A lot of code has been spilled at Pike13 in the effort to foster simplicity and a delightful experience for business owners, staff members, and clients. As in any software, there's a tension between simplicity and configurability. We fight this battle every day with every feature, but today I'm writing about the role and permissions structure in Pike13.

We have talked to literally thousands of businesses (from Enterprise-y franchises to <5 staff member shops), and we have received feature requests for all kinds of permissions and restrictions settings. Owners (with good reason) want to minimize risk (which means keeping a tight rein on what staff members can do, like giving discounts) while simultaneously empowering all their staff to "do the right thing" by the customer (again, like giving discounts).

Have you ever been a customer and rolled your eyes at this one? "I can give you a discount, but I need to get manager approval, and she's actually not here right now." Yeah, us too.

In addition to all this, we know from experience that software permission issues generate a tremendous amount of user confusion and complexity and frustration, which nobody wants.

Taking all that into account, we have come up with this guiding philosophy:

Empower your staff, but keep them accountable.

Notifications to the rescue!

In Pike13...

• Any staff member can give a discount, but owners and managers are notified.
• Staff members can reassign classes to other staff, but owners and managers are notified.
• Staff members can put memberships on hold, but owners and managers are notified.

And the list goes on. In addition, the activity feeds in client profiles and classes and appointments track changes, making it easy to see who did what, when. All this allows owners and managers to make sure staff are doing the right thing without requiring them to get "manager approval" or forcing owners to maintain an endless list of permissions and roles.

The result? Abuse becomes trivial to detect. You spend less time configuring software. Customers stay happy.

photo credit: Transguyjay via photopin cc