Every person in Ally has one role. Your role decides where you land when you sign in, which menu items you see and which settings you can change. Which projects you can open is decided by your company and each project's visibility setting (see "Project access" below).
Roles fall into two groups:
Internal team: people who work for your company (Admin, Manager, Employees, Direct Labor).
External collaborators: people outside your company you invite to work on a project (Client, Architect, Designer, Landscape, Other Consultant).
Internal team roles
Admin
For company owners and the people who run the account.
Signs in to the Dashboard.
Sees the full menu: Overview, Timesheets, Vendors & Bills, the Manage section (Cost Codes, Budget Templates, Master Subcontracts) and the Active, Completed and Archived project lists.
Is the only role that can open the Business tab in Settings to change the company name and logo.
Can see every team member in the company, along with their contact details and role.
Manager
For project managers who run jobs day to day.
Signs in to Notifications.
Sees the same main menu as an Admin: Overview, Timesheets, Vendors & Bills, Manage (Cost Codes, Budget Templates, Master Subcontracts) and the project lists.
Inside a project, has every tab: Clipboard, OAC, Approvals & RFIs, Schedule, Budget, Bids, Billing, Pay Apps, Subcontracts, Files, Punch and People.
Settings: Personal and Integrations tabs (no Business tab).
Employees
For office and field staff who work on projects but don't manage the company setup.
Signs in to Notifications.
Sees the project lists and the projects they have access to.
The Overview and management menu items are reserved for Admins and Managers.
Settings: Personal and Integrations tabs.
Direct Labor
For crew members who mainly log time and work through assigned tasks.
Signs in to Notifications.
Gets a simplified menu centered on Tasks and Timesheets.
The full project lists and the management menu items are hidden.
Settings: Personal and Integrations tabs.
External collaborator roles
Client, Architect, Designer, Landscape and Other Consultant are for people outside your company who you invite to specific projects.
They see a Client Projects list with only the projects they've been invited to.
Internal menu items (Overview, Timesheets, Vendors & Bills, Manage) are hidden.
Clients sign in straight to the project's OAC page. All other external roles sign in to Notifications.
Settings: Clients see only the Personal tab. Other external roles also see Integrations.
Project access
What you can open in a project depends on the project's visibility setting:
Visibility | Who can open it |
Public | Everyone in your company. |
Invite Only | Only the people added to the project's People list. |
External collaborators only ever see the projects they've been added to.
Who can see whose information
Your own profile: you can always see and edit your own details.
People in your company: you can see your teammates' names, contact details and roles. This is what makes features like the People tab, task assignments and notifications work.
People outside your company: you see only basic details such as name, photo and phone. Email addresses and company details stay private.
Changing someone's role: only Admins can change a teammate's role, and only for people in their own company.
Quick reference
Capability | Admin | Manager | Employees | Direct Labor | External roles |
Lands on after sign-in | Dashboard | Notifications | Notifications | Notifications | OAC (Client) / Notifications |
Overview & management menu | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Project lists | All company projects | All company projects | Company projects | No (works from tasks) | Invited projects only |
Settings: Business tab | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Settings: Integrations tab | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No for Client, yes for others |
Can change teammates' roles | Yes | No | No | No | No |