Roles and functions

Assign a role and permissions to a person to decide what they can see and do in Sanctumel.

2026-07-04

In Sanctumel, a role defines what a person can see and do: the treasurer reaches the finances, the secretary the members and appointments, the administrator everything. This guide shows you how to manage your church's roles, then how to assign them to the right people.

Note: you need the Administrator (Church Admin) role to manage roles and grant access. A regular user will not see these screens.

Understanding roles and permissions

A role is a set of permissions. Each permission allows one precise action (view, create, edit, delete) on one module (Members, Finance, School...). Giving someone a role grants them, in one step, all the permissions it contains.

Sanctumel ships with ready-made system roles. They are marked with a padlock: you can assign them, but you cannot edit or delete them.

RoleWhat it covers
Church AdminFull access to the church
PastorPreaching, worship, members
TreasurerFinances, tithes, contributions
SecretaryMembers, appointments, gallery
Worship LeaderWorship, preaching, music
DeaconFinance, inventory
Department HeadDepartments and reports
Monitor / TeacherSunday school, library
ViewerRead only

Creating a custom role

If the system roles are not enough, create your own.

  1. Open Settings, then the Roles tab.
  2. Click New role in the top right.
  3. Give the role a name (for example YOUTH_LEADER) and an optional description.
  4. Browse the list of modules and expand each one to tick the permissions you want. Tick a whole module's box to enable everything at once.
  5. Click Create role.

Tip: the counter shown on each module (for example 3/5) tells you how many permissions are ticked. It is a quick way to see what the role allows before you save.

Editing or deleting a role

On the roles list, click Details to expand a role's permissions and see exactly what it allows, module by module.

For a role you created, two buttons appear: the pencil to adjust its permissions or description, the trash can to delete it. System roles stay read only.

Warning: editing a role immediately affects everyone it is assigned to. Check who uses it before removing permissions.

Assigning a role to a person

Assignment does not happen on the member's record but in access management.

  1. Open Settings, then the Users tab.
  2. Find the person in the list.
  3. Click Manage access.
  4. Tick the role or roles to grant; untick the ones to remove.
  5. Click Save.

A person can hold several roles at once: their permissions are then the sum of all their roles. The change takes effect immediately.

Note: to grant access to someone, they must first have a user account in your church. A member record alone is not enough to open a session.

Going further

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