No two organizations operate the same way. Although standard roles (permission levels 1–5) meet most needs, they may not always align with your specific workflow. Custom Roles allow you to tailor permissions to your team’s structure, ensuring accurate and secure access for every user.
To get started, select a Role Administrator (Role Admin) for your team. This person will create custom roles for existing team members using a standard permission level as a base, or by creating them from scratch.
Role Administrator
The Role Administrator should be a person on your team who is familiar with your workflow and understands your staffing needs. They will be the only person with access to create, edit, and assign custom roles.
Once you've decided who the Role Admin will be for your organization, Submittable Support will make the connection on the backend for you. Then, the person will be ready to take on their new role. This role is non-transferable. If your organization decides that a different person should be the Role Admin, please contact Technical Support to assist with making that change.
To begin, the Role Admin will navigate to the Team page: More>Team. A new tab will be visible—the Roles Management tab. The new role will also be shown next to the Role Admin's name:
Click the Roles Management tab to begin.
Roles Management
On the Roles Management page, the Role Admin can view the descriptions of both Custom Roles and Default Roles, as well as begin creating a new custom role:
Create a New Role
To begin, select your starting point by clicking one of the selections:
Starting with an Existing Role
This option duplicates an existing role, allowing you to build upon it. You can begin by selecting one of the default permission levels, or you can build on a custom role you've already created.
Select a role to duplicate.
Give the custom role a name.
Add to or edit the description of the duplicated role.
Click Continue to Permissions.
The first thing you'll notice is that some permissions have been selected for you. These are permissions that are integral to the platform and the existing role you've selected.
Scroll through the Permission Tree to find those you'd like to add to the new custom role.
Once you've made your selections, click the Create Role button.
Your new custom role is ready for testing and assignment.
Creating a Role from Scratch
This option starts with a clean slate, allowing you to configure it according to your team's specific needs.
Give the custom role a name.
Add a description of the role.
You'll see that some permissions have been selected for you. These permissions are integral to the platform and cannot be unselected.
Scroll through the Permission Tree to find those you'd like to add to the new custom role.
Once you've made your selections, click the Create Role button.
Your new custom role is ready for testing and assignment.
Assign a Custom Role
After your custom role is set up, go to the Current Team tab. In this example, I want to give Level 3 permissions to a Level 1 temporarily, and I want them to be able to administer the Funds feature:
On the Current Team tab, find the team member you want to give a custom role to.
Click the three-dot menu to the right of their name and select Edit.
Select the custom role, then Save Changes:
Unassign a Custom Role
To unassign a custom role, follow the steps above, and click the X to remove the role:
Permissions - Descriptions
Permissions - Descriptions
Activity Log: More>Activity on the submission list view.
Additional Form Reminders: Set up and send additional form reminders.
Additional Form Schedules: Displays a list of scheduled additional forms.
Additional Form Scheduling: Allows users to manage additional forms from submissions.
Additional Forms Management: Send and update additional forms.
Archive Submissions: Allows users to archive submissions.
Awards: Create, delete, view, and edit awards in Funds Tracking.
Billing Information: Create, view, and edit Billing Information.
Budget Categories: Create, view, and edit budget categories in Funds Management.
Bulk Messages: Create bulk messages from the submission list view.
Configurations:
Custom Organization Fields: Allows users to create custom fields for organization profiles.
Custom Roles: View custom roles.
Data Portal: View data portals.
Docusign Integration: Send and view Docusign documents.
Docusign Integration Setup: Connect to, view, and update the Docusign connection.
Draft Submission Messages: Create and view messages to draft holders.
Draft Submissions: View draft submissions.
Edit Submission Responses: Allows users to edit fields in submissions.
Form List: waiting for nishi
Forms: Create, delete, view, and edit all form types.
Funds: Create, delete, and view funds in Funds Tracking.
Impact Reports: Create, delete, view, and edit impact reports.
Income Reports: View income reports.
Integrations: Allows API management.
Internal Forms Data: Allows users to add, delete, and edit internal forms data.
Labels: Create, delete, view, and edit labels (see Submission Labels for applying labels only).
Manual Submissions: Create manual submissions.
Open Submissions for Editing: Allows users to open submissions for editing.
Organization Calendar: Allows publishers to view an organization calendar.
Organization Profile Notes: asked nishi
Organization Profiles: View organization profiles.
Payments: Create, delete, view, and edit payments in Funds Tracking.
Pending Team Invitations: Allows users to view the Pending Team Invitations tab.
Placeholder Tags: Create, view, and edit placeholder tags.
Projects: Create, delete, view, and edit projects.
Public Profile: View and edit your account's public profile.
Reports: Allows access to standard reporting, advanced reporting, and exporting.
Response Templates: Create, delete, view, and edit response templates.
Review Reminders: Create, delete, view, and edit review reminders.
Reviews: Create, delete, view, and edit reviews.
Submission Assignment History: asked nishi to remove
Submission Assignments: View and edit submission assignments; allow a user to reassign submissions.
Submission Labels: Allows users to add labels to submissions.
Submission Notes: Allows users to add notes to submissions.
Submission Public Organizations: Allows users to link and unlink public organizations to submissions.
Submission Review Stages: asked nishi to change this back to Review Stages
Submission Status: Edit submission status.
Submissions: View, edit, and delete submissions.
Submitter Messaging: Message submitters.
Team Groups: Create, view, delete, and edit Team Groups.
Team Messaging: Message team members, view team member messages, message team members if assigned.
Teams: Invite, view, and edit team members; delete or deactivate team members.
Transactions: Allows access to Funds transactions.
Transfer Submission Ownership: Initiate, cancel, and view transfers of submission ownership.
View Organization Forms Page: asked to change to "Organizations Page" and sub to "View Form Data"
Sample Roles
We've put together a few to get you started!
Financial Access Role
We created this role using the "from scratch" model. It can be assigned to accompany a standard permission level or to a team member without any other permissions. The instructions here assume that your account has Funds Tracking enabled.
Please note: This role grants access to all financial areas of your organization’s account. Because some features are closely connected, changes to permissions can have broader effects than expected. Testing the custom role before assigning it can help prevent issues later on.
To get started, select the "Create a role from scratch" option, name and define your role, then click "Continue to Permissions." You'll see that some features are already selected.
Select "Awards." This turns on most of the other financial-related features you'll want.
Select "Income Reports."
Select "Payments."
Now, scroll through the permissions, and where you see a line through a checkbox, open the permission and review the options to see what else you may want to include. Under "Funds," for example, would you like to allow the user to create, delete, and edit them? Make your selections here:
When you're finished creating the role, click Create Role. Test your role before assigning!
Read-Only Role