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# Invite your team and choose roles

Inviting your team lets everyone work on client requests in Zendo with their own account. Each person has one of five roles. You invite people on **Settings › Workspace › Team**, and your plan decides how many people you can add. Clients are not managed on this page; you find them under **Clients**.

## Invite a team member

1. First set your team's notification defaults on the **Team members** tab of **Settings › Workspace › Notifications**, because new team members start with whatever is set there. See [Set notification defaults for your team and clients](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/set-notification-defaults-for-your-team-and-clients-7uej9f/).
2. Open **Settings › Workspace › Team** and check the **Seats** and **Watchers** counters, which show something like `2 / 10`.
3. If no seat is free, select **Add seats**.
4. Select **Invite team members** and choose the **Seat type**: **Agent** or **Watcher**. The number next to each type shows how many seats of that type are used.
5. Enter the person's email address in **Invite by email**. This is the address they will sign in with. You can invite up to 5 people at once. You can also select **Copy link** under **Invite link** and send the link yourself.
6. Select **Send invites**.

![The Seats and Watchers counters (2) and Add seats (3) next to the page title.](https://getzendo.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/kb-w2-header.webp =424x102)

![The invitation: the seat type (4), the email address (5) and Send invites (6). The invite link can be copied instead.](https://getzendo.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/kb-w2-invite.webp =626x593)

The invitation only asks for the seat type. You choose the role after the invitation, with **Change role**, as described below.

A seat is taken as soon as you send the invitation, not when the person accepts it. If you invite more people than you have free seats, the whole invitation is refused.

The person then activates their account themselves. Until they do, their **Status** is not **Active**. Once they have activated it, everyone whose notification settings include **Team member joined** is notified.

## A watcher does not use a seat

Your plan has two separate limits: one for seats, and a much larger one for watchers. Which limit a person counts against depends on their role:

| Role | Counts against |
|---|---|
| **Owner** | Seats |
| **Admin** | Seats |
| **Manager** | Seats |
| **Agent** | Seats |
| **Watcher** | Watchers |

Paid plans include two watchers for every seat. So the role you give someone affects what you pay. A person who needs to follow what is happening, but not act on it, can be added as a **Watcher**.

## What each role can do

A team member is assigned to a request when they are one of its participants, either added by hand with **Add participants** or by an automation of the request type.

| | Watcher | Agent | Manager | Admin | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| See the requests they are assigned to | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| See internal notes | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| See every request | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Create requests, reply and change status | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Archive requests | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Edit and delete their own messages | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Edit and delete other people's messages | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Chat with clients in **Messages** | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| See clients, orders, quotes and invoices | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Add, invite and edit clients | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Send quotes and invoices | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Edit request types, their statuses and automations | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Create custom fields and forms | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Create services and set up the Front Desk | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Invite team members and change roles | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Make someone an owner | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Connect a custom domain | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Manage the plan and billing | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |

A watcher is an internal role. They see internal notes, clients, orders and documents, but cannot change anything and do not use **Messages**.

## Change a team member's role

1. Open **Settings › Workspace › Team**.
2. In the person's row, open the **⋯** menu and select **Change role**.
3. Choose the role and select **Change role**.

Promoting a watcher to any other role needs a free seat. If every seat is in use, add seats first.

![Change role: pick the new role (3). The note warns when promoting would need another seat.](https://getzendo.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/kb-w2-change-role.webp =661x534)

## Where else roles matter

Roles are used in two other places. A sidebar made for **Internal users** can be limited to particular roles, so that different roles get different navigation, and a dashboard can be limited the same way, with **Visible to**. In these role pickers, all five roles together appear as `All roles (5)`.

Roles have nothing to do with assignment. Automations on a request type assign named people, and the **Assignees** filter on the requests list filters by person. Notification defaults are not set per role either: there is one set for the whole team.

## Remove a team member's access

To stop someone from working in the workspace, open the **⋯** menu in their row and select **Deactivate**. They can no longer sign in, but they stay on the Team page together with their history: the requests they were assigned and the messages they wrote.

Nothing you change on **Settings › Workspace › Team** affects your clients. Clients have their own statuses and their own notification defaults.

## Share an invitation link

An invitation link lets several people join without an email from Zendo. Each time you select **Copy link** in **Invite team members**, Zendo creates a new link that stays open for 30 days. To control a link better, create it on the **Invitation links** tab of **Settings › Workspace › Team**:

1. Open the **Invitation links** tab and select **New link**.
2. Give the link a **Name**, so you know later where you sent it.
3. Choose how long it stays open in **Open for**: 1 day, 7 days, 30 days or **Unlimited**.
4. Optionally, set a **Sign-up limit**, the number of people who can join with it.
5. Choose the **Seat type**, then select **Create link**.

The tab lists every link with its expiry date, the number of people who **Joined** with it and its **Status**. Use **Copy link** to copy it again, or **Revoke** to close it before it expires. Anyone who has the link can join while it is open, so do not post it anywhere public.

## Bring a team member back

A deactivated team member keeps their row on the Team page. To let them work again, open the **⋯** menu in their row and select **Activate**. They need a free seat of their type.

## Look at Zendo as a team member

To see Zendo the way a team member sees it, open the **⋯** menu in their row and select **View as member**. This is useful when you have changed a role, a sidebar or a dashboard and want to check the result. The owner's row cannot be deactivated, and there is no menu on your own row.

## Related

- [Understand your plan and limits](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/understand-your-plan-and-limits-56zm9l/)
- [Set notification defaults for your team and clients](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/set-notification-defaults-for-your-team-and-clients-7uej9f/)
- [Change your team's sidebar](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/change-your-teams-sidebar-1n7llbp/)
- [Build a dashboard](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/build-a-dashboard-1dy17xy/)
- [Automate a request type](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/automate-a-request-type-1m2cf6k/)