Who this guide is for: Administrators (see access roles note)
Platform: Sense HR
Available on: Professional, Elite, and Enterprise plans
Before you begin
Make sure you’ve:
☑️ Logged in to the Sense HR
☑️ Been assigned administrator permissions
☑️ Completed Access Role Management (ARM) training if required by your organisation
☑️ Decided whether you need to edit an existing role, or create a copied/custom role or a Limited admin role
🖊️ Access roles note:
Access roles are usually managed by Administrators, but access to Settings > Access roles can also be given to other roles if needed. This should only be done where absolutely necessary, as access role settings affect permissions across the whole system.
Overview
Use Access Role Management (ARM) to view, create, copy, edit, and delete access roles in Sense HR.
There are three variations of role you may work with:
default access roles already included in the system
custom roles created by copying an existing role
Limited admin roles created from the Add button.
This article explains how to:
open and review existing access roles
create a new copied/custom role
create a new Limited admin role
edit an existing role
delete a custom or Limited admin role.
Navigation path
Open the Access roles area
From the HR Dashboard, open Settings.
Select Access roles.
You’ll see the Access roles list.
From here, you can:
view all access roles in the system
search the list
sort by Name, Type, Description, or Assigned to
click a role to open it
use More actions (…) for role options
use Add to create a Limited admin role
Understand the role list
The Access roles list includes both locked system roles and roles created by your organisation.
Locked roles
The padlock icon 
shows that the role is locked from deletion.
This includes the default roles:
Standard users
Managers
Manager with Indirect reports
Administrators
🖊️ Note:
The Administrators role is a fixed full-access role. It cannot currently be copied, edited, or deleted.
Custom roles
Custom roles are created by copying an existing role. These can be edited and deleted.
Limited admin
Limited admin is created from the Add button. It can be edited and deleted, but it cannot be copied.
Create a copied/custom access role
New custom roles are created by copying an existing role.
Use this method when you want to create:
a variation of Standard users
a variation of Managers
a variation of Manager with Indirect reports
a variation of another custom role based on one you already created
Copy an existing role
In Settings > Access roles, find the role closest to what you need.
Open the More actions (…) menu for that role.
Select Copy.
Enter a new Role name.
Add or update the Description.
Edit the role permissions as needed.
Click Done to save.
✅ The new role is added to the Access roles list.
🖊️ Related guidance:
See Manage profile and people permissions in access roles for screen, field, and people-group permissions, or Manage feature permissions and custom actions for module, feature, and action permissions.
🖊️ Note:
Copy is available for locked roles except Administrators, and for custom roles you have already created. It is not available for Limited admin.
Create a Limited admin role
Use this method when someone needs admin access across all areas, but only for selected people or groups.
Add a Limited admin role
In Settings > Access roles, click Add.
Enter a Role name.
Enter a Description.
Click Next.
In the next step, search and select who this role should have access to.
Optionally use Exclude people to remove specific people or groups.
Use View filtered results to review the scope.
Click Save.
✅ The new Limited admin role is added to the Access roles list.
🖊️ Note:
Unlike standard and manager-type roles, Limited admin does not use the full permission-tab structure. Instead, you define the people scope that role has admin access to.
🖊️ Related guidance:
For standard and manager-type permission setup, see Manage profile and people permissions in access roles and Manage feature permissions and custom actions.
Edit an existing access role
To edit a role, click the role directly in the Access roles list.
Edit a standard or manager-type (advanced) role
In Settings > Access roles, click the role you want to edit.
Open the Details tab to update the role name or description.
Open the Permissions tab to update the role permissions.
Click Done to save your changes.
Standard roles and manager-type roles both use Details and Permissions, but their permission structure differs depending on the type of role.
Standard users have:
Own profile
Features
Custom actions
Manager-type roles also include:
People
🖊️ Related guidance:
For detailed guidance on these permission areas, see Manage profile and people permissions in access roles and Manage feature permissions and custom actions.
Edit a Limited admin role
In Settings > Access roles, click the Limited admin role.
Use the Details tab to change the role name or description.
Use the Permissions tab to change who the role has access to.
Click Done to save your changes.
🖊️ Note:
Limited admin works differently from other roles. Instead of setting detailed Own profile, People, Features, and Custom actions permissions, you define the people scope that role has admin access to.
Search and sort access roles
Use the tools at the top of the Access roles list to find roles more quickly.
Search
Use the search box in the upper right to filter the role list.
Sort
You can sort the role list by:
Name
Type
Description
Assigned to (sorts by number of assigned profiles)
This is useful if you want to find:
roles with similar names
all Limited admin roles
roles with many assigned users
unused or lightly used roles
Delete an access role
Only custom roles and Limited admin roles can be deleted.
Default locked roles cannot be deleted.
Delete a custom or Limited admin role
In Settings > Access roles, find the role you want to delete.
Open the More actions (…) menu.
Select Delete.
Confirm the deletion.
⚠️ Important:
Before deleting a role, make sure it is no longer needed and check whether anyone is still assigned to it.
Tips for creating roles safely
Copy the role that is closest to what you need, rather than building permissions from scratch.
Use clear role names and descriptions so future admins understand the role’s purpose.
Take greater care when giving access to Settings, Reports, or Access roles.
Use Limited admin when someone needs admin access only for a defined group of people.
Avoid creating too many similar roles unless there is a clear operational need.
It may be helpful to keep a test profile that you can assign to different access roles while configuring permissions. This lets you safely check what each role can see and do before assigning it to real users.