Learn essential Toast Web configurations for going live! Select the Getting Started button below to start this learning path.
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Before You Begin
Applies to: Toast Web
If you use Toast Payroll, add and edit employees in Toast Payroll instead so timesheets, tips, and pay sync correctly. See Toast Payroll: Sync Information With Toast Web.
Permissions needed:
4.9 Employee Info - required to add, edit, archive, or unarchive employees and to view or edit POS access codes
4.10 Employee Jobs & Wages - required to edit an employee's jobs and wages
8.2 User Permissions - required to change permissions. You must also already hold every permission you are trying to assign or remove. For details, see Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.
What you'll accomplish: Add a new employee to Toast Web with the right account type, edit an existing employee profile or permissions, or archive an employee who no longer works for you.
Note: Toast Web profiles serve two purposes. A POS access code (passcode) lets an employee clock in and use Toast devices. A Toast Web account lets an employee log in at toasttab.com to view reports, change menus, or perform other back-end functions. Most hourly staff only need a POS access code—grant a Toast Web account only to owners, managers, admins, accountants, or anyone who needs back-end access. To learn more about the difference between a profile and an account, see Log in to Toast: Create an Account.
Quick Fix
Use this table to jump to the most common scenarios that occur:
Symptom or Goal
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Most Common Cause
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Quick Fix
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Add an employee without requiring an email address
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Set Invite to create account to No so they only use the POS
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Need to give an employee all permissions or mirror another employee
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Toast does not auto-clone access; assign the same job(s) at the same locations
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Permissions error: It says I don't have permissions even though you are the owner
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You must already hold every permission you are trying to assign, plus 8.2 User Permissions
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Can't archive an employee—primary user error
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Your restaurant's primary user cannot be archived
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The owner or restaurant admin must contact Customer Care to change the primary user first
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New hire can't log in to Toast Web after invite
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Invitation expired (seven days), wrong email, or invite landed in spam
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New hire can't clock in on the POS
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POS access code missing, employee profile Expired or Invited, or duplicate profile
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Inherit vs Override—which one should I use?
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Inherited permissions come from the job; Override sets a permission at the individual employee level
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See the FAQ entry
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Toast Payroll customer needs to remove an employee
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Terminate the employee in Toast Payroll; the Toast Web profile archives automatically within two hours
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Add a New Employee in Toast Web
There are two ways to add an employee to Toast Web:
Create a simple profile with a POS access code (passcode) and a job so the employee can clock in, clock out, and use Toast devices. This is the typical method for hourly staff and the method Toast Payroll uses when it creates a mapped Toast Web profile for a new hire.
Create a profile with a Toast Web account so the person can also log in at toasttab.com to view reports, change menus, and perform other back-end functions, based on their permissions. Reserve accounts for owners, managers, admins, and anyone who needs back-end access.
To add a new employee in Toast Web:
In Toast Web, navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
Select +Add New Employee.
If you are a Toast Payroll customer, a pop-up reminds you to add the employee in Toast Payroll instead. Once you create a Toast Payroll profile, Toast automatically creates a mapped Toast Web profile (see Toast Payroll: Manage Employee Mapping for more info). Select Add on Toast Payroll to continue in Toast Payroll. Select Add on Toast POS only when you need to add someone with back-end access who is not paid through Toast Payroll—for example, a bookkeeper or accountant.
Set the Invite to create account toggle:
Select No if the employee only needs to clock in and use the POS. This is the most common choice for hourly staff and lets you add an employee without requiring an email address.
Select Yes if the employee needs to log in to Toast Web. An email address is required and the employee will receive an invitation to set a password.
To grant a Toast Web account to an employee who already has a Toast Web profile, see Grant or Remove Toast Web Access for Existing Employees.
Enter the employee details. Required fields change depending on whether a Toast Web account is being created:
Email address is required only when Invite to create account is set to Yes. This is the email the employee uses to log in to Toast Web.
Jobs and pay: Choose a job role from the drop-down. Enter a value in the wage field if the role is hourly. To add another role, select + Add new job. The employee inherits all POS and Toast Web permissions associated with the jobs you assign. If the job you need does not exist, create it first—see Create and Edit Jobs (Roles) for Toast POS.
Name fields: Do not use emojis.
To add another employee right after this one, select the Add another checkbox. Otherwise, select Add to save this profile.
If you use Toast Payroll and Toast detects a possible duplicate, you'll see a "may already have a profile" warning. If a suggested profile matches the person you are hiring, select it to keep all information in one place. Otherwise, select Continue creating a new profile. For more, see Toast Payroll: Duplicate Profile Detection.
After you select Add, the employee receives an email with their next steps, including creating a password if they were invited to create an account. A checkmark appears next to their name under the Account Created column on the Employees page.
Expected outcome: The new employee appears on the Employees page with a status of Active (no account needed) or Invited (waiting for the employee to accept the invite). If you assigned a POS access code, the employee can clock in at the POS once the next data sync runs.
Employee Account Status in Toast Web
All active employees are listed on the Active tab of the Employees page, with one of these labels in the Status column:
Active - The employee has access to their POS access code and, if applicable, their Toast Web account, with the permissions configured for them.
Invited - An email was sent inviting the employee to create a Toast Web account. Invites expire after seven days.
Expired - The employee received an invitation email but did not accept it within seven days. Select the Expired status to resend the email.
Inactive employees are listed on the Archived tab of the Employees page. See Archive (Delete) an Employee in Toast Web for details.
Resend an Email Invitation
When you create an employee profile with Invite to create account set to Yes, the employee's status shows as Invited and Toast sends them an email to set a password. If the email is lost or misplaced:
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
Select the Invited status icon next to the employee's name to resend the invitation. Invitations expire after seven days, so if that time has passed, the invite must be resent using this process.
Expected outcome: A new invitation email is sent. The expiration timer resets to seven days.
If the email still doesn't arrive:
Verify the spelling of the email address you entered. Update it on the Profile tab and resend if needed.
Have the employee check their junk or spam folder.
Try archiving and unarchiving the employee profile, then resend the invitation.
For more invitation troubleshooting, including 550-series email rejections and the Invalid or in Use error message documented in Grant or Remove Toast Web Access for Existing Employees, see Grant or Remove Toast Web Access for Existing Employees.
Edit an Employee Profile in Toast Web
Note: If you use both Toast Web and Toast Payroll, the newer Toast Web layout looks similar to Toast Payroll. To confirm which system you are in, check the URL—Toast Web is on toasttab.com and Toast Payroll is on payroll.toasttab.com.
To open an employee's profile in Toast Web:
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
Select the employee's last name hyperlink to open the profile page.
The profile page has these tabs:
Overview - A view-only summary of the employee's status, POS access code (passcode), assigned jobs, and Employment & Account Status. The 4.9 Employee Info permission is required to view another user's POS access code. Select either the > arrow icons in the corner of the tiles or the tabs along the top to make changes. The jobs that appear on this tab are only for the location you are currently viewing in Toast Web.
In the Employment & Account Status tile, you may see an Invite to create account link if the employee does not yet have a Toast Web account. Selecting this link opens a sidebar where you can verify the email address and select Save and invite to send the invitation. This is the same flow described in Grant or Remove Toast Web Access for Existing Employees.
Profile - Edit the employee's name, chosen name, email address, phone number, and POS access code (passcode). Select Account info on the left to view or edit the POS access code.
Jobs & Permissions - Assign jobs and individual permission overrides. See Update Employee Permissions in Toast Web and Update Employee Jobs in Toast Web below.
Restaurant access - Assign the employee to additional restaurants or restaurant groups. Use the Manage access drop-down to add or remove access. If an employee has a location assigned but no permissions at that location, they can only clock in there—return to the Jobs & Permissions tab to assign permissions at the new location.
Pay history - Visible only to restaurants that do not use Toast Payroll. Shows historical wage information and promotes the benefits of using Toast Payroll alongside Toast Web.
Important: If this employee also has a Toast Payroll profile, you'll see a yellow notification on the Jobs & Permissions tab. Make job and pay changes in Toast Payroll to avoid syncing and saving issues—editing Toast Web and Toast POS permissions is still done on this page. Select Go to Toast Payroll to navigate to the Toast Payroll login screen. If you are sure you want to edit job and pay directly in Toast Web, select the checkbox to override the warning. See Toast Payroll: Sync Information With Toast Web for the full sync rules.
Update Employee Information in Toast Web
To update an employee's name, chosen name, email address, phone number, or POS access code (passcode):
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees. You'll need permission 4.9 Employee Info to edit these fields.
Select the employee's hyperlinked last name.
The Overview tab is view-only, so select the Profile tab.
Make your edits. Do not use emojis in name fields.
Select Save at the top of the page.
Expected outcome: The updated information appears on the Overview tab. Changes to the POS access code take effect on the POS after the next data sync.
Note: If the employee has already activated their Toast Web account, they (not a manager) must update their own email address or password from the My Account page. See Log in to Toast: Update Your Account for those steps.
Update Employee Permissions in Toast Web
Permissions are typically tied to the jobs an employee is assigned to. For example, a bartender job has a set of default permissions that an employee inherits when assigned that job. In most cases, edit the permissions of the job rather than the individual—see the Update a job's permissions section of Create and Edit Jobs (Roles) for Toast POS.
It's a good idea to periodically review and update employee permissions so no jobs or employees have more access than they need.
To update an individual employee's permissions:
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees. You'll need permissions 8.2 User Permissions and 4.10 Employee Jobs & Wages, and you must already have ALL the same (or more) permissions as the user you are trying to edit.
Select the employee's edit pencil on the right side of the row.
You'll land on the Jobs & Permissions tab. Scroll down to the Permissions & Access tile.
If you have one or more locations, use the View restaurant/group permissions drop-down to confirm you are viewing the correct restaurant or restaurant group before changing anything.
To set a specific permission at the individual level, toggle the slider for that permission to Override, then select or deselect the checkbox. Once the permissions are set correctly, select Save. Using Override for group permissions grants only the specific permissions you select rather than inheriting the job's defaults—useful for tasks like restricting sensitive configurations such as menu changes or online ordering modifications.
Expected outcome: The employee's effective permissions reflect the override. The employee should log out and back in for the change to take effect on the POS.
Note: If you see the Toast error Sorry, you can't edit permissions you don't have (documented in Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS), a Forbidden error, or the Override toggle is missing, you do not hold every permission you are trying to assign. Have an admin or owner who holds the missing permissions make the change, or have them grant the missing permissions to your profile first. For full troubleshooting—including the I-am-the-owner-but-it-says-I-don't-have-permissions scenario, mirroring another employee's access, and the Someone needs to unlock this for you message—see Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.
Update Employee Jobs in Toast Web
To update an employee's job or role in Toast Web:
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees. You'll need permission 4.10 Employee Jobs & Wages to edit an employee's job.
Locate the employee and select the edit pencil to the right of their name.
If you use Toast Payroll, a disclaimer appears. It is vital to update job and wage information in Toast Payroll for syncing and mapping purposes. A wage edit on this page will not be reflected in Toast Payroll, and a job edit on this page will cause timesheet syncing errors. To make direct changes in Toast Web anyway, select I want to edit on Toast.
Select the checkbox for a job to add or remove for this employee. Select Save.
Expected outcome: The selected jobs appear under the employee's profile. The employee inherits the permissions for any newly assigned job.
Note: If the job you need does not exist yet, create it first. See Create and Edit Jobs (Roles) for Toast POS.
Update Employee Wages in Toast Web
Wages are typically tied to the job an employee is assigned to rather than to the individual. For example, a bartender job has a default wage that the employee inherits when assigned that job. In most cases, edit the job-level default wage rather than overriding an individual wage—see the Update a job's wages section of Create and Edit Jobs (Roles) for Toast POS.
To override or update an individual employee's wage for a specific job:
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees. You'll need permission 4.10 Employee Jobs & Wages.
Locate the employee and select the edit pencil to the right of their name.
If you use Toast Payroll, a disclaimer appears. Update wages in Toast Payroll instead—a wage edit on this page will not be reflected in Toast Payroll. To proceed in Toast Web anyway, select I want to edit on Toast.
For any job this employee is assigned to, add or change the value in the Wage override box. The Wage toggle must be set to On to see Default wages and Wage overrides. Select Save.
To schedule the wage override to take effect on a future date, scroll down to When should this take effect?, choose a date, and select Save. This setting becomes active only once a wage override is set.
Expected outcome: The wage override appears on the employee's Jobs & Permissions tab. Pay calculations use the override starting on the effective date.
Note: Scheduling a future effective date is only available for restaurants with Toast Payroll. Without Toast Payroll, wage changes for both individuals and jobs cannot be scheduled and take effect immediately on save.
Archive (Delete) an Employee in Toast Web
Archiving an employee removes them from your active employee list, effectively deactivating them. They can no longer log in to Toast Web or use Toast devices, but they still appear in labor reports for historical reporting. The 4.9 Employee Info permission is required to archive or restore an employee.
Important: If you use Toast Payroll, terminate the employee in Toast Payroll instead—this archives the mapped Toast Web profile automatically within two hours. The only typical reason to archive in Toast Web alone (when you have Toast Payroll) is if an employee has duplicate Toast Web profiles. See Terminate or Archive an Employee in Toast Web or Toast Payroll.
Need to "uninvite" an employee from Toast Web? If you created an employee account with back-end access but want to prevent them from accessing Toast Web, archive their account and then recreate the profile without an email address. If you use Toast Payroll, check the employee's mapping after unarchiving them—see Toast Payroll: Manage Employee Mapping. Alternatively, to restrict back-end access without archiving, change the associated email address to a placeholder. This removes the employee's ability to log in to Toast Web while preserving their employee profile and POS access.
To archive an employee profile in Toast Web:
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
Locate the individual you want to archive, and select the archive button (down arrow) on the far right side of the table.
In the pop-up, select Archive to confirm.
Expected outcome: The employee is removed from the Active tab and appears on the Archived tab. They can no longer log in to Toast Web or use the POS access code.
Important: If you receive an error message when trying to archive an employee, it may be because you are attempting to archive your restaurant's primary user. The primary user cannot be archived. To request a change to your primary user, the owner or restaurant admin must contact Customer Care.
Archived Employees on Toast Web Reports
Archived employees with hours worked continue to appear on reports if they fall within the selected date range, but they are not available on the employee filter options. If you want to use the employee filter to search for a person by name, you can temporarily unarchive that employee and view the report.
If you navigate to Reports > Labor > Time entry management and filter the report to your desired dates, you'll see time entries for all employees, including archived ones.
Archived employees also still appear on the Timesheets report, and those timesheets are editable. The Tips Management report also shows archived employees' information and still sends it to Toast Payroll. Note: If an archived employee in Toast Payroll has also been terminated (which is typical), the tip sync results in an error.
Unarchive (Restore) an Employee in Toast Web
Archived employees can be re-activated to restore their access to the POS and Toast Web.
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
Select the Archived tab near the top of the page.
Locate the employee you want to restore, and select the unarchive button (up arrow) on the far right side of the table.
In the pop-up, select Confirm.
Expected outcome: The employee returns to the Active tab with their previous permissions and POS access code. If you use Toast Payroll, verify the mapping after restoring—see Toast Payroll: Manage Employee Mapping.
Export a List of Active Employees From Toast Web
To generate a list of active employees as a .csv file, select Export all employees from the main Employees page. The file includes employee names, contact information, assigned jobs, POS access codes, and more.
Expected outcome: A .csv file downloads automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add an employee without requiring an email address?
To add an employee without requiring an email address, set the Invite to create account toggle to No when you create the profile. Hourly staff who only clock in and use the POS do not need an email or a Toast Web account. See Add a New Employee in Toast Web for full steps.
What's the difference between inherit and override permissions?
Inherited permissions come from the employee's assigned job—they appear as gray checkboxes and are applied automatically. Overridden permissions are manually set at the individual employee level—they appear as blue checkboxes and differ from job defaults. Use Override when an employee needs access beyond their job defaults or when you need to restrict a specific permission for one person. For full guidance, see Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.
How do I give an employee all permissions, or mirror another employee's access?
Toast does not support cloning or mirroring an employee profile automatically. To match another employee's access, assign the same jobs at the same locations. Using job-based permissions (rather than individual overrides) makes this consistent and easier to maintain. To grant every permission to one person, you must hold every permission yourself plus 8.2 User Permissions. For step-by-step guidance, see Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.
Why am I getting a permissions error when I am the owner?
When you see the Toast error Sorry, you can't edit permissions you don't have, a Forbidden error, or a missing Override toggle, the signed-in account does not hold all the permissions of the employee being edited—even if you are the owner. You must already have every permission that the other employee has, plus 8.2 User Permissions. For full troubleshooting steps—including the scenario where you have permissions at multiple locations and need group-level permissions—see Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.
Why can't I archive an employee?
If you get an error when archiving an employee, the most common cause is that the employee is your restaurant's primary user. The primary user cannot be archived. To request a change to your primary user, the owner or restaurant admin must contact Customer Care. If you use Toast Payroll, an archive-an-owner-profile request also requires Customer Care assistance because reactivation involves account-level changes.
A new hire can't log in to Toast Web or clock in on the POS. What should I check?
Start with these checks:
If the employee was invited to create a Toast Web account, confirm their status is Active, not Invited or Expired. Resend the invitation if needed—see Resend an Email Invitation.
Verify the email address on file is correct and that the employee checked their spam/junk folder.
For POS clock-in problems, verify the POS access code in Toast Web and resync data on the POS device.
If the issue persists, see Grant or Remove Toast Web Access for Existing Employees for invitation troubleshooting, or Resolve Time Clock and POS Access Issues for clock-in troubleshooting.
I use Toast Payroll. Where should I add or remove an employee?
If you use Toast Payroll, add new employees in Toast Payroll. Once you hire someone in Toast Payroll, Toast automatically creates a mapped Toast Web profile and keeps the two profiles in sync (time entries, tips, jobs, pay, status). To remove an employee, terminate them in Toast Payroll—the mapped Toast Web profile archives automatically within two hours. See Terminate or Archive an Employee in Toast Web or Toast Payroll and Toast Payroll: Sync Information With Toast Web.
How do I add an Employee ID to an active employee?
In Toast Payroll, the Employee ID (employee number) is a unique identifier auto-generated when you hire someone, and it syncs to Toast Web as the Employee ID. If you change the employee number in Toast Payroll after hiring, the POS access code in Toast Web is not updated automatically. To set or change a Toast Web Employee ID for an existing employee, edit their Profile tab in Toast Web. For full details on the Toast Payroll side, see Employee Management: Complete Guide for Toast.
Before You Contact Customer Care
If you have worked through the steps above and the issue persists, gather this information before contacting Customer Care. The scenarios below typically require account-level intervention that cannot be resolved by self-service:
The primary user of your restaurant needs to be changed so a former owner or admin can be archived
An employee's email address is already in use with another Toast account at a different restaurant ("Invalid or in Use" error) and needs to be released
An employee profile is stuck in a "creating account" state and cannot be archived or reinvited
An employee was added with Invite to create account set to No but their profile still shows as Invited, and archiving and re-adding the profile did not resolve the state
The invitation email is not arriving after resending, checking spam, verifying the email address, archiving and re-adding the profile, and confirming with the employee's email provider that no 550-series rejection occurred
A new hire cannot log in to Toast Web after the invitation was resent and the password was reset
An employee appears in scheduling (Sling or another integration) but you cannot resolve a duplicate profile in Toast Web
Have the following ready:
Employee name and email address (as entered in Toast Web)
Restaurant name and location
The exact error message you are seeing, if any
Steps you have already tried from this article
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