Your lead cook has been with you three years, fast and careful. You want her on the same lists you are: the prep list, the pack list, Tuesday’s delivery.

You don’t want her doing the math on the fundraiser. She knows what the chicken cost because she unpacked it, and the price per guest would finish the sum for her.

Most owners solve this by keeping the cooks out of the software. Then the prep list lives on a whiteboard, and the whiteboard is wrong. A cook needs to know it’s four cases. Not that it’s $219.

Bringing a cook in as Staff takes one invitation, and what she sees after that is below.

Step 1: Invite her as Staff

Go to Settings > Team & access and find Invite people. Type her email, and under They join as pick Staff.

Invite people: “They get a one-time sign-in link by email. No password to remember.” Email addresses holds rosa.alvarez@example.com. They join as: Staff is selected, “Works from orders, prep lists, deliveries and recipes. Can’t change prices, settings or billing.” Manager, “Everything Staff can do, plus costs, vendors and purchase orders. No billing.” Below: “Links work for 7 days. You can change someone’s role later.” A button: Send 1 invitation.
Staff or Manager, chosen before the invitation goes out.

Tap Send 1 invitation. Only the owner can invite. The link works for 7 days, and you can change her role later.

The email takes her to one page that says who invited her and what she joins as.

Join Harbor & Hearth Catering. “Marisol Vega invited you to this kitchen. You join as Staff. Works from orders, prep lists, deliveries and recipes. Can’t change prices, settings or billing.” A button: Join Harbor & Hearth Catering.
No password to set. She taps Join and she's in.

Step 3: Compare the same order

Here’s the Ishikawa fundraiser, 29 guests on Tuesday, as you see it.

The order as the owner sees it: Ishikawa fundraiser #765, Tue Oct 13, 29 guests, Autumn Harvest Table, Confirmed. A PRICE card: 29 guests, $42.46 a guest, locked when confirmed. A FOOD COST card: 30.7%, target 30%, Sales $1,231.34, Food $377.60, Food margin $853.74.
The owner's view: the price, the food cost, the margin.

And here’s the same order on her phone.

The same order as Staff sees it: the same title, date, guests and menu, then straight to the tabs Shop, Prep 0 of 19, Pack 0 of 5 and Details. “Nothing on this list has been counted yet.” A Count shelf items button. Baldor, 2 items: Arugula, need 3.9 lb, 2 × 3 lb clamshell; Mushroom, cremini, need 7.1 lb, 1 × 10 lb case. No prices anywhere.
Staff's view: what to buy and how much, and no dollar figure.

The Shop tab has no price card and no food cost. She gets the quantities, the packs and Count shelf items. Prices, costs and margins are taken out on the server before the page reaches her phone, so there’s no hidden column to switch back on.

The recipe works the same way. You see the plate cost.

The recipe’s pricing card as the owner sees it: PRICING, PER PORTION. Plate cost $2.91. Sells for Not set. Food cost unavailable, target 30%. Price for a 30% target $9.70. A button: Change price or target.
The owner's recipe page. On a Staff login this card isn't there at all.

On her login the recipe page has no pricing card and no dollar figure, and neither does the prep list.

Some screens are all money: Analytics, Sage, the Clients book, events and proposals, and the price and spending pages under Purchases. They aren’t in her menu. If she follows an old link to one, she gets a plain answer instead of an error.

This area needs a different role. “Your role cannot do that in this kitchen.” The page is fine: “Nothing broke and nothing was changed: this screen needs a different kitchen role. Ask whoever runs the kitchen if you need something from it.” A button: Go to Today.
Nothing broke, and she knows who to ask.

Step 5: Change her role when the job changes

When she becomes your sous and should start reading food cost, that’s not a new account. Open the ••• next to her name.

People, 2 members: Marisol Vega, You, Owner, with Hand over. rosa.alvarez@example.com, Staff. Her ••• menu is open: Change role, Remove from kitchen.
Change role, or Remove from kitchen when someone leaves.

Change role moves her to Manager. Remove from kitchen signs her out on every device right away, and the orders, counts and notes she made stay, with her name on them.

The bottom of the page shows the whole line in one table.

Who can do what, Owner, Manager and Staff. Orders, prep and pack lists: all three. Check in deliveries, shelf counts: all three. See costs and margins: Owner and Manager, not Staff. Recipes, ingredients, menus: all three. Vendors and purchase orders: Owner and Manager, Staff can view. Settings: Owner only. Billing and team: Owner only.
Three roles, and the line between them is costs.

There’s no grid of custom permissions to fiddle with. Anyone who should see costs is a Manager; everyone else is Staff.

Who gets Manager

Hand out Manager the way you’d hand out the office key: to whoever orders when you’re not there, or prices a quote while you’re on a job. And only to someone you’d trust to read the month’s food cost and keep it to themselves.

Check the invites

  • Your cooks are Staff: quantities, recipes and lists, without the costs.
  • Your managers can open costs, vendors and purchase orders, and you’re fine with that.
  • You know where Change role and Remove from kitchen are.