This article explains the five roles you can assign to people in your clinic and what each one is allowed to do. Use it when you're adding a new user or changing someone's access.

Every user in Alpaca has exactly one role. That role controls which parts of the app they see and which actions they can take. Changing a user's role takes effect the next time they sign in.

At a glance

- Admin — Full clinic access, including payroll, pay rates, and finances. Use for owners and senior administrators.

- Director — Everything an Admin can do except payroll and finances. Use for office managers and clinical directors who run day-to-day operations but shouldn't see compensation or financial data.

- Clinician — For practicing BCBAs and BCaBAs. Sees their team, schedule, and clinical work; signs session notes; sees only their own paystub.

- Lead RBT — For senior RBTs. Similar to Clinician, but with fewer scheduling and dashboard tools.

- Organization User — Minimal access. Can see the schedule, run and sign session notes, and verify non-billable appointments. No team or admin tools.

Can they see payroll and financial information?

This is the most common question, so it's answered here in one place:U

Only Admin unlocks payroll and finances. Every other role can see only the user's own paystub, never anyone else's compensation and never the clinic's financial data.

Roles details

Admin

Who this is for: Clinic owners and senior administrators who run the whole operation, including compensation and finances.

What they can do

- Add, view, and manage clients (including intake, calendar, and referrals)

- View and manage staff (team list, user profiles, suspend accounts)

- See and approve schedules; override scheduling requests, including billable ones

- Approve and verify non-billable appointments; delete appointments

- Sign session notes — and edit a session note after it's been signed

- See and manage payroll for the whole clinic

- Edit pay rates for workers

- View clinic finances

- Configure clinical rubrics, audio analysis, and program templates

- Use mass communications and client-matching features

- View escalations, upcoming assessments, and the dashboard

- View their own paystub

What they cannot do

- Cross-organization features (switching between clinics, viewing finances across organizations) — those are reserved for Alpaca staff.

Director

Who this is for: Office managers, clinical directors, and senior staff who need full operational access but should not see compensation or financial information.

What they can do

- Add, view, and manage clients (intake, details, calendar)

- View and manage staff (team list, user profiles, suspend accounts)

- See and approve schedules; override scheduling requests, including billable ones

- Approve and verify non-billable appointments; delete appointments

- Sign session notes

- Configure clinical rubrics, audio analysis, and program templates

- Use mass communications and client-matching features

- View upcoming assessments and the dashboard

- View their own paystub

What they cannot do

- See other people's payroll

- See clinic finances

- Edit pay rates

- Edit session notes after they've been signed

- View escalations or referrals

- View the organization settings page

> Tip: Director is the right role for an office employee who works with clients and staff but should not see payroll or financial information.

Clinician

Who this is for: Practicing BCBAs and BCaBAs delivering clinical work.

What they can do

- View team and schedule
- See client details and clinical tabs for clients assigned to them (their care team caseload), not every client in the organization
- Sign session notes
- Verify non-billable appointments
- Override billable scheduling requests

- View the admin schedule and dashboard (read-only views relevant to their caseload)

- View configuration screens for clinical rubrics and audio analysis (read-only)

- View their own paystub

What they cannot do

- Add new clients

- Manage staff (no user profiles, no suspend)

- See other people's payroll or clinic finances

- Edit pay rates

- Edit session notes after they've been signed

- Configure (edit) rubrics or audio analysis

- Approve non-billable appointments (they can only verify them)

- Use mass communications or the client-matching feature

Lead RBT

Who this is for: Senior RBTs supervising or supporting other RBTs.

What they can do

- View team and schedule
- See client details and clinical tabs for clients assigned to them (their care team caseload), not every client in the organization
- Sign session notes
- Verify non-billable appointments
- View configuration screens for clinical rubrics and audio analysis (read-only)
- View their own paystub

What they cannot do

- Everything a Clinician cannot do, plus:

- View the admin schedule

- View the admin dashboard

- Override billable scheduling requests

Organization User

Who this is for: Support staff whose job is limited to running and signing session notes and verifying appointments — for example, BT/RBTs or assistant who handles paperwork.

What they can do

- View the schedule

- See clients within the organization (basic access)

- Sign session notes

- Verify non-billable appointments

- View configuration screens for clinical rubrics and audio analysis (read-only)

- View their own paystub

What they cannot do

- View the team list or user profiles

- See client details pages or client calendars

- Add or manage clients

- View the admin schedule or admin dashboard

- See anyone else's payroll or clinic finances

- Approve non-billable appointments

- Use mass communications or client-matching features

How to choose a role

Changing or revoking a role

A user with the Admin role can change anyone's role from that user's profile page. The new role takes effect the next time the user signs in. To revoke someone's access entirely, suspend the account from the same profile page — suspended users cannot sign in or take any action in Alpaca.

Questions?

If none of the roles fits your situation — for example, you need a role that combines parts of two of the above — contact Alpaca support. Custom permissions are not configurable per user today, but the support team can advise on the closest fit and pass requests back to the product team.