Concepts
Roles & access
Ventura is multi-tenant and role-aware. Every firm's data is isolated, and within a firm what a person sees is governed by their roleplus what they're assigned to — all enforced at the database, not just hidden in the UI.
The seven roles
- Partner — full access, including the Firm cockpit and all economics.
- Senior manager — all clients, engagements, and meetings firm-wide; no Firm cockpit, no dollar economics by default.
- Manager / Lead — only assigned clients & engagements, plus BD they own; no economics.
- Staff — only assigned work; no BD, no economics.
- Finance / billing admin — billing, time, and Xero across the firm; no BD, no firm strategy.
- Contractor — assigned work only; the narrowest delivery role.
- System admin — user and integration configuration only; no client, BD, or financial data.
Access at a glance
| Role | Clients & engagements | Business development | Firm cockpit | Dollar economics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partner | Full | Full | Yes | Yes |
| Senior manager | Firm-wide | Owned only | No | No |
| Manager / Lead | Assigned | Owned only | No | No |
| Staff | Assigned | — | No | No |
| Finance / billing admin | Billing & time | — | No | Yes |
| Contractor | Assigned | — | No | No |
| System admin | — | — | No | No |
Read it as can write / can read / cannot see: most roles can write the work they're on, read what they're assigned, and simply cannot see economics or BD they're not entitled to.
Record scope
Beyond the role, visibility is assignment-driven. Partners and senior managers see operational work firm-wide; managers, staff, and contractors see only engagements they're assigned to (as Engagement Partner, manager, or a team member). A person can't reach a client or engagement they aren't on — even by direct link.
What's walled off
- Business development (Referrals & Pursuits) — partners see all; senior managers and managers see only what they own; staff/contractors don't see it.
- The Firm cockpit — partner-only at the database (EBITDA, cash, forecast, partner decisions).
- Economics — budget, billed, WIP, A/R, recovery, rates, and margins live in finance-only tables that only partners and finance admins can read. Everyone else sees the work and the hours, never the dollars.
A few distinctions
- Engagement Partner is an assignment, not the Partner role. Being the partner on a file (its owner) is set per engagement; the global Partner role is firm-wide access. Someone can own engagements without holding the Partner role.
- System Admin is config-only. It manages users and integrations and should not be used as a workaround for partner access — it sees no client, BD, or financial data.
- Contractors are optional in v1 but fully supported by the permission model — assigned-work-only, no BD, no economics.
Adding people & assigning roles
A partner or system admin invites a teammate by email and role from Settings → Team; the invitee accepts and is bound to the firm automatically. Roles are changed from the same place, and partners assign each person a rate tierthere too (which drives time profitability). You can't change your own role — a guardrail against locking yourself out.