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Roles vs Member Groups — what's the difference?

Learn the fundamental differences between systemHUB Roles and Member Groups, how they interact, and how to use them together to manage team permissions and documentation access seamlessly.

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❓ The Core Difference

This is the question Admins ask most often. The short answer:

  • Role = What someone can DO in the platform (their permission level).
  • Member Group = What someone DOES in the business (their job function).

You assign exactly one Role and any number of Member Groups to every team member.

🔐 Roles (The Four Permission Levels)

Roles control platform-wide permissions. Every user must have exactly one assigned Role:

  • Admin: Full access to manage all settings, billing, users, and content.
  • Editor: Can create, update, and manage systems, but cannot change account settings.
  • Contributor: Can write and update systems they own or are invited to edit.
  • Reader: Can view, read, and sign off on systems, but cannot create or edit content.

🧠 Remember: A Role dictates platform behaviour. Questions like "Can this person delete a system?" are determined by their Role.

👥 Member Groups (Your Business Structure)

Member Groups model your real-world team layout. They match whatever your business calls your internal departments or teams, such as: Sales Team, Customer Success, Marketing, Engineering, Brisbane Office, or Tier-1 Support.

  • Multi-Group Access: A team member can belong to multiple groups simultaneously (e.g., "Sarah is in the Sales Team and the Brisbane Office").
  • Efficient Content Assignment: Instead of assigning a new sales SOP to seven sales reps individually, you assign it once to the Sales Team group. Any new staff added to that group later will automatically inherit access.

🛠️ When to Use Each Setting

Use Roles when:

  • A new person joins the company, you will pick their core permission level on day one.
  • You are promoting someone to manage or edit content (e.g., upgrading them from a Contributor to an Editor).
  • You are onboarding a platform manager who needs Admin access.

Use Member Groups when:

  • Modelling your internal team structure or corporate departments.
  • Assigning documentation to a specific function (e.g., ensuring everyone in the Marketing group automatically receives the new Brand Guide).
  • Running compliance reports on a business function (e.g., tracking how many members in Customer Success have completed their sign-offs).

📖 Real-World Scenario: Sarah, the New Sales Rep

When Sarah joins the company as a new sales representative, the Admin configures her profile like this:

  1. Role: Set to Reader (this is ideal for new hires, they can read systems but cannot edit or accidentally change anything).
  2. Member Groups: Added to Sales Team, Brisbane Office, and New Hires Q3 2026.

Sarah automatically inherits every system, policy, and training document assigned to those three groups, while her Reader role keeps your documentation safe from accidental edits.

What happens when Sarah gets promoted to Sales Manager?

The Account Owner will update her profile to reflect her new responsibilities:

  • Change her Role to Editor (allowing her to update sales playbooks and create new documentation).
  • Keep her in her existing Member Groups (Sales Team and Brisbane Office).
  • Add her to a new Managers group.

Notice that her Role changed to give her more capability, while her core Member Groups stayed the same because her business function remained aligned with Sales.

🎉 You're All Set!

You now understand how to balance platform permissions with your company structure. Combining Roles and Member Groups allows you to securely lock down editing controls while ensuring your team instantly gets access to the exact documentation they need.