Managing your roster: Permissions explained
The Roster & Permissions tab is a powerful interface for managing your roster of your Company, also called a Team. There are several new options here - this is a guide to the permissions available to you as a Team Admin.
The Owner
The "owner" is the user who created the Team. The owner cannot be removed from the team, and his/her Admin and Finance access cannot be rescinded. The owner always appears at the top of the roster. The owner also owns the financial account for the Company, and is responsible for paying any balance due.
Admin Privileges
A user with Admin privileges has full power in your Team, and you should use caution when extending this power to another user.
Admin - Admin users can invite or remove team members and change permissions (including their own), and modify Company information.
Finance Only - Admin users automatically have Finance privileges, but you can also extend Finance privileges individually. Finance users have full access to the Billing & Payment tab, including adding and modifying payment and withdrawal methods, viewing the Account Activity tab, and most importantly, withdrawing funds.
Buyer Privileges
Use Buyer Privileges if you would like to empower one of your team members to recruit and hire Providers to work for you.
A Recruiter can post jobs and manage your candidate list, but cannot hire, fire, give bonuses or raise rates - basically, they can't pull the trigger on anything that will result in money changing hands.
The Recruiter Only role is very useful if you want your Providers to help you find other candidates to join your team, but you don't want them to be able to spend your money directly.
A Hiring Manager has all of the Recruiter privileges, plus the ability to hire, fire, give bonuses and raise rates. When you create a new Company as a Buyer (for example, when you register as a Buyer) you have Hiring Manager privileges automatically. Extend this privilege with caution!
Provider Privileges
These privileges refer to the user's role in this team, not generally as a Provider.
A Staffing Manager can view the Get Hired tab for this team (which includes the Company's provider timelog). Managers can also apply to jobs on behalf of the team's Affiliated Contractors, as well as set the published rates of each contractor.
An Affiliated Contractor, or AC, can work on your behalf for other oDesk Buyers. All of their earnings go into the Company's account, and your Company earns feedback for the work they do on oDesk.
An AC can be "exclusive" or "non-exclusive". An Exclusive AC can work only on your behalf, and his/her identity on oDesk is tied to your Company. Use this option for your permanent employees. A non-exclusive AC can work independently or on behalf of other provider companies. Use this option for ad-hoc subcontracting relationships.
As a Staffing Manager, you can control the profile rates and visibility (public or private) of your exclusive ACs but not your non-exclusive ACs.
Team Room Access
If this box is checked, the user appears in your Team Room under the Work with Your Team tab. The Team Room is designed as a collaborative workspace. Provider Companies may not find a need for the Team Room, but for Buyers, the Team Room is a place to view all Providers working for the team, their WorkDiaries, as well as SVN and Bugzilla. Even if the user does not have an assignment with the team, he/she can still log time to the Team Room, as well as access all Team Room resources.
Remove from Team
This checkbox allows the Admin to remove a user from the team. Removing a team member is an instant and unilateral decision.
Removing a member is disallowed if:
* The user has an active assignment with this team, OR
* The user is an Affiliated Contractor with an active assignment on behalf of this team
What happens when I send an invitation?
The recipient will get an email with the details of your invitation, along with an "accept" link. If they accept, they will be prompted to log in to oDesk, at which point the invitation will become activated. If you are inviting by email address and the recipient does not yet have an oDesk account, they will be taken through the (free) registration process, after which the invitation will be activated.