--- title: "Managing Users" description: "Manage team docs: invite users, set roles, and control access with ease" url: "https://support.helpdocs.io/article/CaKSeF9kSP-managing-users" category: "Getting Started" updated_at: "2026-09-07T15:00:15Z" --- # Managing Users Different people on your team build and market different parts of your product. It makes sense to collaborate on your docs and let experts write everything they know about each feature. Here's how to create, manage, and delete users on your HelpDocs account 👥 If you've got a lot of users inside your account, you'll see rows of users in a table rather than cards, but the process is always the same. ### Understanding Roles You can assign roles to team members you invite to HelpDocs depending on the actions they'll take inside the product. Here's a quick summary: - **Read-only**: can view content only - **Writer**: can create and edit articles and clips - **Editor**: can also publish, reorder, and manage permissions - **Administrator**: can also manage users, billing, and branding - **Owner**: has full control, including transferring ownership Here's a full breakdown: | Feature | Read-only | Writer | Editor | Administrator | Owner | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------|--------|--------|---------------|-------| | [Transfer Ownership](https://support.helpdocs.io/article/CaKSeF9kSP-managing-users#transferring_ownership) | \- | \- | \- | \- | ✅ | | [Edit Branding](/article/Z5uxITupzV-can-i-remove-the-help-docs-branding) | \- | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | | Manage Users | \- | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | | [Manage Billing](https://support.helpdocs.io/category/bc3ydQfdVZ-billing) | \- | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | | [Manage API Keys](/article/e2gilg5mkd-creating-and-managing-api-keys) | \- | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | | [View Audit](/article/i4k1s3j8kh-getting-team-event-history-with-audit-trail) | \- | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | | [Manage Clips](/article/m27mmeeghp-managing-clips) | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [View Stats](https://support.helpdocs.io/category/qlhvEUpY5c-dashboard-stats) | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Publish Articles](/article/oJI0ylcwEC-understanding-article-statuses) | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Edit Permissions](/article/9qsypn7zsx-understanding-permissioning) | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Edit Authorship](/article/jyd570o8vo-bulk-edit-status-author-and-stale-status-for-multiple-articles) | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Reorder Content](/article/hw102h0hDV-setting-article-display-order) | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Delete Published Articles | \- | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Edit & Save Articles | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Create Articles | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Create Clips | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | View Clips | \- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [View Content](/article/YClKB8p02e-restricting-your-docs-to-logged-in-users) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ### Inviting a User You can quickly invite users to your account. While you're waiting for them to accept the invitation they'll show up in the Users tab with an ![Invited badge](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1762360231301/screenshot-2025-11-05-at-16-29-32.png) badge. Pending invitations take up slots on your account. Head to [Billing](https://support.helpdocs.io/category/bc3ydQfdVZ-billing) to check or adjust your seats. [Embedded iframe](https://demo.arcade.software/isa1Pyji9Fs0bUIP7oQm?embed&embed_mobile=tab&embed_desktop=inline&show_copy_link=true) 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** 2. Click **Invite users** in the top right 3. Fill out their email address, their role, any [Permission Groups](/article/zcf0rx726v-managing-permission-groups) and if you'd like to send them an email invite If you don't send over an email invite they'll need to head to `yourdomain.helpdocs.io/signup` and enter their email address there 4. Click **Send Invite** **Invite multiple users by separating email addresses with a comma:** chromegoose@helpdocs.io,lindatherabbit@helpdocs.io,liveythepelican@helpdocs.io ### Changing the Default User Role When you invite a new team member in **Settings** > **Access** they'll automatically be assigned a specific user role. You can change the role they'll be assigned. 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Options** and head to the **Defaults** section 2. From the **Default User Role** dropdown menu select the role you'd like to be assigned 3. Click **Save Changes** ![Dropdown menu showing Default User Role options in HelpDocs settings.](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1788788941324/screenshot-2026-09-07-at-14-48-39.png) ### Managing Users #### Filtering Users Looking for a certain someone? You can filter by users' activity, role, and user groups to find the subset of users you're interested in. 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Members** 2. Click **Filter** in the top right to expand the filtering options 3. Add your filters. You can filter by: - Name - Email - Inactive for x amount of time - Active in the last x amount of time - User group - Role 4. Click **Apply** ![Filter People sidebar panel with dropdowns for name, status, user groups, role, and activity](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1788792688388/screenshot-2026-09-07-at-15-51-07.png) #### Bulk Edit Users Looking to modify lots of your users at once? You can use our handy Bulk Edit tools for your users. 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Users** 2. Select which users you'd like to modify using the checkboxes 3. Change your attributes. You can modify: - Role - Read-only groups - Full-access groups 4. Hit **Save changes** ![Edit Users modal in HelpDocs showing two selected team members and a role dropdown.](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1788792786367/screenshot-2026-09-07-at-15-52-45.png) #### Deleting Users If you're an **Administrator** or **Owner** you can delete users from your account. 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Users** 2. Select which users you'd like to delete using the checkboxes 3. Click **Edit x people** 4. Click **Delete users** 5. Double check, then click **Confirm delete users** ![](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1788792961273/screenshot-2026-09-07-at-15-55-41.png) If you delete a user all their articles remain exactly as they are now. The articles they have written are preserved ✨ #### Changing User Roles 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Users** 2. Click the checkbox next to the team members you'd like to edit and click **Edit User** 3. Choose a new role from the **Role** dropdown 4. Click **Save Changes** ![Edit Users modal in HelpDocs showing the role selection dropdown menu](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1788793027050/screenshot-2026-09-07-at-15-56-55.png) ### Viewing Last Active Time In the corner of each user's profile image in the users table you'll see a little dot indicating their status. If the user is currently online that dot will be green. If they're offline the dot will be grey. It'll also say when they were last online underneath their name. If you've got many users, hover over their avatar on the row to show the last seen date. ![Three user cards showing team members with role badges like Editor, Administrator, and Owner](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/CaKSeF9kSP/1788793157159/screenshot-2026-09-07-at-15-58-51.png) #### Transferring Ownership If you're the owner of your account you can *transfer ownership* to any other user. 1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Members** 2. Select the user you wish to transfer ownership to 3. Click **Edit User** 4. In the **Role** dropdown select **Owner** 5. Hit **Save Changes** Once you transfer your account to a new owner you'll become an **Administrator** instead. There's no way to reassign ownership to yourself later on. If you transfer ownership by mistake, contact support in-app as soon as possible.