Playground roles determine a staff member's access to different information in Playground. There are two default roles: admin and teacher. The existing default roles can be edited based on your school's needs. You can even create custom roles with unique names and permission sets.
This includes managing access to billing features, allowing administrators to control who can view, edit, or utilize billing-related functionalities.
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Locate Roles
From the web version of Playground, click Settings on the left sidebar.
Click Roles at the top of the page.
From this screen, you can view and edit current roles and add new roles. You can also see a list of staff members assigned to each role by clicking the dropdown menu next to the role name.
Default Roles
Playground has two default roles: administrator and teacher. See below for a brief overview of these roles.
Administrator | Teacher |
Anyone who needs full access to the Admin Dashboard and Playground app. This user can see and manage everything. | This role is for anyone who signs students in/out, communicates with families, and records student activity. They can’t access billing or enrollment. |
Some of what this role can do:
| Some of what this role can do:
Some of what this role cannot do:
|
Role Templates
When you create a new role, Playground prompts you to start from a pre-built template or build from scratch. Templates are a helpful starting point with permissions already configured for common use cases.
Template | Description |
Administrator | Admin with full access |
Attendance | Track and view student attendance only |
Billing | Manage billing, subsidies, and payouts |
Enrollment | Manage listings and accept students |
HR and Payroll | Manage staff and payroll |
Teacher | Teacher with full access |
💡 Any template can be customized further after selection. If none of the templates fit your needs, you can choose Custom user role to build a role with your own permission set. For more details, see the Create Custom Roles section below.
Create Custom Roles
Playground offers the ability to create custom roles to assign unique permission sets to different employees. For instance, you can create a custom role for an office manager who needs access to both student records and scheduling, but not billing.
From the web version of Playground, click the Settings tab on the left sidebar.
Click Roles at the top of the page.
Click the white Add New Role button in the top right corner of your screen. The Add New Role window will open.
Select Custom user role under Create a role from scratch.
Admin-Based Roles
In some cases, you may want to create additional, higher-level roles for potential Directors or Limited Admins. Admin-based roles allow you to do so.
After following the steps above, the Create New Role screen will open.
Enter a Name and select Administrator under the Type section.
Once you select Administrator, a list of permissions will appear. Each section allows you to give or restrict the role from editing or viewing that specific feature. The subsections below will go through each feature.
💡 View toggles allow people to only view the specified information. Edit toggles allow them to edit/create. The View toggle must be turned on in order to turn the Edit toggle on. Some features/funcitionalities listed will only have a View or Edit toggle.
Payments
The Payments section will show all billing functionality an admin can access
View payments: Read-only access to guardian payment transactions and payment methods. Viewing access is required to enable the four functionalities below.
Create payments: Ability to create new guardian payment transactions, charges, invoices, and payment methods. The edit toggle must be turned on for this feature if the next three functionalities are needed.
Create billing items and discounts: Ability to create new saved billing items and discounts. Without this permission, staff must choose from existing billing items and discounts when creating charges
Edit payments: Ability to edit existing guardian payment transactions, charges, invoices, and payment methods
Delete payments: Ability to delete guardian payment transactions, charges, invoices, and payment methods
Manage subsidies: Ability to view and edit subsidy agencies and deposits.
Payouts: Read-only access to payouts made to the center bank account. No edits can be made to payouts, which is why you can only grant viewing access.
Students
View all students: Overrides student visibility restrictions, providing access to all student records regardless of settings.
Student settings: View and Edit individual student settings on their profile.
Student information: View and Edit student profile information such as birthday, address, and custom fields.
Student attendance: View and Edit student attendance records, including modification after initial recording. Does not affect the ability for staff to sign students in and out.
Create & edit students: Creation and editing of student records on the admin dashboard.
Immunizations: View and Edit student immunization records on the student profile. Editing also covers recording doses and bulk importing immunizations.
Assessments: View and Edit student assessment information.
Enrollment
Listings: View and Edit enrollment listing information, including settings, charges, and intake forms, plus drop-in care availability, options, and bookings. Does not include student applications (see "Applications" below).
Applications: View and Edit student applications, plus drop-in care bookings.
Playground payroll
This section will only be available if you utilize Playground's payroll feature.
Company information: View and Edit company information used for payroll.
Payrolls: View and Edit payroll records, including creation, modification, and approval.
Deductions: View and Edit payroll deductions, including creation, modification, and removal.
💡 If you are using payroll, we highly recommend creating a Payroll Administrator role and only assigning payroll access to this role.
Staff
Create & edit staff: Creation and editing of staff member records via the admin dashboard.
Staff information: View and Edit staff profile information in the admin dashboard. If fully disabled, the "Staff" tab will not be visible.
Staff settings: View and Edit staff profile settings in the admin dashboard.
Hours & timesheets: View and Edit staff hours worked and payroll information.
Earnings & pay rates: View and Edit staff pay rates and earnings throughout the app.
Guardians
Guardian information: View and Edit guardian profile information such as phone number, email, etc.
Reports
Attendance: View and generate all attendance reports.
Enrollment: View and generate all enrollment reports. Staff with the "Enrollment Applications" permission can still download CSVs of applicants.
Payroll: View and generate all payroll and staff hours reports.
Subsidies: View and generate all subsidy reports.
Students: View and generate all student reports.
Staff: View and generate all staff reports.
Paperwork: View and generate all paperwork reports.
Wellness: View and generate all wellness check reports.
Food program: View and generate all food program reports.
Payments: View and generate all financial reports on guardian payment methods and payouts.
Expenses: View and generate all expense reports.
Activities: View and generate all activity reports on posts.
Custom reports: View, generate, and Edit (or create) custom reports.
Chat
Can use chat: Give access to utilize the chat messaging feature by toggling Edit on.
View all chats: All chat conversations, including the ability to participate in them.
Programs
Programs: View and Edit program information in the Programs tab. This allows for the creation of programs if the Edit toggle is turned on.
Classrooms
Classrooms: View and Edit classroom information in the Classrooms tab, including adding or moving students between classrooms.
Lesson Planning
Lesson activities: View and Edit lesson activities, including addition, modification, and removal. Non-admin roles are limited to activities assigned to their classroom or with no classroom assigned.
Lesson plans: View and Edit lesson plans, including addition, modification, and removal. Non-admin roles are limited to lesson plans assigned to their classroom or with no classroom assigned.
Approvals: Lesson plan approval for plans created by teachers. Lesson plans created by staff with this permission are automatically approved.
Scheduling
Calendar: View and Edit the calendar, including addition, modification, and removal of events.
Student schedules: View and Edit student schedules, including addition, modification, and removal. Teachers are limited to schedules for students they have access to.
Staff schedules: View and Edit staff schedules, including addition, modification, and removal. Everyone can always see their own schedule regardless of this setting.
Forecasting: Read-only access to forecasting reports
Expenses
Expenses: View and Edit expenses, including addition, modification, and removal. Non-admin roles are limited to expenses assigned to or created by them.
Feed
Feed: The feed, including addition, modification, and removal of posts. Non-admin roles can only modify posts they created.
Manage post types: Ability to enable and disable post types and to create, edit, and delete custom post types. Requires feed access.
Paperwork
Student paperwork: View and Edit student paperwork, including addition, modification, and removal of documents.
Staff paperwork: View and Edit staff paperwork, including addition, modification, and removal of documents. Non-admin roles are limited to paperwork assigned to them.
Provider paperwork: View and Edit provider paperwork, including addition, modification, and removal of documents.
Food program
Food items: Food items, including addition, modification, and removal.
Menus: Menus in the "Menus" tab, including addition, modification, and removal.
Camber - AI virtual assistant
Enables AI features throughout Playground: All Camber Al features throughout Playground for this role.
Settings
General settings: View and Edit center-wide general settings under the Settings tab.
Payment settings: View and Edit settings under the Billing settings tab.
Schedule settings: View and Edit settings under the Scheduling settings tab.
Custom email settings: Add emails under the Emails settings tab.
Subscription management: View and Edit the account's Playground subscription details, including payment method.
Role management: Role assignment and configuration for staff accounts.
Custom values management: Able to create, edit, and delete custom values, including custom fields, categories, lesson metadata, note tags, and expense categories.
Door locks
Lock and unlock doors: Door locking and unlocking via the mobile app at any time. Does not affect any existing door lock integrations.
CRM
This section will only be available if you have purchased Playground CRM.
Leads: View and Edit leads and the CRM tab from the CCMS, including creation, management, email, and SMS (if enabled).
Forms: View and Edit CRM forms and their submissions, including removal.
Marketing: View and Edit marketing templates, materials, and their histories, including creation, modification, and removal.
Meetings: View and Edit meeting configurations and availabilities, including modification and removal.
Bookings: View and Edit meeting scheduling, booking modification, cancellation, and removal.
Automations: View and Edit automations, including creation, modification, and removal. We highly recommend not disabling other write capabilities if this is enabled.
CRM settings: View and Edit CRM settings.
All tasks: View and Edit tasks assigned to other users, including creation, modification, and removal.
Reporting: Able to view CRM reporting dashboards and insights.
Agents: Able to View and Edit CRM agents.
Ad manager: Ad connection management and ads dashboard.
Shared lead views: Create and manage lead views that are shared.
Teacher-Based Role
Follow the steps below if you want to create a teacher role with more or less access than a typical staff member.
After following the steps found here, the Create New Role screen will open.
Enter a Name and select Teacher under the Type section.
Once you select Teacher, a list of permissions will appear. Each section allows you to give or restrict the role from editing or viewing that specific feature. The subsections below will go through each feature.
💡 View toggles allow people to only view the specified information. Edit toggles allow them to edit/create. The View toggle must be turned on in order to turn the Edit toggle on. Some features/funcitionalities listed will only have a View or Edit toggle.
Students
View all students: Overrides student visibility restrictions, providing access to all student records regardless of settings.
Student settings: View and Edit individual student settings on their profile.
Student information: View and Edit student profile information such as birthday, address, and custom fields.
Student attendance: View and Edit student attendance records, including modification after initial recording. Does not affect the ability for staff to sign students in and out.
Create & edit students: Creation and editing of student records on the admin dashboard.
Immunizations: View and Edit student immunization records on the student profile. Editing also covers recording doses and bulk importing immunizations.
Assessments: View and Edit student assessment information.
Enrollment
Applications: View and Edit student applications, plus drop-in care bookings.
Guardians
Guardian information: View and Edit guardian profile information such as phone number, email, etc.
Chat
Can use chat: Give access to utilize the chat messaging feature by toggling Edit on.
Programs
View and Edit program information in the Programs tab. This allows for the creation of programs if the Edit toggle is turned on.
Classrooms
Classrooms: View and Edit classroom information in the Classrooms tab, including adding or moving students between classrooms.
Lesson Planning
Lesson activities: View and Edit lesson activities, including addition, modification, and removal. Non-admin roles are limited to activities assigned to their classroom or with no classroom assigned.
Lesson plans: View and Edit lesson plans, including addition, modification, and removal. Non-admin roles are limited to lesson plans assigned to their classroom or with no classroom assigned.
Scheduling
Calendar: View and Edit the calendar, including addition, modification, and removal of events.
Student schedules: View and Edit student schedules, including addition, modification, and removal. Teachers are limited to schedules for students they have access to.
Staff schedules: View and Edit staff schedules, including addition, modification, and removal. Everyone can always see their own schedule regardless of this setting.
Expenses
Expenses: View and Edit expenses, including addition, modification, and removal. Teacher roles are limited to expenses assigned to or created by them.
Feed
Feed: The feed, including addition, modification, and removal of posts. Non-admin roles can only modify posts they created.
Paperwork
Student paperwork: View and Edit student paperwork, including addition, modification, and removal of documents.
Staff paperwork: View and Edit staff paperwork, including addition, modification, and removal of documents. Staff can always see their own paperwork regardless of this setting.
Food program
Food items: Food items, including addition, modification, and removal.
Menus: Menus in the "Menus" tab, including addition, modification, and removal.
Camber - AI virtual assistant
Enable AI features throughout Playground: All Camber AI features throughout Playground for this role.
Door locks
Lock and unlock doors: Door locking and unlocking via the mobile app at any time. Does not affect any existing door lock integrations.
Once you have finished setting up your Admin or Teacher based roles, make sure to click the Add role button in the top right-hand corner to save your role.
Edit Existing Roles
From the web version of Playground, click My School -> Staff on the left sidebar.
Click Manage Roles at the top of the page.
Click the three dots next to the role you want to edit and select Edit. This will open the role's permissions editor where you can update the role name and permissions.
When you are satisfied with your changes, click the blue Save Changes button in the top right corner.
💡 The role type cannot be edited after the role is created. If you need to change the role type, create a new role.
🚨 You cannot edit your own role. If you need to change your role, contact the primary administrator at your school.
Most billing features for admins are accessible only through the web platform and are not available on the mobile app.
View Staff Assigned to a Role
Clicking a role row opens a dedicated page listing all staff members assigned to that role. From here you can:
Search for a staff member by name
Click Add filters to filter by Active status or Invite status
Click the three dots next to a staff member's name to View their profile, Edit their information, Send invite, or Copy invite
Select multiple staff members using the checkboxes to Change role or Send invite in bulk
Click the Actions button in the top right corner to Edit, Duplicate, History, or Delete the role
Assign Roles to Staff Members
From the Staff Tab
From your Admin Dashboard, click My School and then click Staff.
To view roles on the staff table, click the cog wheel and then select the toggle next to Role.
Click the three dots next to the name of the employee whose role you want to change, then click Edit.
The Edit Staff Member window will open. Change the Role and then click the blue Save button.
From the Roles Tab
From your Admin Dashboard, click Settings on the left sidebar.
Click Roles at the top of the page.
Click the row of the role that the staff member is currently assigned to. This will open the role's dedicated page.
From here, there are two ways to change a staff member's role:
a. Check the box next to the staff member's name and click Change role at the top of the page.
b. Click the three dots next to the staff member's name, select Edit, and update their role from there.
