Section 03 · Reference

Roles and permissions

Alpha ships with six roles. They're coarse on purpose — most teams only ever need two or three. Pick the narrowest fit; you can change a role at any time from Admin → Team.

Article 01 · Reference

The six roles at a glance

Each role below shows who it's for and the broad shape of what they can do. The permission matrix below is the precise definition.

Owner

For: founders, principals, anyone you'd trust with the entire account.

Full control. The only role that can delete the organization or demote, disable, and remove another owner. Every other capability in the product is also held by Owner.

Admin

For: operations leads, office managers.

Manages members, integrations, and most org settings. Sees and edits every customer, project, item, and location, and views billing and usage. Can't delete the workspace, and can't demote, disable, or remove an owner — those are Owner-only.

Project manager

For: PMs, foremen, dispatchers.

Projects focus. Creates and edits projects they're assigned to and picks customers, locations, and line items from inside each one — but doesn't manage those catalogs directly. Sees who's on site across the projects they're assigned to. Doesn't see members, integrations, or billing.

Technician

For: field crew.

My work only — their cross-org assignment list. Checks in and out of sites, posts comments on assigned projects, uploads field photos and docs. Deliberately doesn't see customer, location, or project lists — their world is the projects they're on.

Accountant

For: bookkeepers, finance team.

Reads operational data org-wide so it can be reconciled against external systems (QuickBooks, etc.). Can view but not edit. Doesn't see billing or team management.

Read only

For: stakeholders who need visibility, nothing else.

Sees every operational record they're allowed to. Creates, edits, and deletes nothing.

Permission matrix

Each row below is one specific thing a person can do; columns show which roles can do it. The UI hides controls a role can't use, so most of the time you won't have to think about this — but if you're choosing between two roles for a teammate, this is the precise difference.

Permission Owner Admin Project manager Technician Accountant Read only
Customers
Browse the customers list Project managers don't browse the list — they pick customers from inside a project instead. · ·
Create or edit customers · · · ·
Delete customers · · · ·
Locations
Browse the locations list Project managers don't browse the list — they pick locations from inside a project instead. · ·
Create or edit locations · · · ·
Delete locations · · · ·
Projects
View projects Project managers see only projects they're assigned to. ·
See every project in the org Bypasses the assignment scope above. · ·
Create or edit projects · · ·
Delete projects · · · ·
Send the work order to QuickBooks as an estimate Available once the QuickBooks integration is connected. · · ·
Items (catalog)
Browse the items catalog Project managers don't browse the catalog — they add line items from inside a project instead. · ·
Create or edit items · · · ·
Delete items · · · ·
Attachments
View attachments
Upload attachments Technicians can submit field photos and docs. · ·
Delete attachments · · ·
Comments
Read project comments
Post project comments · ·
Field presence
Browse the on-site dashboard Owner and admin see the whole organization; project managers, accountants, and read-only members see the teams on the projects they're assigned to. ·
Check in / out of a site · ·
See teammates' check-ins on assigned projects ·
See every check-in across the org · · · ·
Activity feed
Read activity feed ·
Integrations
View connected integrations · ·
Connect or disconnect integrations · · · ·
Team
View team members · · · ·
Invite, revoke, or change roles · · · ·
Billing
View billing & usage · · · ·
Organization
Manage org settings · · · ·
Reset or delete the workspace Irreversible, so it's reserved for Owner. · · · · ·
Switch between orgs Technicians use the cross-org My work view instead. ·

Article 02 · Reference

Notifications and emails

Alpha tells you about the things that need your attention in two places: the notifications inbox inside the app (the bell in the top bar), and your email. This page lists exactly what gets sent, and to whom — nothing else is sent on your behalf.

Two rules hold across everything below:

  • You're never notified about your own actions. If you assign yourself a task or comment on your own project, you won't get a ping for it.
  • The inbox is per workspace. The bell shows notifications for the organization you're currently in. Switch organizations and you'll see that one's inbox instead.

Everyday notifications

These follow the work — someone adds you to a project, a teammate marks a job done, a comment lands. Some reach you both in the app and by email; the table shows which.

What happens Who's notified In app Email
You're invited to a workspace Email only — you don't have an account to notify yet. The person invited ·
You're added to a project The person added
You're assigned a task A single line item on a project, assigned to you by name. The person assigned
A task is marked done Everyone assigned to the project ·
Someone comments on a project Everyone assigned to the project ·
You're mentioned in a comment Someone tagged you with @ in a project comment. Just the person mentioned
"Assigned to the project" means the project, not a line item

For task marked done and new comment, "everyone assigned to the project" means the people added to the project as a whole — regardless of their role. It does not include someone who was only assigned to an individual line item. Assigning a task to a teammate doesn't add them to the project, so a line-item-only assignee won't be pinged when another task is completed or a comment is posted. To reach a line-item-only assignee in a comment, mention them with @ — a mention always notifies the person tagged, whether or not they follow the thread.

Every email links straight to the thing

Invitation, project, task, and mention emails each carry a button that drops you exactly where you need to be — accepting the invite, opening the project, jumping to your task in My work, or landing right on the comment that tagged you.

Account and workspace status

Separate from day-to-day work, a few emails go out when access to an account or a whole workspace changes. These are always sent by email so they reach you even when you can't sign in, and may include a short note explaining the change.

What happens Who's notified
Your workspace is suspended The workspace owner
Your workspace is back The workspace owner
Your account is suspended The person affected
Your account is back The person affected

Keeping the inbox tidy

Open the bell to see your recent notifications, or View all for the full list. Removing a notification just clears it from your inbox — the underlying activity stays in the project's history, so nothing is lost.