difference from Manager, so a “Site Supervisor” you wrote in March does not quietly pick up whatever gets added to Manager in September.

Role names are unique within your company, and a role can be switched off without being deleted.
A company that has never written one has no custom roles at all, and behaves exactly as it did before.
Each custom role records which built-in role it bills as, so inventing a role for somebody does not re-price your subscription.
Creating and editing roles is itself a capability, so the person who can change what everyone else may do is somebody you chose.

Can I make an exception for one person without inventing a role?

Yes. Every membership carries its own grants and revokes on top of whichever base applies. “A manager, but without the margins” is one revoke against one person rather than a whole role you then have to maintain.

Revokes beat grants. A capability that is somehow both granted and revoked is refused, because the safe reading of a contradiction is the restrictive one.
A revoke closes upward. Take away the right to see job margin and the right to set budgets and cost entries goes with it, otherwise the revoke would be decorative.
A grant naming a capability that has since been renamed or removed is dropped rather than carried, so the role editor never shows a tick that enforces nothing.
Broad capabilities imply narrow ones. Somebody who can see every job can see the ones they are assigned to, and no screen has to remember to check for both.

What can a capability actually cover?

Eighteen groups, matching the way the work is divided in a contracting business rather than the way the database is laid out. Each one reads in the role editor as a sentence about a person.

Group	Capabilities	Includes
On site	34	Raise snags, sign off snags, write the diary, approve daywork sheets, answer RFIs
Administration	28	Change what people are allowed to do, read the audit trail, change plan and modules
Quotes	16	Send quotes to clients, manage follow-ups, run the tender register
Jobs	14	See every job, move jobs on the board, see budgets, costs and margin
Invoicing	13	Raise and certify applications, see retention held, release retention, void invoices
Purchasing	12	Raise purchase orders, approve them, set approval limits, edit the price book
Compliance	12	CIS, CDM records, certificates, insurance, environmental and carbon
HR	11	Employee records, pay rates, NI and bank details, payroll generation
Leave & expenses	11	Their own leave and expenses or everybody’s, and who signs them off
Reporting	11	Run operational reports, run financial reports, export data to CSV
Housing	10	Reactive repairs, Awaab’s Law cases, the compliance register, voids and SOR rates
Clients	9	Clients, their contacts and sites, and merging two records into one
Safety	8	Issue and supersede RAMS, issue permits to work, record accidents, COSHH and asbestos
Assets	8	Vehicles, plant, van stock and takeoffs
Hours	6	See their own hours or everyone’s, approve hours, export payroll files
Handover	6	Compile and issue handover packs, manage warranties and warranty defects
Workforce	4	Training records, card expiry and site attendance

NoteCapabilities carrying money, personal data or a deletion are flagged as financial, personal or destructive, and the role editor warns before you grant one. The flag is a warning to the person setting the role, not a second lock. The eighteenth group covers products that are not on sale yet, so nothing in it resolves for anybody.

How do spend limits work on a purchase order?

Two numbers per role, because committing money and authorising somebody else’s commitment are separate powers. A raise limit is what a person may put out on their own signature. An approve limit is what they may sign off for someone else. An order above the raiser’s limit cannot be issued until somebody with the authority approves it.

Role	Raise on own signature	Approve for someone else
Owner	Unlimited	Unlimited
Admin	£25,000	Unlimited
Manager	£10,000	£25,000
Office member	£1,000	None
Field worker	£500	None
Viewer	None	None

NoteThose are the defaults until you set your own, and they are pitched low on purpose: a limit set too low costs somebody an approval request, and one set too high costs money. Either figure can be overridden for a single person, and every approval writes a record carrying who acted, their role, the order total at that moment and the limit that applied.

Can a capability let somebody into a module we have not bought?

No. Owning a feature and being allowed to use it are checked separately and both have to pass. A capability whose module you do not hold resolves away entirely, so the role editor cannot hand out reach into something that is not on your plan.

The safety and statutory records an operative needs are not gated on a module, so recording an accident or opening a COSHH sheet works on any plan.
Adding a module later turns on the capabilities that ride on it, against the roles that already had them ticked.

What stops a new screen shipping with no check on it?

Every route in the API either declares the capability it needs or declares itself public in writing, and a test walks the whole route table and fails the build on anything that declares neither. A screen added next year cannot be left open by somebody forgetting.

The web app and the field app build their menus from the same resolved set the server enforces, so a tile cannot appear for something the API will refuse.
A capability the resolver does not recognise fails closed rather than falling through to a default.

NoteThis is access control within your own company account. It is not a security certification, and no third party has audited it.

Permissions, in numbers

Built-in roles: 6
Capabilities: 217 in 18 groups
Field worker preset: 39 of the 217
Custom roles: Named and defined by you
Per-person: Grants and revokes
On conflict: Revoke wins
Spend authority: Raise and approve, per person
Sensitivity flags: Financial, personal, destructive
Undeclared route: Fails the build

Which plan

Every plan

Included

Roles, capabilities, per-person exceptions and purchase order limits are part of the product rather than a paid add-on. They are there from Solo at £39 a month upward, though a company on 2 seats has little to divide up. Core at £129 a month covers 5 users, and Pro at £299 a month covers 20.

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What you get

Six built-in roles, usable as they are
Custom roles with the capabilities you choose
Per-person grants and revokes
Purchase order raise and approve limits, per role or per person
An approval record that keeps the limit that applied

Purchase Orders is £15/month on its own and included from Core. The roles themselves are not a module and are never charged for.

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Questions

Roles & permissions: frequently asked

Can I create my own roles in Estimark?

Yes. A custom role has a name, a description and the exact capabilities you tick, and it replaces the built-in preset for anybody assigned to it. Role names are unique within your company and a role can be deactivated without being deleted. There are 217 capabilities to choose from, in eighteen groups.

Can I stop someone seeing job margins?

Yes, and for one person rather than everybody on their role. Revoke “See job budgets, costs and margin” against that membership and it also removes the right to set budgets, forecasts and cost entries, because a revoke closes upward. Revokes beat grants wherever the two disagree.

Can I limit how much someone can spend on a purchase order?

Yes. Each role carries a raise limit, the most that person may commit on their own signature, and a separate approve limit, the most they may sign off for somebody else. Both can be overridden for one individual. An order above the raiser’s limit waits for an approval, and the approval is recorded with the person, their role, the order total and the limit that applied.

Does a custom role change what my subscription costs?

No. Each custom role records which built-in role it bills as, so seat billing reads that rather than the capability list. Writing a “Site Supervisor” role changes what that person may do and leaves what they cost alone.

What happens if we buy a module later?

The capabilities that ride on that module start resolving for the roles that already had them ticked. Until then they resolve away, so nobody can be granted reach into a feature the company does not hold.

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