How folder roles work
Datamolino has two separate role systems. Account roles (Owner, Manager, Member) decide what someone can do across the whole subscription. Folder roles decide what they can do inside one specific folder. The two are independent, so the same person can be an Admin in one folder and a User in another.
There are three folder roles: Admin, User, Approver-only. Every person who has access to a folder holds one of these three roles for that folder.
👉 Where do folder roles come from?
A folder role is assigned when someone is invited to the folder. The inviter picks the role on the invitation form. If you later re-invite the same person with a different role, their role on that folder is updated.
👉 How are folder roles different from account roles?
Account roles control account-wide things like billing access and account user management. Folder roles only control what happens inside a single folder. Account Owners and Managers can manage every folder under their account regardless of folder role, because account-level permissions extend into the folders. Learn more about account-level roles.
What each folder role can do
The folder role decides whether someone can change folder settings, invite or remove other users on that folder, and perform folder-level management actions. Both roles can open the folder and work with the documents inside it.
Admin has full control of the folder. An Admin works with all documents in the folder, and can also edit folder settings, archive or delete the folder, invite people, change other users' folder roles and remove users from the folder. An Admin sees the Users tab inside Folder Settings.
User works with all documents in the folder but cannot manage the folder itself. A User cannot invite anyone, cannot change folder settings and does not see the Users tab inside Folder Settings.
Approver-only is used only when invoice approval is enabled for the folder. An Approver-only user sees only the documents assigned to them for approval, and can approve or reject those documents. They do not see any other documents in the folder.
👉 How do the three roles compare?
The table below shows which actions each folder role can take.
Action | Admin | User | Approver-only |
See all documents in the folder | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ Only documents assigned to them for approval |
Work with documents in the folder (Import, export, edit). | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ Only approves, rejects or edits permitted fields. |
Approve or reject documents assigned to them | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Edit folder settings | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Archive or delete the folder | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Invite people and manage their folder roles. | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
👉 Can a folder User invite someone to that folder?
No, a folder User has no invitation rights inside the folder. The only exception is when that person also holds an account Owner or Manager role on the account that owns the folder. In that case, their account-level permission lets them invite.
👉 Can an Admin remove anyone from the folder?
An Admin can remove other Users and other Admins, but cannot remove someone who has access to the folder because they own the account. Account ownership takes priority, so a folder Admin cannot use a folder-level action to remove an account Owner.
Approver-only role and read-only access
The Approver-only role exists for invoice approval only. It gives someone access to the documents they need to approve, and nothing else in the folder.
👉 Can I use Approver-only as a read-only role?
No, Approver-only does not work as a read-only role. An Approver-only user sees only the documents assigned to them for approval. Every other document in the folder stays hidden from them, so they cannot use this role to browse or review the folder.
👉 Is there a read-only folder role?
No, Datamolino does not have a read-only folder role. Every person with access to a folder holds one of the three roles: Admin, User or Approver-only. To see all documents in a folder, someone needs the Admin or User role.
👉 What happens if approval is not enabled for the folder?
An Approver-only user has nothing to see when invoice approval is not enabled for the folder. Documents only reach them when they are assigned as an approver. Learn more about roles and permissions in approval.
Changing someone's folder role
A folder role is changed by re-inviting the same person with the new role. The system updates their existing folder role rather than sending them a fresh invitation. You do this from the folder's own Users area, inside Folder Settings.
Open the folder.
Go to Folder Settings and open the Users tab.
Use the invite action and re-enter the person with the role you want them to have on this folder.
The change applies immediately to that folder only. It does not affect their roles on other folders or their account-level role.
👉 Who is allowed to change a folder role?
Folder Admins can change folder roles inside the folder they manage. Account Owners and Managers can change folder roles on any folder under their account, including from the account-level user management area.
👉 Don't see the Users tab in Folder Settings?
That tab only appears if you have folder management rights on this folder - which means you are either an Admin of this folder, or an Owner or Manager of the account that owns it. A folder User won't see the tab at all. If you expected to see it, check your folder role with the person who invited you.
For a step-by-step on sending invitations and assigning folder roles, see invite users and assign them to folders.