Team managers and project leaders in TimoDesk give people access to exactly the group or project they run, and nothing beyond it. A Team Manager is a role that sees and manages the members of their teams. A project leader is a Staff member who gets extra rights inside the specific projects they lead.
Picture Alex, who runs your support team, trying to check the team's hours on a Friday afternoon. Only the account owner can see that report. The usual fix is full access, which also opens every other department and the billing pages. This article explains what each option can see and do, and how to assign it.
What roles does TimoDesk have?
Every member of your organization has one of four roles. You will see these names in the Role field and in the member list.
- Organizer: full access to the organization, including billing, storage and the organization settings.
- Business Manager: sees and manages everyone and every project, and runs the organization day to day.
- Team Manager: sees and manages the people on the teams they are assigned to.
- Staff: tracks time and sees their own work.
A project leader is not a fifth role. It is a Staff member who has been picked in the Project Leaders field of one or more projects, and who gets extra access inside those projects only.
So the two ideas answer two different questions. A team manager is about people: which members does this person look after? A project leader is about work: which project does this person run?
What can a team manager see and do?
A team manager's view of TimoDesk comes from the teams they manage. If you have not set up teams yet, start with how to organize your workforce with teams.
What they can see
A team manager sees their own data plus the data of every member on the teams they manage. That covers tracked time, activity, screenshots, app usage and websites.
Their sidebar has more than a Staff member's. On top of the standard pages they get Members, Teams, Member Timing, Monthly Timesheet, Top Performers and Low Performers, each limited to themselves and their team members.
The Teams page shows a card for each team they manage, including who is working now. Team Details opens the same team page an organizer sees, in read-only mode.
For projects, a team manager sees any project their team members are assigned to, lead, have tasks in or have tracked time on. They do not see every project in the organization.
What they can do
- Create a project with Add Project, and edit the projects in their reach.
- Add their own team members to those projects, and take them off.
- Pick project leaders from the Staff on their teams.
- Manage tasks on those projects: add, edit, assign and archive tasks, and add or reorder board sections.
- Review manual time from their teams, if your organization allows it (more on that below).
What they cannot do
A team manager cannot create, edit or delete teams, and cannot add or remove a team's members or managers. They cannot invite, approve or disable members, change anyone's role, or change a member's tracking, screenshots or tracking policy.
They also do not see Clients, Billing, Support Requests, Productivity Leaders, Storage or the organization settings.
What can a project leader see and do?
A project leader is a Staff member with a wider view of the projects they lead. Everywhere else, they are still Staff.
Inside a project they lead
On a project they lead, a leader sees the whole project instead of only their own part. That includes the Members tab and the time, activity, app usage, websites and screenshots of everyone working on it.
They can also run the project day to day:
- Add members to the project and take them off.
- Create, edit, assign and archive any of its tasks.
- Add, rename, color and reorder board sections, and create labels. See the TimoDesk task board for how the board works.
- See which of the project's members are online.
On their Projects page, each project they lead carries a Leader badge, so it is easy to tell apart from projects they only work on.
What a project leader cannot do
A leader cannot create projects or change a project's title, icon, description or colors, and cannot add or remove other leaders. They do not get the Members or Teams pages, and as Staff they do not review manual time.
Outside the projects they lead, a leader sees only their own time and activity, the same as any other Staff member.
How do the roles compare?
| Ability | Organizer | Business Manager | Team Manager | Project leader | Staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whose time, activity and screenshots they see | Everyone | Everyone | Themselves and their team members | Everyone on projects they lead, otherwise themselves | Themselves |
| Open the Members and Teams pages | Yes | Yes | Yes, for their teams | No | No |
| Create, edit and delete teams | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Add members and change roles | Yes | Yes, except the Organizer role | No | No | No |
| Create and edit projects | Yes | Yes | Projects in their reach | No | No |
| Add and remove project members | Anyone | Anyone | Their own team members | On projects they lead | No |
| Pick project leaders | Any Staff member | Any Staff member | Staff on their teams | No | No |
| Assign people to tasks and manage board sections | Yes | Yes | Projects in their reach | On projects they lead | No |
| Review manual time | Yes | If the setting includes them (the default) | Their teams, if the setting includes them | No | No |
| Clients, Billing and Support Requests | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Organization info, storage and manual time settings | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Staff are not locked out of tasks. They can add tasks for themselves on their projects and edit the tasks they created or are assigned to. What they cannot do is assign other people, set priority or dates, or change the board's sections. The roles and permissions guide has the full list.
How do you make someone a team manager?
Making someone a team manager takes two steps: give them the role, then give them a team. Only an organizer or business manager can do either.
Step 1: Set the role
- Open Members from the sidebar and open the person's profile.
- Click the pencil icon, Edit Member.
- Change Role to Team Manager and click Save Changes.
If the person is new, you can pick Team Manager in the Role field when you use Add Member. People who join through an invite link always start as Staff.
Step 2: Put them in charge of a team
Until they manage a team, their Teams page reads "No team assigned to you yet". You can connect them to a team in three ways:
- Open Teams, click Add Team or Edit team, and pick them in the Team Managers field.
- On the Teams list, click Assign managers on a team that has none, or click the current managers and choose Assign Team Managers.
- On the manager's own profile, open the list of teams they manage and use Assign Teams.
The Team Managers field only lists people who already hold the role, which is why step 1 comes first. The manager gets a notification as soon as they are assigned.
One thing to remember: if you later change a team manager's role to something else, they stop managing every team they managed. The teams' members, projects and tasks stay the same.
How do you assign a project leader?
Organizers, business managers and team managers can pick project leaders. Only members with the Staff role can lead a project, and a team manager can only choose Staff from their own teams.
- Open Projects from the sidebar.
- For a new project, click Add Project and fill in the Project Leaders field. You can select more than one person.
- For an existing project, open its edit form and change Project Leaders, or open the project's details page and click the avatars next to Leaders.
- Pick the people and confirm.
You can also show the Project Leader column on the Projects page with Manage Columns, since it is hidden by default. Projects without a leader show "No leader" with an Assign leaders link. To take someone off, use Remove Leader in the same list.
The new leader gets a notification that they now lead the project. Staff on the project see who leads it under Led by in the project header. Leading a project does not make someone a member of it, so add them as a member too if they also track time there. The projects guide walks through each screen.
Who reviews manual time requests?
Who approves manual time is a choice your organizer makes, not something fixed by role. The manual time settings include Who can review, with three levels:
- Organizers only
- Organizers and business managers (the default)
- Organizers, business managers and team managers
With the third option, team managers review requests only from the teams they manage. Nobody reviews their own time, and project leaders are never reviewers. Read the guide to manual time requests for the full approval flow.
Should you pick a team manager or a project leader?
- Pick Team Manager when someone is responsible for a group of people across all their work: their hours, their activity and their reports.
- Pick project leader when someone is responsible for one piece of work and needs to see and organize everyone on it.
- Pick Business Manager only when someone truly needs to see and manage the whole organization.
A person cannot be both a team manager and a project leader, because project leaders are chosen from Staff. That is rarely a problem: a team manager can already manage tasks and their team members on every project in their reach.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a team manager and a project leader?
A Team Manager is a role that gives access to the people on the teams they manage, across all their work. A project leader is a Staff member who gets extra access only inside the specific projects they lead.
Can a team manager see everyone in the organization?
No. A team manager sees their own data and the members of the teams they manage, plus the projects those people work on. Only organizers and business managers see the whole organization.
Can a project leader see other members' screenshots?
Yes, inside a project they lead. They see the time, activity and screenshots of everyone working on that project. Outside it, they see only their own data, like any other Staff member.
Can a project have more than one leader?
Yes. The Project Leaders field accepts several people, and a project can also have no leader at all. Organizers and business managers can pick any Staff member as a leader.
Can a team manager create or edit teams?
No. Only organizers and business managers create, edit and delete teams and choose who is on them. A team manager can open the teams they manage and read their reports.
Who can make someone a project leader?
Organizers, business managers and team managers. Only Staff members can lead a project, and a team manager can only choose Staff from their own teams. Project leaders cannot add other leaders.
Give the right people the right access
Team managers and project leaders let you hand out responsibility without handing out the whole account. Team managers look after their people, project leaders run their projects, and everyone else keeps a view that fits their job. Every role is included in the one $1 per user plan, as you can see on TimoDesk pricing.
Want to set this up for your team? Start your 15-day free trial, no card needed, then open Members and give the right person the right role.
Was this helpful?
Share it with someone who still adds up hours by hand.
