The idea
Three roles, and two jobs you can hand out.
Everyone in your organization is a member, an admin or the owner, and that is the whole of what decides where they land when they open Doris. Two further things are handed to particular people without changing that: a member can be made the team booker for their team, and an admin can be made a finance admin, who sees the money and nothing else. Nothing on this page is a paid feature; every plan has every role.
| Capability | Member | Team booker | Finance admin | Admin | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book a room for themselves | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Book for someone else | No | Their team | No | Anyone | Anyone |
| See every booking, with names | No | Their team | No | Yes | Yes |
| Move or cancel any booking | Own only | Own, and the ones they entered | Own only | Yes | Yes |
| Approve bookings | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Rooms, hours, pricing, settings | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Add members, teams, plans and cards | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Payments, statements and reports | Own statements | Own statements | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change roles | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| The subscription, card payments, transfer, delete | No | No | No | No | Yes |
A member
A member books rooms, sees their own bookings, cancels their own bookings and reads their own statements. That is the everyday role and nearly everyone has it. On the shared views a member sees when a room is taken, and sees who took it only if your organization allows names and that person chose to show theirs. A member can leave your organization from their Account page at any time, and their history stays.
For example
A counsellor books Room 2 on Tuesdays, sees her own bookings on her phone, cancels one when a client cancels, and reads her statement when it arrives. Other people's bookings show her only that the room is taken.
Leave it alone if
You are the only person who ever books. Then you are the owner and this beat is about everyone you will add later.
An admin
An admin runs the diary: every booking with every name and detail, move and cancel anything, approve what needs approving, the rooms, the hours, the prices, the members and their teams, cards and plans. You can have up to three, not counting the owner, and only the owner appoints them. Someone added as an admin starts marked Keep always active, so the inactivity clock does not pause the person who runs the place; if you promote a member later, check that switch.
For example
The booking secretary at a village hall. She adds the new drama group, moves the Thursday class when the roof leaks, approves the wedding, and never sees the subscription because that is the treasurer's, who is the owner.
Leave it alone if
It is just you. The owner is an admin with more, so you need no admins until someone else helps run the diary.
A finance admin
A finance admin is an admin whose Doris is the money pages and nothing else: Payments, Statements, Reports, Overview, the money side of a guest hire, and a read-only members list with each member’s payment details. They never see the diary as an admin and never change a setting; for their own bookings they are a member like anyone. Finance admins do not count against the three admin seats, so a bookkeeper and an accountant cost you no operational admin. The owner chooses the role on the member’s page.
For example
The treasurer. He opens Doris and sees Payments, Statements, Reports and Overview. He marks bank transfers as paid, sends the overdue reminder, adjusts a statement, and reads the members list to put a name to a payment. He cannot open the diary or change a room.
Leave it alone if
Whoever does the money also runs the diary. Then they are a plain admin, and this role would only take things away from them.
A team booker
A team is a named set of members. Mark one of them the team booker and they can book for their teammates, see their teammates’ bookings by name, and cancel the bookings they entered. A booking they make for a colleague is the colleague’s in every way that matters: it is priced on the colleague’s rate card and plan, it goes through approval like any member booking, and if it would cost the colleague something it waits for the colleague to accept it. The moment someone leaves the team, the team is archived, or the booker becomes an admin, the power goes with it.
For example
The practice secretary is the team booker for the Physio team. She books Room 1 for Dr Okafor on Friday, and the booking is Dr Okafor's: his card's price, his plan's hours. If it would cost him, he gets a tap to accept before it is confirmed. She can cancel it later because she entered it; his own Tuesday booking is not hers to touch.
Leave it alone if
Everyone books for themselves. Teams are a grouping you can use without ever naming a booker.
The owner
There is one owner: the person who completed the setup. The owner is an admin with the things only one person should hold: the Doris subscription, connecting card payments, the billing cycle, the address and timezone, the active membership rule, changing roles, running the setup again, transferring ownership and deleting the organization. Nobody can remove the owner, and an owner who wants to leave must transfer first.
A transfer goes to any active member, admin or not; the new owner gets everything, and the old one becomes an admin, or a member if all three admin seats are taken. When an owner has gone without transferring, any full admin can send a request from the same page: I tell the current owner, one request is open at a time, and Doris reviews it by hand rather than letting anyone take an organization on a button.
For example
The chair hands over at the AGM. On Settings, Organization, she transfers ownership to the incoming secretary and becomes an admin herself. Two years later the secretary vanishes; the treasurer, an admin, sends a transfer request from the same page, I tell the missing owner, and Doris reviews it.
Leave it alone if
The person who signed up is still the person in charge. Ownership only comes up when that changes.
What I never do
- I never show a member another member’s email address. Names, only when both the organization and the member say so.
- I never let an admin remove the owner, or let the owner leave without handing over.
- I never let a team booker spend a colleague’s money without the colleague’s nod. A booking that would cost them waits for them.
- I never let a finance admin move, cancel or approve a booking. The money pages are the whole of that role.
- I never give anyone a role because of a plan. Every plan has every role.
Where it lives
The Members page lists everyone with their role, team and card, and the Teams button is where teams are named. A member’s own page carries their role, their team and the team booker switch under Access. Ownership is on Settings, then Organization. A member I created an account for, who has never signed in, gets a sign-in link from their page, good for 30 days. Someone who already had their own Doris account never does: nobody but them can sign in as them. Adding people is Adding your members (bookwithdoris.com/guides/inviting-members), and what I hold on each of them is Member records and privacy (bookwithdoris.com/guides/member-records-and-privacy).