Assign one or more roles, Administrator, Controller, or Requester, to a member so they get the right level of access to Spendesk.
For: Account Owners and Administrators, on all Spendesk plans.
Before you start
Required role: Only Account Owners and Administrators can assign or edit a member's role.
Exception: Only the Account Owner can assign the Administrator role, whether inviting a new member or editing an existing one. Administrators can edit all other role changes.
Plan restriction: None, role assignment is available on all Spendesk plans.
Setup: The member must already be invited to your Spendesk account before you can edit their role. See Invite and manage members.
Step-by-step instructions
Assign a role when inviting a member
Navigate to Settings > Organisation > Members
Click "Invite new members"
Enter the member's email address
Select a role from the Role field: Controller or Requester (default is Requester). Only the Account Owner can select Administrator here.
Click "Send invitation"
Edit an existing member's role
Navigate to Settings > Organisation > Members
Click the member whose role you want to edit
Click "Edit member's profile"
Select or deselect roles in the Role field to update the member's access
Confirm the change to save the updated role
Troubleshooting
Symptom: An Administrator can't invite a new member directly with the Admin role, or can't promote an existing member to Admin.
Cause: For security reasons, only the Account Owner can grant the Administrator role, whether at invitation or afterward. This is expected behavior, not a bug.
Resolution: Ask your company's Account Owner to invite or promote that member to Administrator.
Symptom: An Administrator can't change their own role.
Cause: Administrators can't modify their own role or assign themselves new roles.
Resolution: Ask another Administrator or the Account Owner to make the change.
Symptom: A newly invited member only has the Requester role, even though another role was expected.
Cause: Requester is the default role at invitation. Additional roles can only be combined after the member accepts the invitation.
Resolution: Once the member has accepted their invitation, go to Settings > Organisation > Members, open their profile, and add the extra role(s).
👥 Roles: Only Account Owners and Administrators can assign roles to members. Only the Account Owner can grant the Administrator role, whether inviting a new member or editing an existing one.
⚠️ Warning: A member must always have at least one role. Spendesk doesn't let you remove all roles from a user, to fully block someone, remove them as a member instead.
💡 Tip: To give a new teammate the same access as an existing one, assign them the same role(s) during invitation, or afterward via "Edit member's profile."
Role overview
Role | Who can assign it | Key permissions |
Account Owner | Not assigned — transferred via a dedicated process | Full platform access; the only role that can set which users have the Administrator role |
Administrator | Account Owner only | Configure company and spend control settings, manage members, order physical cards |
Controller | Account Owner or Administrator | Manage accounting, review and pay invoices, download statements, manage budgets |
Requester | Account Owner or Administrator (default role at invitation) | Create requests and payments, view their own payments and subscriptions |
A member can hold several of these roles at once (for example, Controller and Requester combined). For the full permission breakdown per role, see Understand roles and permissions.