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.
| Role | What they see and do |
|---|---|
| Church Admin | Everything, including billing and access management |
| Pastor | Every module: members, visitors, finance, all sermons, school, worship. Administration (roles, billing) stays with the admin |
| Preacher | Preaching only: they write and manage their own sermons. Only the pastor and the admin see everyone's sermons |
| Treasurer | Full finance, department reports (offerings), certificates. No access to the member directory |
| Secretary | Members and visitors (registry), appointments, documents, events, posts, messages, gallery, library, store |
| Deacon | Members and visitors in read-only (welcome, pastoral care), recording collections (no editing or validation), inventory |
| Worship Leader | The whole worship universe: songs, services, programs, projection, radio, events. No directory: a minimal picker to build the choir |
| Department Head | Their department: reports and team scheduling |
| Monitor | Sunday school and monitor scheduling |
| Teacher | School and library |
| Participant | Only their own schedule (view, accept, decline) |
| Viewer | Content only (services, sermons, programs, posts). Never members, finances or the school |
Sensitive data is protected by default
The member directory, visitors and finance are sensitive data (GDPR). By default, only a handful of roles can access them:
- Members: admin, pastor and secretary (the deacon can view without editing).
- Visitors: admin, pastor, secretary and deacon (the welcome team).
- Finance: admin, pastor and treasurer (the deacon records collections, without editing or validating).
The other roles (worship, monitor, teacher, treasurer, department head) get a minimal people picker: to build a choir, schedule a team or attribute a donation, they choose a name from a list (name, photo, function) - without ever opening the full records (contact details, address, family, notes).
If your church works differently, you are not stuck: create a custom role with exactly the permissions you want and assign it on top. Permissions add up.
Creating a custom role
If the system roles are not enough, create your own.
- Open Settings, then the Roles tab.
- Click New role in the top right.
- Give the role a name (for example YOUTH_LEADER) and an optional description.
- 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.
- 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.
- Open Settings, then the Users tab.
- Find the person in the list.
- Click Manage access.
- Tick the role or roles to grant; untick the ones to remove.
- 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.