Description: How organization-level and site-level roles differ, why inspector roles are granted per site, and what that means for who can inspect.
Overview
ComplianceGo grants access at two levels: on your organization, and on an individual site. They use the same People & Roles screen, and that's exactly why people get caught out.
An organization Editor can carry out an inspection on any of their organization's sites, without holding a role on that site. Inspector and Backup Inspector, on the other hand, exist only on individual sites.
This article explains the difference, which roles exist at each level, and what to do when someone's access isn't what you expected.
The Two Levels
Organization level | Site level | |
Where | People & Roles on your organization | People & Roles on a site |
Covers | The organization and how it's configured | That one site |
Roles available | Editor, Viewer | Editor, Viewer, Inspector, Backup Inspector |
The important line is the last one. Inspector and Backup Inspector exist only at site level. There is no way to give somebody an inspector role across your whole organization — it's granted site by site, deliberately. An organization Editor can still carry out an inspection on their organization's sites without holding one.
The Roles
Role | What it means |
Editor | Can add or remove companies, sites, inspectors, etc. |
Viewer | Can view company/site/inspection info, but cannot make changes. |
Inspector | Can conduct inspections on this site. Site level only. |
Backup Inspector | Can also conduct inspections on this site. Site level only. |
📝 Inspector and Backup Inspector give the same access to a site. ComplianceGo keeps them as separate roles, and the Showing filter lists them separately, but both allow inspecting.
The Editor and Viewer wording above is the product's own — you'll see it on the role menu at organization level. The inspector roles don't carry a description.
📝 When someone says they can't start an inspection, check the site's People & Roles for their role there, and check which account they're signed in with — the email on the account tells you whether they hold organization Editor rights at all.
A Person Can Hold Different Roles at Each Level
This is legitimate and common:
Viewer on the organization, Inspector on three sites.
Editor on the organization, no site role at all.
The two are set separately, so changing one doesn't change the other. Removing a site role doesn't touch someone's organization access, and adding an organization role doesn't put them on any site's People & Roles list — even though an organization Editor can already work on those sites.
Finding and Filtering People
Both screens work the same way.
Open People & Roles.
Use Search People to find someone already added to the site or organization, by name or email.
Use the Showing filter to narrow by role.
The Showing filter is the quickest way to see the difference between the two levels: on a site it offers All Roles, Editors, Viewers, Inspector and Backup Inspector. On the organization it offers only All Roles, Editors and Viewers — because the inspector roles can't exist there.
Adding Someone
Click + Person.
Enter their E-Mail. ComplianceGo checks whether they already exist.
If matches are found, they're listed under People already in the system matching this email address. Pick the existing person.
Otherwise click Add New User and fill in First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, E-Mail, Title, Role and Phone. Phone numbers are typed as Mobile, Work, Extension or Home, and Add Phone adds another.
Check the Review this person's information summary. Use Make Changes to go back.
Click Add.
A confirmation appears naming the role — for example "… was added as an Editor."
⚠️ Get their email address right. ComplianceGo matches people by email, so someone added under a second address ends up with two accounts and their access split across both — and untangling that needs support to merge them. Check the address before you add anyone.
Remove Role vs. Deactivate Role
Both sit on your organization's People & Roles, under Edit Role & Permissions. Neither one appears on a site's. Only one of them is local in effect.
Action | Scope | What it does |
Remove Role | Just here | Remove user's permission on this company or site. Their access elsewhere is untouched. |
Deactivate Role | System-wide | Inactivate user; user will no longer be able to login or use the system; all roles will be retained but remain dormant. |
⚠️ Deactivate Role is system-wide. It stops the person logging in to ComplianceGo at all — every site, every organization. Their roles are kept but dormant, so Activate Role brings them back. It only shows on people you're allowed to deactivate, so you may not see it on everyone.
ComplianceGo does ask first — a Deactivate User? confirmation explains that it "Deactivates this user system-wide but doesn't remove them." Read that dialog rather than clicking through it.
To take someone off one site, use neither of these. Open that site's People & Roles, click Edit Role & Permissions, and set the role to None — there's a None for the inspector roles and another for Editor/Viewer.
Status Badges You'll See
Badge | Meaning |
Invitation Pending | They've been invited but haven't activated their account yet. They can't log in. |
Someone showing Invitation Pending has no access at all yet, whatever roles you've assigned. If they say they can't get in, this badge is the first thing to check.
FAQ
Q: Someone is an organization Editor but can't start an inspection.
A: An organization Editor should be able to. Check they're signed in with the account that holds that role, and that the site belongs to the organization they're an Editor of. If they need to be assigned inspections rather than just able to run them, add them as Inspector on the site's People & Roles.
Q: Inspector isn't in the role list.
A: You're on the organization screen, where the inspector roles can't exist. Open the site, then People & Roles.
Q: Someone can't log in at all.
A: Either their invitation is still pending or they've been deactivated. Check for the Invitation Pending badge and resend the invitation; if they're inactive, reactivate them.
Q: I removed someone from a site and they lost all access.
A: You removed their last role on their last active site. Access to ComplianceGo is held through roles, so the last one going takes their access with it. Add them to an active site and it comes back. ComplianceGo warns you about this only when you're removing your own last role — removing somebody else's says nothing.
Q: A person appears twice.
A: They were added as a new user under a different email when they already had an account, so they now have two logins with access split across them. Contact support to merge the accounts.
Q: Their role changed on one site but not the others.
A: Site roles are per site, by design. Repeat the change on each site, or set it at organization level if it's an Editor/Viewer change.
Q: Can I make someone an inspector for every site at once?
A: No. Inspector and Backup Inspector are site-level only, and that's deliberate — inspector access is granted site by site.
Related articles
Managing People and Roles on a Site
Completing an Inspection
Working Through an Inspection Route