User Roles Explained

BuildChart has four roles that control what each person can see and do inside a project. Understanding these roles is key to setting up your team correctly and keeping sensitive information — like budget figures and internal notes — visible only to the people who need them.

The Four Roles

Super Admin — Platform-wide access to manage all users, projects, and billing. This role is internal only and is not available to regular users. Super Admins can view and administer every project on the platform from the /admin dashboard.

Owner / Builder — The paying customer who creates and owns a project. Owners have full control: they edit the Gantt chart, manage the budget, invite subcontractors and customers, configure dependencies, approve task completions, and adjust project settings. Most builders will operate in this role on their own projects.

Subcontractor — Invited per project by the owner. Subcontractors see only the tasks assigned to them by default, though they can toggle a switch to view the full Gantt chart. They can mark their own tasks as complete and submit them for review, but they cannot edit other people's tasks or view budget data.

Customer / Homeowner — Invited per project by the owner. Customers get a simplified, read-only portal view showing progress circles, milestone timelines, and any items assigned to them. They cannot see budget figures, contractor communications, internal notes, or edit controls of any kind.

Roles Are Per-Project

An important distinction: roles are assigned per project, not globally. The same person can be an owner on their own projects and a subcontractor on another builder's project. Theproject_members table tracks which role each user holds on each project independently.

Permissions Table