Managing users, roles and approval settings

Last updated: September 29, 2026

Roles

Every user in your organisation has one role.

  • Read only: can see accounts, transactions and statements. Cannot request or approve anything.

  • Member: everything Read only can do, plus request transfers, withdrawals and payments, connect external accounts and manage payees. Cannot approve.

  • Approver: everything Member can do, plus approve requests made by others.

  • Admin: full access. Can request and approve, manage users, and change approval and organisation settings. Give this to the people who are signatories on your accounts.

Whether a request needs an approval, and how many, depends on your approval settings below, not on the requester's role.

Inviting someone

  1. Go to Settings, then Members. You need to be an admin.

  2. Click Invite, enter one or more email addresses, choose a role, and click Send invitations.

  3. They receive an email with a link. Once they accept, they appear in the Members list and get a welcome email from Primary.

Outstanding invites are on the Invitations tab, where you can revoke one. Sign in is by email link, or a password set under Settings, then Security. We recommend everyone turns on two step verification there.

Changing a role or removing someone

In the Members list, change the role using the dropdown in that person's row. The change takes effect immediately. Use Remove member to take someone out of the organisation. They lose access straight away.

Approval settings

Go to Settings, then Approvals. There are three transaction types: Withdrawals (to your own accounts), Third-Party Payments, and Transfers between your own accounts. For each you can set:

  • Require approvals: on or off.

  • Approvals required: 1 or 2.

  • Self-approval: whether someone can approve their own request.

  • Admin override: whether an admin can process a transaction with a single action regardless of the number required.

Click Save changes. New organisations start with one approval required, self approval on and admin override on. A common setup is two approvals for withdrawals and payments with self approval off, and one approval for transfers.

Notification settings

Each user chooses which emails they get under Settings, then Notifications. Approvers and admins get request emails and daily reminders by default. Members get processed and settled emails. Everyone gets the monthly statement email.