# Members & Roles

Invite teammates with one of four roles (owner, admin, member, viewer). Each role controls a precise set of capabilities.

Invite teammates to your account and give each one a role: owner, admin, member, or viewer. Every dashboard capability is gated by role, so picking the right one matters.

An Otter account can have as many members as you want, each with one of four roles. The role decides what they can do — from a viewer who can only read, all the way up to the owner who controls billing. Roles are per-account, so the same person can be an owner of your account and an admin or member somewhere else without conflict.

Two invariants are enforced by the data model and worth knowing upfront: **exactly one owner per account**, and **the account must always have an owner**. You can't end up with two, and you can't end up with zero — which means transferring ownership is a real action with a specific flow.

## The four roles

### Owner (`owner`)

One per account. Has every permission. Billing and ownership-transfer are owner-only.

**Can:**

- Manage billing and the subscription
- Invite, remove, and re-role members
- Configure integrations, branding, API keys
- Create, edit, start/pause/complete, and archive any test
- Transfer ownership (to exactly one new person)

**Cannot:**

- Have two owners on the same account simultaneously

### Admin (`admin`)

Same access as Owner except for transferring ownership.

**Can:**

- Invite, remove, and re-role members (up to admin)
- Configure integrations, branding, API keys
- Manage billing — change plans, update payment method, view invoices
- Create, edit, start/pause/complete, and archive any test

**Cannot:**

- Promote anyone to owner (only the current owner can transfer ownership)

### Member (`member`)

Day-to-day test work. No account-level changes, no integrations.

**Can:**

- Create, edit, and run tests
- Manage variants, goals, and targeting
- Comment, share, and duplicate tests
- Read all dashboard surfaces

**Cannot:**

- Invite or remove members
- Configure integrations, branding, or API keys
- Change account settings

### Viewer (`viewer`)

Read-only across the dashboard. Can comment on results but make no changes.

**Can:**

- Read every test, result, and configuration
- Comment on tests for feedback

**Cannot:**

- Create, edit, start, pause, or complete any test
- Change any setting, anywhere
- Launch the visual editor

## Inviting a teammate

1. **Open the Members page.** Go to **Account → Members**. You'll see everyone currently on the account, plus pending invitations.
2. **Enter their email and pick a role.** Type the email address and choose owner, admin, member, or viewer. Pick the lowest role that covers what they need to do — you can promote them later.
3. **They click the link and sign in.** Otter emails them an invitation. They click the link and sign in (or sign up) using the same email — invitations are pinned to the address they were sent to. The membership flips from pending to active when they accept.
4. **Confirm in the Members list.** Their row now shows them as active with the role you chose. From here you can change their role or remove them at any time.

> **Two invariants**
>
> **Exactly one owner.** Promoting someone to owner is blocked unless the current owner has stepped down (or transferred ownership atomically). Two-owner states are rejected at the model level.
>
> **Always at least one owner.** You can't demote the last owner. Transferring ownership goes: promote the new person, then demote yourself — or the system handles both edits as a single transaction.

> **Account hygiene**
>
> **Default new teammates to member.** Member is the right role for someone who runs tests day-to-day. Promote to admin only when they actively need to manage integrations or other people.
>
> **Use viewer for stakeholders.** Execs, advisors, and cross-functional partners often want visibility without the ability to break things. Viewer is exactly that.
>
> **Remove ex-teammates promptly.** When someone leaves the company, remove their membership the same day. They keep their authored work attached to the account; only their access ends.
>
> **Don't make everyone an admin.** Admin sprawl makes it hard to tell who's actually accountable for integrations and access. Most teams need one or two admins plus the owner.

## Frequently asked questions

### What are the four roles, and who can do what?

Owner has total control of the account and is the only role that can transfer ownership. Admin can do everything an owner can except transfer ownership — same access to billing, members, integrations, projects, and tests. Member can create, edit, and run tests and manage variants and goals, but can't invite people, change account settings, or touch integrations. Viewer is read-only — they can see results and configurations but can't make any changes.

### How many owners can an account have?

Exactly one, always. The model enforces this — promoting someone to owner is blocked unless you've first stepped down (or transferred ownership atomically). The account also can't end up without an owner, so you can't demote yourself out of the role unless someone else takes it.

### How do invitations work?

From the Members page, an owner or admin enters a teammate's email and picks a role. Otter sends them an invitation link. They click the link, sign in (or sign up) with the email it was sent to, and accept. The membership flips from pending to active at that point. Invitations don't expire by default — though we may add a configurable expiry in the future.

### Why is the invite email locked to the address I sent it to?

Security. If we let anyone with the link accept, a forwarded invitation could be claimed by someone other than the intended teammate. The recipient has to sign in (or sign up) with the same email the invite was addressed to before they can accept.

### What happens if the person I invite already has an Otter account?

They sign in with their existing credentials and accept the invitation. If they already had a membership on your account at a different role, Otter reconciles the two by giving them the higher of the two roles — except for owner, which stays singular (we promote to admin in that edge case instead of creating a second owner).

### Can I change someone's role after they've joined?

Yes. From the Members page, click their row and pick a new role. Any owner or admin can change anyone's role, with two exceptions: you can't promote someone to owner without first transferring ownership, and you can't demote the current owner — you'd leave the account without one.

### How do I remove someone from the account?

From the Members page, click the trash icon next to their row. Removal is immediate — their access ends at that moment, the membership row is deleted, and they no longer see the account in their sidebar. Tests, comments, and history they created stay on the account; we don't cascade-delete their work.

### Can a viewer at least see results to give feedback?

Yes — that's exactly what the viewer role is for. They see every test, project, and result page in read-only mode and can use comments to react. They can't change anything: no edit, no start/pause, no create, no settings. Useful for stakeholders, advisors, or junior analysts who shouldn't be making changes yet.

### Who can invite people?

Owner and admin only. Members and viewers don't see the invite UI. If a member needs to bring someone in, an owner or admin sends the invite for them.

### Who can manage billing?

Owners and admins. Both can change plans, switch billing intervals, update the payment method, and view invoices via the secure billing portal. Members and viewers can't see the billing tab. If you want only one person handling money, limit admin grants to that teammate.

### What if I need to transfer ownership?

On the Members page, change your own role and the new owner's role in a single transaction. The system enforces the one-owner-at-a-time invariant: you can either promote someone first and step down second, or do it as a paired update. Until ownership transfers, you remain the billing contact.

### Can I belong to more than one account?

Yes. The same email can be a member of multiple Otter accounts at different roles — owner of yours, admin at an agency you consult for, viewer at a parent company. The dashboard's account switcher in the sidebar lets you move between them.

---

Canonical page: https://www.otterab.com/docs/getting-started/members-and-roles