Your team & permissions
The roles in Wattle Clinic, what each one can and can't do, and how to add new staff.
This section explains the roles in Wattle Clinic, what each one can and can't do, and how to add new staff. It's all about people and what they're allowed to do — nothing here changes patient or client records. If you're not the person who set up the clinic, most of this is just background reading so you understand why your screen might look different from a colleague's.
The one idea that explains a lot
Throughout this whole guide you'll see this line:
Can't see a button? Your account may not have permission — ask whoever set up your clinic.
This section is where that line comes from. Wattle gives each person a role, and your role decides which parts of the app you can see and use. A receptionist's screen has fewer buttons than a vet's or an admin's — that's deliberate, not a fault.
So if a colleague can see a button you can't, you almost certainly haven't broken anything and nothing is missing. Your role simply doesn't include that action. The fix is never a setting you change yourself — it's a quick word with whoever set up your clinic (usually the practice manager or owner).
The roles, in plain words
Your role and your permissions are two different things
This is the most useful idea in this section, and it's newer than the rest of the guide.
- Your role is what you are — Veterinarian, Nurse, Practice Manager or Staff. It describes your job, not your powers. It's also what the law keys off: only a Veterinarian can finalise a Schedule 8 entry, whatever anyone ticks.
- Your permissions are what you're allowed to do — and these can be tuned for a whole role, or for one person.
So two vets in the same practice can share the same role but hold different permissions: the principal might manage pricing and the team while an associate does clinical work only. Both are still vets, and both still finalise S8 entries, because that follows the role.
The four roles
Wattle Clinic has four roles. Your role is shown — but not editable by you — on your own Account page (avatar menu → Account → Account Details). What each role can do starts from a sensible default; your clinic can fine-tune it for the whole role (see Customising what each role can do) or for one person.
| Role | Shown on screen as | Who it's for | Roughly what they can do by default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vet | Veterinarian | Veterinarians | The full clinical workflow, plus management-level settings. Only vets finalise Schedule 8 entries — a legal requirement, not a preference. |
| Practice Manager | Practice Manager | The person running the practice | The business side — clinic settings, email and branding, importing and exporting data, the audit log, the catalogue, and the team. Not S8 finalising: they're not a vet. |
| Nurse | Nurse | Veterinary nurses / technicians | The clinical day-to-day — schedule, clients, patients, consults (including editing clinical notes), invoices & estimates, payments, and the catalogue — and they can capture Schedule 8 entries for a vet to sign off. Not the management-only settings. |
| Staff | Staff | Reception, front-desk and support staff | A broad day-to-day set — schedule, clients, patients, consults (including editing clinical notes), invoices & estimates, payments, and the catalogue — plus their own profile. Not Schedule 8 or the management-only settings. |
Nurse vs Staff. They're close by default — the main difference is Schedule 8: Nurses can capture controlled-drug entries (for a vet to finalise), Staff can't. Pick whichever matches the person's job — and remember the defaults are a starting point your clinic can adjust.
Wasn't there an "Admin" role? There was, and it's gone. It mixed up what you are with what you can do — the very confusion the split above fixes. Someone who runs the practice is now a Practice Manager; anyone who needs extra powers gets them through permissions instead. Nobody lost access when it changed.
A soft note, not a hard rule. These are typical jobs for each role, not strict walls. Your clinic might set things up a little differently. When in doubt, check your Account page to see your role.
What the lower roles don't see by default
Out of the box, the practice-management parts of Wattle are reserved for Practice Manager and Veterinarian accounts. On a Nurse or Staff account you won't see these — and that's working as intended (your clinic can change any of it via the permissions editor):
- Email settings — the clinic's sender name, reply-to address and email signatures
- Branding — the clinic logo, document letterhead and email graphic
- Import & Export — bringing data in from a CSV, or backing it up
- Audit Log — the record of who changed what and when
- Team — inviting teammates and managing roles
- Schedule 8 register — the controlled-drug tracker is hidden from Staff by default (Nurses can capture entries; only Vets finalise them), and it also needs to be switched on for your clinic
Everyone, regardless of role, can always reach their own Account settings, the shared Clinic Settings, and Appearance (light/dark mode).
Customising what each role can do
Usually: admin / practice manager (or a vet).
The roles above ship with sensible defaults, but they're not set in stone. Wattle now has a Roles & Permissions editor where you can decide, for your clinic, exactly what each role is allowed to do — turning individual abilities on or off.
Quick version — Settings → Roles & Permissions. You'll see a grid: one column per role, one row per ability. Tick or untick a box to grant or remove that ability for that role in your clinic.
Step by step
- Open Settings (avatar menu or the sidebar), then choose the Roles & Permissions tab. (You'll only see this tab if your role can manage clinic settings — normally a Practice Manager or Veterinarian.)
- You'll see abilities grouped into sections — Clinical, Clients & patients, Scheduling, Billing, Catalogue, Controlled drugs (S8), and Administration.
- Tick a box to give that role an ability; untick it to take it away. Your changes are staged, not saved yet — a changed box gets an amber dot, and a footer shows how many unsaved changes you have.
- When you're happy, click Save changes and confirm. (Or Discard to drop them.) Nothing takes effect until you save.
- A small blue dot next to a saved box means you've customised it away from the Wattle default — handy for seeing at a glance what your clinic has changed.
- Changed your mind entirely? Use Reset to defaults (top-right, with a confirmation step) to clear all your customisations and return every role to the standard Wattle settings.
What this does and doesn't change
- It changes what an existing role can do — for example, letting Nurses manage the catalogue, or stopping Staff from taking payments.
- It does not change which role a person has. Moving someone from Staff to Nurse is a separate step (see below).
- Changes apply to your clinic only — they never affect other practices.
One row is locked. Finalise S8 entries shows a small lock and can't be changed — finalising controlled-drug records is reserved for veterinarians by law, so that ability stays vet-only no matter what. (Who can view the Schedule 8 register is still yours to set.)
Take care with the Veterinarian and Practice Manager rows. These roles hold the keys to the practice. If you remove an ability like Manage clinic settings from every senior role, you could lock yourselves out of the very screen you'd need to undo it. If that happens, Reset to defaults (or email hello@wattlevet.com) will put things right.
It's a real lock, not just a hidden button. When a role doesn't have an ability, Wattle both hides the relevant buttons and screens and refuses the action behind the scenes — so removing a permission genuinely prevents it, it doesn't just tidy the screen.
Fine-tuning one person's permissions
Usually: admin / practice manager (or a vet).
Roles & Permissions (above) changes what an entire role can do. Sometimes you want to change it for one person — give an associate vet the ability to manage pricing, or take invoicing away from a particular staff member without touching everyone else in that role.
Quick version — Settings → Team → ⋯ → Permissions… on the person's row. Tick or untick their individual abilities.
Step by step
- Open Settings → Team.
- On the person's row, open the ⋯ menu and choose Permissions…. A panel slides in.
- You'll see the same ability groups as the role editor, showing what this person can currently do.
- Tick or untick any ability to change it for this person only.
- Prefer to start from a template? Apply one of the named sets — Full Access, Practice Admin, Clinical, Nursing or Front Desk — then adjust from there.
- Changed your mind? Reset returns them to their role's defaults, so they follow the role again.
How the layers work — three, in order:
- This person's own settings win, if you've set any.
- Otherwise, your clinic's settings for their role apply.
- Otherwise, the Wattle default for that role applies.
The useful consequence. If you don't customise someone individually, they automatically pick up any later change you make to their role's defaults. Customising one person deliberately opts them out of that — which is what you want for an exception, and not what you want as a habit.
Finalise S8 entries is locked here too. It shows a lock and follows the role, not the person — only veterinarians can finalise controlled-drug entries, by law. Ticking a box could never change that, so Wattle doesn't pretend otherwise.
Someone must always be able to manage the team. Wattle won't let you remove Manage staff from the last person who holds it — otherwise your clinic could lock itself out of the screen it needs to undo the change. If you try, you'll get a clear message rather than a silent failure.
Adding & managing your team
Everything to do with teammates — inviting them, setting roles, pausing or removing access — lives in one place: Settings → Team. You'll see this tab if your role can manage staff (Veterinarian and Practice Manager by default).
The Team tab is a single list of everyone: active members, anyone you've suspended, and pending invites you've sent — each with a status badge (Active, Suspended, or Invited).
Invite a teammate
Usually: admin / practice manager (or a vet).
Quick version — Settings → Team → Invite. Enter their email, pick a role, and send. They get a sign-up link by email.
Step by step
- Open Settings → Team and click Invite (top-right).
- Enter the person's email address and choose their role — Veterinarian, Nurse, Practice Manager or Staff (see the table above).
- Optionally set Access. Leave it on Role default (recommended) unless you have a reason not to — see the note below.
- Click Send invite. Wattle emails them a sign-up link, tied to that email address and the role you chose.
- They open the link, sign in (or create their account), and they're in — already set to the right role. The invite shows as Invited in your Team list until they accept.
What the Access field does. Role default means they simply follow their role — and keep following it, so if you later adjust what Nurses can do, they get that change automatically. Picking a named set instead (Full Access, Practice Admin, Clinical, Nursing, Front Desk) pins those abilities to them personally at sign-up, and they'll stop tracking later changes to the role. Role default is the right answer nearly always; a named set is for a deliberate exception.
Lost the email, or invited the wrong person? Open the ⋯ menu on a pending invite to Copy invite link (send it another way) or Revoke it.
Invites that expired before they were accepted
Invitations don't last forever — if someone doesn't accept theirs in time, it lapses. Lapsed invites don't clutter your main list: they collect in a separate, tidy group below it called Expired invites, with a count beside it (for example "Expired invites (2)"). Click the heading to expand or collapse the group.
For each expired invite you have two choices:
- Re-invite — sends a fresh invitation link to the same email and role, so they can try again. (You'll see "Invitation re-sent to…" to confirm.)
- The ✕ (dismiss) button — clears the expired invite from the list once you no longer need it. This doesn't affect the person; it just tidies your view.
Use Re-invite if they still need to join, and ✕ if the invitation is no longer relevant.
Change someone's role
Usually: admin / practice manager (or a vet).
You can now change a teammate's role yourself — no need to contact support.
Step by step
- Open Settings → Team.
- On the person's row, open the ⋯ menu and choose Change role….
- Pick the new role and Save. Their access updates the next time they load the app.
Your own role. The Role field on your own Account page is read-only — you can't change your own role (a safety measure, so nobody quietly grants themselves more access). Ask a colleague who manages the team, or email hello@wattlevet.com.
Pause or remove access
Usually: admin / practice manager (or a vet).
From the ⋯ menu on a member's row:
- Suspend access — temporarily locks someone out (e.g. while they're on leave). Their records stay put; choose Restore access to bring them back.
- Remove from clinic — for someone who's left. It's reversible (records are kept and they can be restored), and Wattle won't let you remove the last remaining member or your own account.
- Reset PIN — for a colleague who's forgotten their 4-digit PIN or locked it with too many wrong attempts. The reset is instant: their old PIN and any lockout are cleared, and they're asked to set a fresh PIN next time the app needs one. (PINs can't be looked up — only reset. More: Your PIN & the lock screen.)
Prefer self sign-up? If your clinic allows open sign-up, a new person can also click Create Account on the login page and onboard themselves. Invites are the tidier path because they pre-set the role.
Check your own role
Usually: anyone curious why their screen looks different.
Quick version — Avatar → Account → Account Details → read the Role field.
Step by step
- Click your avatar (top-right).
- Click Account.
- Scroll to Account Details. Your Role is shown there (greyed out, because you can't change it yourself).
This is the quickest way to settle a "why can you see that and I can't?" question — compare roles, and the difference usually explains it.
When a screen seems to lock you out
A few situations can feel like something's broken when it's really just permissions or an unfinished feature. Here's how to tell them apart.
An area your role can't use sends you back to the home screen. Surfaces your role doesn't include — whether a Settings tab (like Branding, Import & Export or the Audit Log) or a whole section (like Schedule 8 on a Staff account) — are hidden from your menus, so you normally won't even see them. If you reach one anyway (for example by opening a saved link or typing the address directly), Wattle quietly sends you back to the home screen rather than showing it. You haven't done anything wrong — your role just doesn't include that area. Ask whoever set up your clinic if you genuinely need access (they can grant it in Settings → Roles & Permissions).
A card or toggle says "coming soon". Integrations is a real page now — a grid of integration cards, with Zenbooker live; only its dotted "More coming soon" card is a placeholder. (Subscription and Security are live too; within Security, only two-factor sign-in is still to come.)
A whole feature (like Schedule 8) isn't there at all. Some features are switched on per clinic. If your clinic hasn't enabled them, you won't see them — see the availability notes on those sections, for example The Schedule 8 register.
The simple test. Ask yourself: can a colleague with a different role see it? If yes, it's permissions — ask whoever set up your clinic. If nobody can see it, it's either "Coming Soon" or a feature that's not switched on for your clinic.
Frequently asked
Why can't I see a button my colleague has? Almost always because your role doesn't include that action. Compare roles on your Account pages. To get access, ask whoever set up your clinic, or email hello@wattlevet.com.
How do I invite a new team member? Settings → Team → Invite — enter their email, pick a role, and send. They get a sign-up link by email, already tied to the role you chose. (You'll see the Team tab if your role can manage staff — Veterinarian and Practice Manager by default.)
Can I change my own role? No — which role you hold is read-only on your own Account page for security. But a Practice Manager or Veterinarian can change other people's roles from Settings → Team (⋯ → Change role). For your own, ask a colleague who manages the team or email hello@wattlevet.com.
Can I change what a role is allowed to do? Yes — if you can manage clinic settings (normally a Practice Manager or Veterinarian), open Settings → Roles & Permissions and tick or untick abilities for each role. That tailors permissions for your clinic without changing anyone's actual role. See Customising what each role can do.
I followed a link to a Settings page and got sent back to the home screen. Did I break it? No. That page isn't included in your role (for example Branding, Import & Export, the Audit Log, or Schedule 8), so your account can't open it. Those areas are normally hidden from your menus — reaching one by a direct link just bounces you home. It's a permissions limit, not a fault. Ask whoever set up your clinic if you need access — they can adjust it in Settings → Roles & Permissions.
Something says "coming soon" — is it broken? No. The dotted "More coming soon" card on Integrations and the two-factor toggle in Security are placeholders for features on the way. Everything else in Settings is live.
See also: Signing in & your account · Settings — a guided tour · The audit log · The Schedule 8 register · Glossary