Invite Team Members and Manage Access in Captivar

A Captivar account starts with one user — you, the owner. The moment a second person needs to work the pipeline, configure a receptionist, or check on a client site, you need teammates. This article covers how to invite them, what each role can do, and how to scope access so the wrong person never sees the wrong client.

How team access works

Three concepts shape how access works inside Captivar.

The owner. The person who created the account. There is exactly one owner per account at any time. The owner controls billing, can transfer ownership, and has unrestricted access to everything. The owner cannot be removed from the team — only replaced via ownership transfer.

Team members. Everyone else you’ve invited. Each team member has a role (admin or member) and a set of sites they’re allowed to see. A member added to one site sees only that site; a member added to all sites sees the full portfolio.

Clients. Distinct from team members. Clients are the businesses whose sites you manage. They see a portal scoped only to their site, branded with your agency’s logo. Clients are not on the Team page — they’re managed per-site, under each site’s Access settings. This article covers team members; client access is its own topic.

The three team roles

Captivar has three team roles. Each role inherits everything from the role below it.

Owner

The account creator. Has every permission Captivar grants. The owner is the only role that can:

• Change the billing plan
• Update payment methods
• Cancel the account
• Transfer ownership to another user
• Delete other team members (including admins)

There is one owner per account. You cannot create a second owner — you can only transfer the role from yourself to someone else.

Admin

The “second-in-command” role. An admin can do almost everything an owner can — manage sites, configure receptionists, build forms, work the pipeline, invite other team members — but cannot touch billing or transfer ownership.

Most agencies have one or two admins. Use admin for trusted partners, lead operators, or anyone who needs to make decisions across all client sites without needing to ask you.

Member

The “doer” role. A member works inside the platform but does not configure it. By default, a member can:

• View every site they’re granted access to
• Read every visitor, lead, and conversation on those sites
• Work the lead pipeline (move cards, add notes, set follow-ups)
• Respond to escalated chats

A member cannot:

• Add or remove sites
• Configure the AI receptionist
• Build or edit forms
• Change calendar settings
• Modify branding
• Invite other team members
• See sites they don’t have explicit access to

Members are right for account managers, intake staff, virtual assistants, and anyone whose job is to use the platform rather than configure it.

Inviting a team member

1. Open the Team page. Click your name in the top-right of the dashboard, then select Settings. The Team tab is on the left.

2. Click “Invite team member.” A modal opens with three fields: email, role, and site access.

3. Enter the recipient’s email. Use the address they actually check. The invitation goes to this address with a one-click join link. Personal addresses (Gmail, Yahoo) work; business addresses are recommended for traceability.

4. Pick the role. Admin or Member. The Member role reveals the site-access selector underneath; Admin automatically gets every site.

5. For Members, pick the sites. Either select specific sites from the list, or click “All sites” to grant access to your full portfolio. You can change this later from the Team page.

6. Click “Send invitation.” Captivar emails the recipient a join link. The link is valid for 7 days. Until they accept, the entry shows as Pending on the Team page.

The recipient sees an email titled “You’ve been invited to join [Your Agency] on Captivar.” Clicking the link drops them on the Captivar signup page with their email pre-filled and pre-verified. They set a password, hit submit, and they’re in — on your team, with the role and sites you assigned.

Managing pending invitations

Pending invitations are listed at the bottom of the Team page, separate from active team members. For each pending invite you can:

• Copy the join link — useful if the recipient didn’t get the email or wants the link sent through a different channel
• Resend the invitation — fires a new email with the same link. The 7-day expiry resets.
• Revoke the invitation — invalidates the link. The recipient gets no further notification; clicking the old link shows “This invitation is no longer valid.”

If a recipient doesn’t accept within 7 days, the invitation expires automatically. To re-invite, send a fresh invitation from the Team page — old expired invites stay listed for 30 days for audit visibility, then disappear.

Changing a team member’s role or access

Click any active team member on the Team page. A panel opens with editable fields:

• Role — toggle between Admin and Member. Owner is locked.
• Site access — for Members only. Add or remove individual sites, or flip to “All sites.”
• Status — Active, Suspended, or Removed.

Changes take effect immediately. The team member sees the new permissions on their next page load — they don’t need to log out and back in.

Suspending vs removing

Suspend locks the team member out without deleting their account. Their notes, status changes, and history stay attached to leads. Useful when someone is on extended leave or being investigated for misconduct — preserves the audit trail while preventing access.

Remove deletes the team member from your account. Their historical contributions (notes, status changes) stay attached to the work but are now attributed to “Removed user.” Their personal Captivar account is not deleted — they can still log in to any other agency they’re a member of, but yours becomes invisible to them.

Suspension is reversible. Removal is not — re-inviting a removed user creates a new team membership with no history of the prior one.

Transferring ownership

Only the owner can do this. The new owner must already be an admin on the account.

1. Open Settings → Team. Find the team member you want to make owner. They must currently be an Admin.

2. Click the three-dot menu on their row. Select “Transfer ownership.”

3. Confirm. A confirmation modal asks you to type the new owner’s email to confirm. After submission, the role swap happens immediately: they become Owner, you become Admin.

Audit trail

The Team page has an Activity tab next to the member list. It logs:

• Invitations sent and accepted
• Role changes
• Site-access grants and revocations
• Suspensions and removals
• Ownership transfers

Each entry shows who did it, who was affected, and when. The log is read-only — entries can’t be deleted, only reviewed.

This is most useful in two situations: when a client asks “who saw our data,” and when an agency wants to confirm a former contractor no longer has access to anything sensitive.

What plans support what

Team capacity does not scale with plan. Every plan, including Free, allows unlimited team members. Your billing is based on sites and AI messages, not team count.

What changes by plan is branding — Free and Founder plans show “Powered by Captivar” in the bottom corner of every dashboard and email. Starter removes that. Agency and Enterprise add full custom branding on top, which the next article covers.

A few practical patterns

Patterns we’ve seen work across small and mid-size agencies:

• One admin alongside the owner. A trusted operator who can run the platform if you’re unavailable. Covers vacation, sick days, and the eventual handoff.
• Member access scoped per client. Each account manager sees only the sites for the clients they’re responsible for. Prevents accidental cross-client data exposure.
• Contractors as members with single-site access. A copywriter or developer might need access to one site for a week. Member with that one site only — revoke when the work is done.
• Suspended over removed. When someone leaves the agency, suspend first. Revisit in 30 days. If they’re definitely gone, remove then. Suspending preserves the audit trail in case anything comes up about their past work.

What happens next

Team is set up. The next operational layer is custom branding — making the entire portal experience look like your agency, not Captivar. This is what most agencies want most, and it’s covered next.