Lupa keeps three things separate so a busy practice can grow without losing control: the staff profile (who the person is), the job role (what they do — vet, nurse, receptionist, manager), and the roles that grant permissions (what they can actually open, edit, or approve in Lupa). A receptionist gets a different bundle of permissions to a vet, a locum vet only needs access to the branch they're covering, and a Practice Manager can adjust all of this without raising a support ticket.

💡 In short: Create a staff profile for each person, assign them a job role and at least one Lupa role, then assign them to the locations they work at. Roles control what a person can do; locations control where they can do it.

Before You Begin

🔒 Permissions required:

Staff profiles: Update Employees permission
Roles & permissions: Update Role Definition and/or Update Employee Roles permissions, plus Company Admin
Team Assignments (multi-site): Update Employee Stores permission At least one role in your company must always have all three of Company Admin, Update Role Definition, and Update Employee Roles — Lupa blocks any change that would leave nobody able to manage permissions.

What you need	Why it matters
Practice email for the new user	Each profile is keyed off a unique work email. Personal email addresses are discouraged because they cannot be re-issued when staff leave.
A list of locations	For multi-site practices, decide which branches the person will work at before you assign them. Calendar visibility is configured per location.
Vet Registration Number (vets only)	Veterinarians need an RCVS (UK) or equivalent registration number on their profile so it can appear on prescriptions, certificates, and reports.

📍 Two places to manage staff: Settings vs Admin. Use Settings when you only manage one location. Use Admin when you run multiple branches and need a single view across all of them. Roles and permissions are the same data — both screens write to the same place — so it does not matter which one you use to make a change.

How User Profiles, Roles and Permissions Fit Together

Lupa layers three concepts so the same staff record can be used in different ways without being duplicated.

Concept	What it is	Where you set it
Staff profile	The person — their name, work email, phone, avatar, signature, and Vet Registration Number where applicable.	Settings → Staff Profiles or Admin → Staff Profiles
Job role	The clinical or administrative position — Veterinarian, Nurse, Receptionist, Manager, Director, Groomer, and so on. This is descriptive, not a permission set.	The Job Role field on the staff profile
Roles (permission roles)	Named bundles of permissions, such as "Front Desk", "Senior Vet", or "Practice Manager". A staff member can be given more than one.	Admin → Permissions → Role Definition
Permissions	The fine-grained checks Lupa makes for individual actions — for example, "void a credit note", "edit a submitted insurance claim", "manage roles". Permissions are toggled per role.	Admin → Permissions → Role Definition (the grid)
Store assignments	Which locations a staff member works at and whether they appear in each location's calendar.	Admin → Team Assignments

💡 Job role vs permission role. Veterinarian (a job role) describes what someone does day to day. Senior Vet (a permission role) controls what Lupa lets them do. Two vets can share the same job role but be on different permission roles — for example, a partner who can void invoices and a junior vet who cannot.

![Screenshot needed: Settings → Staff Profiles list showing several team members with name, phone, email, job role, and status columns](Screenshot needed)

How to Create and Manage Staff Profiles

Open Staff Profiles

Single-location practice: open Settings, then Staff Profiles in the sidebar.
Multi-site practice: open Admin, then Staff Profiles.
Lupa shows the staff list with Active profiles by default — switch the Status filter to see archived ones. ![Screenshot needed: Staff Profiles table with the Add button top-right and the row action menu open showing Edit, Reset password, Archive](Screenshot needed)

Add a New Staff Member

Click Add in the top-right of the staff list.
Fill in the Add Employee dialog:

Field	What to enter
Email	The person's work email. This becomes their login and cannot be changed later — pick the right address before saving.
Password	A starter password the staff member will use for their first login. Ask them to change it from Settings → User afterwards.
First Name / Last Name	The full name as it should appear on appointments, invoices, and clinical notes.
Phone	Optional — useful when staff need to be reached about appointments.
Role (job role)	Pick from the standard list: Veterinarian, Nurse, Receptionist, Manager, Director, Administrative, Groomer, PCA, RCVS Advanced Practitioner, RCVS Specialist, Student Nurse, Trainer, Veterinary Staff, Veterinary Technician, Walker, Caretaker.
Vet Registration Number	For veterinarians — the RCVS or equivalent number that appears on prescriptions and certificates. Leave blank for non-clinical staff.
Visit Types (store-level only)	Which appointment types this staff member can be booked for. Used by online booking and the calendar.

Click Save. The new profile appears in the list and the staff member can log in immediately with the email and starter password.

⚠️ Create a profile, do not share an existing one. Each person needs their own staff profile so audit trails, signatures, and clinical notes stay attributable. Sharing a "Reception" account makes incident investigations and compliance audits harder than they need to be.

Edit an Existing Profile

Click the staff member's name in the list — or the action menu (⋯) at the end of the row, then Edit.
Update any field except Email.
Add an avatar — useful in the calendar where small avatars help the team scan appointments quickly.
Add a signature if your practice has prescription signatures enabled. The signature appears on prescriptions and clinical documents.
Click Save. ![Screenshot needed: Edit Employee dialog with First Name, Last Name, Phone, Job Role, Vet Registration Number, Visit Types, avatar upload area, and a Signature panel below](Screenshot needed)

Reset a Staff Password

If a staff member is locked out and cannot use the Forgot password? flow themselves, an administrator can set a new password directly:

Open Admin → Staff Profiles.
Click the row action menu (⋯) and choose Reset password.
Enter a New Password and Confirm New Password, then click Reset Password.
Hand the new password to the staff member by a secure channel and ask them to change it on their next login.

🔒 Password rules: at least 8 characters, with at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one number. Do not reuse a password the staff member has already shared with anyone else.

Archive (Deactivate) a Staff Member

When a staff member leaves, archive their profile rather than deleting it — clinical notes, signatures, and historical appointments stay attached to the right person.

Open the staff list and click the row action menu (⋯).
Choose Archive.
If the staff member has future appointments, Lupa shows the count and asks you to pick another team member to Reassign them to. This step is mandatory — it stops appointments being orphaned.
Click Archive to confirm.

⚠️ Archive moves the profile out of the active list. The person can no longer log in. Their past records remain intact and are still searchable. Use Unarchive from the row action menu to bring them back if they return.

How to Define Roles and Permissions

Permissions are managed in a single grid where every column is a role and every row is a permission. Tick the boxes a role should have, leave the rest empty, click save.

Open the Permissions Screen

Multi-site practice: open Admin → Permissions.
Single-location practice: open Settings → Permissions.
The screen has two tabs at the top:

Tab	What it does
Role Definition	Add new roles, rename them, toggle individual permissions, and delete unused roles. This is where you decide what each role can do.
Employee Roles	Assign one or more roles to each staff member. This is where you decide who is what.

Add a New Role

Open the Role Definition tab.
Click Add New Role in the top-right.
In the Add New Role dialog, enter a name — keep it short and descriptive (for example, "Front Desk", "Senior Vet", "Locum Vet", "Practice Manager", "Inventory Lead").
Click Add Role. The new role appears as an empty column in the grid with no permissions ticked. ![Screenshot needed: Permissions → Role Definition grid showing rows grouped by category (Admin, Analytics & Reporting, Appointments & Scheduling, etc.) with role columns and ticked checkboxes; the Add New Role button visible top-right](Screenshot needed)

Toggle Permissions in the Grid

Find the permission row by scrolling, or use the Filter permissions... search at the top.
Tick the checkbox in the column for the role that should have it. Untick to remove.
Hover the ⓘ icon next to a permission name to read a description of exactly what it controls.
The Save bar appears at the bottom of the screen as soon as you make a change. Click Save to commit the changes for every role at once.

💡 Use the filter to keep your bearings. With dozens of permissions across roles, scrolling up and down is slow. Type "claim", "credit note", "rota", or "stock" into the filter to jump to the section you care about.

Delete a Role

In the Role Definition tab, click the trash icon next to the role name in the column header.
In the confirmation dialog, type the role name exactly to confirm.
Click Delete.

⚠️ Roles cannot be deleted in a few cases. Lupa hides the trash icon when there is only one role left, and when the role is the only role with the Company Admin + Update Role Definition + Update Employee Roles combination. Create or update another admin-capable role first, then come back.

Assign Roles to Staff

Open the Employee Roles tab.
Find the staff member — type into Filter employees... to narrow the list.
Click into the Roles cell and tick one or more roles.
Lupa shows a Confirm Role Change dialog summarising what is being added and removed. Click Confirm. ![Screenshot needed: Employee Roles tab — table with Employee, Job Role, and Roles columns; a multi-select dropdown is open showing several roles; one row has multiple roles already assigned](Screenshot needed)

🔒 You cannot strip your own admin role. If you try to remove every admin-capable role from your own user, Lupa blocks the change and reverts the selector. Get a colleague who already has the right role to make the change for you, or assign the admin-capable role to another user first.

How to Assign Staff to Stores (Multi-Site Only)

Permissions decide what someone can do; store assignments decide where they can do it. A staff member only sees data for the stores they are assigned to. They also only appear on a store's calendar if Show in Calendar is on for that store.

Open Team Assignments

Open Admin → Team Assignments.
The screen has two columns:
Stores on the left — pick the location you want to manage.
Employees for [store] on the right — the staff currently assigned, plus the Assign to Store picker for adding more. ![Screenshot needed: Team Assignments screen — Stores list on the left with "Paddington Pets - Notting Hill" selected; Employees for Notting Hill table on the right showing names, Show in Calendar toggles, and a multi-select picker above](Screenshot needed)

Add Staff to a Store

Select a store from the left.
In the Select employees picker at the top of the right panel, choose one or more staff members.
Click Assign to Store.
Each new assignment defaults to Show in Calendar off — turn it on for staff who take appointments at this branch.

Toggle Calendar Visibility

For each row in the assignments table:

Switch Show in Calendar on for vets, nurses, and groomers who take appointments at this location.
Switch it off for back-office staff (managers, finance, head-office team) who do not need a calendar column.

Bulk Actions

Select multiple rows using the checkboxes to:

Add to Calendar — turn on the calendar column for everyone selected.
Remove from Calendar — turn it off without removing the assignment.
Remove Assignments — fully unassign the selected staff from this store.

✅ Best practice: Review Team Assignments after every joiner, leaver, or branch transfer. A staff member assigned to too many stores sees more data than they need; one assigned to too few cannot see the appointments they are working.

Permission Groups Reference

Permissions are grouped into categories so the grid stays readable. Use this table to find the right area when you are configuring a new role.

Group	What it controls
Admin	Company Admin, governance, role and permission management.
Analytics & Reporting	Access to analytics and individual data sources (invoices, payments, billing items, inventory, clients, pets, finance, vet utilisation).
Appointments & Scheduling	Appointment settings, changing durations, rota access.
Business & Staff Management	Updating employees, store information, store financial information, room management, health plans.
Communication & Client Preferences	Client chat, internal chat, marketing campaigns, bulk emails, legitimate-interest opt-out.
Finance & Billing	Credit notes (goodwill, invoice, voucher), refunds, write-offs, voiding documents, unlocking invoices, billing settings, cashup, financial lock, edit invoice item final price.
Hospitalisation	Admissions settings and managing hospitalised cases. Only visible if Hospitalisation is enabled for your practice.
Insurance & Integrations	Insurance claims, integrations settings, Microsoft app integration.
Inventory & Products	Inventory, product discounts, VAT controls, derived/standalone services and products, reference lists. Also includes Perform stocktake (entering counted quantities and managing batches during a stocktake), Complete stocktake (finalising a stocktake and viewing expected quantities and differences), and Manage product batches (creating, editing, and deleting stock batches).
Prescriptions & Medication	Updating prescriptions.
Settings & Customization	Booking settings, Lupa settings, staff settings, security settings, forms, appointment types.
Tasks	Read tasks, update tasks, view company-wide tasks. Controls visibility of the Tasks tab in the side panel.
API Keys	Creating and managing API keys for integrations.
Price Factor	Edit price factor types and update invoice item price factor. Only visible if Price Factor is enabled (Germany).

💡 Hover the ⓘ icon next to any permission name in the grid to see exactly what action it controls. The descriptions are written for the same audience as this article and are kept in sync with the product.

Job Roles Reference

The Job Role field on a staff profile is a fixed list. Pick the closest match — the value is descriptive only and does not by itself grant permissions.

Job role	Typical use
Veterinarian	Qualified vet with an RCVS or equivalent registration number.
RCVS Advanced Practitioner / RCVS Specialist	Vets with formal advanced or specialist accreditation.
Nurse / Student Nurse	Veterinary nurses and trainees.
Veterinary Technician / Veterinary Staff / PCA	Clinical support roles, including patient care assistants.
Receptionist / Administrative	Front-desk and back-office support staff.
Manager / Director	Practice managers and directors with leadership responsibilities.
Groomer / Walker / Trainer / Caretaker	Non-clinical service staff for grooming, dog walking, training, and animal care services.

Tips

✅ Best practices from practices that run Lupa:

Build roles around what the practice actually does — "Front Desk", "Senior Vet", "Locum", "Practice Manager" — rather than copying internal titles that no one outside the management team would recognise.
Keep at least two staff members on an admin-capable role so a single person leaving never locks the practice out.
Review the Permissions grid every quarter, especially after a Lupa update — new permissions can be added and they default to off.
Use the Filter permissions... search rather than scrolling. It is faster and reduces the chance of missing a setting in a different group.
When a staff member changes job (for example, nurse promoted to senior nurse), update both the Job Role field and the role assignment on the Employee Roles tab.
Never share a login between staff. The audit trail and clinical signatures depend on every action being attributable to one person.
Archive leavers immediately on their last day. Their data stays; their access does not.
For multi-site practices, Show in Calendar should be on only at the branches where the staff member actually takes appointments — leaving it on everywhere clutters every calendar.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to do
I cannot see Permissions in the sidebar	Permissions requires Company Admin plus the role and employee permission management permissions. Ask another administrator to grant your role those permissions.
The Save button is greyed out and shows "At least one role must have Company Admin and Permissions"	You are about to remove the last admin-capable role. Either tick Company Admin, Update Role Definition, and Update Employee Roles for at least one role, or undo the change.
I cannot delete a role — the trash icon is missing	Either it is the last remaining role, or it is the only role with the admin-capable combination. Create another role with the right permissions first.
I cannot remove a role from my own user	You cannot strip your own admin access. Ask a colleague who already has an admin-capable role to make the change, or assign the admin role to someone else first.
A staff member can log in but cannot see a feature they need	Check Admin → Permissions → Employee Roles to confirm the right role is assigned, then check Role Definition to confirm the role has the relevant permission ticked. Multi-site staff also need to be assigned to the location in Team Assignments.
I created a staff profile but it does not appear in the calendar	For multi-site practices, open Admin → Team Assignments, select the location, and turn on Show in Calendar for the staff member.
The email field is greyed out when editing a profile	Email cannot be changed after a profile is created. Archive the profile and create a new one with the correct email if it was set wrong.
I archived someone by mistake	Open the staff list, switch the Status filter to Archived, find the profile, click the row action menu, and choose Unarchive.
Future appointments are blocking an archive	The archive dialog asks you to pick another team member to reassign the appointments to. Choose a colleague with the same job role where possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a staff member be on more than one role?

Yes. The Employee Roles tab uses a multi-select — assign as many roles as the person needs. Lupa effectively unions the permissions across all assigned roles.

Do I need to set up roles before I add staff?

No. You can add staff first and assign roles later, or use the default roles your practice was set up with. New staff with no roles assigned will have read-only access until you grant them a role.

What is the difference between Settings → Permissions and Admin → Permissions?

They edit the same data. Settings → Permissions is convenient when you only manage one location. Admin → Permissions is the right place when you run multiple branches because it is also where Team Assignments and company-level Staff Profiles live.

Why can a colleague see something I cannot?

Either their role grants a permission yours does not, or they are assigned to a location you are not. Check both Admin → Permissions → Employee Roles and Admin → Team Assignments.

Can I change someone's job role from Nurse to Veterinarian?

Yes — open the staff profile and change the Role (job role) field. If they are a vet, also add their Vet Registration Number. Job role is descriptive only; what they can do in Lupa is still controlled by the permission roles assigned on the Employee Roles tab.

Do I have to delete the profile when someone leaves?

No — archive it. Deletion would orphan their clinical notes, prescriptions, and historical appointments. Archiving keeps the data intact while removing access. Use Unarchive if they ever return.

Can a staff member be assigned to every location at once?

Yes. In Admin → Team Assignments, select each store and add them. There is no all-stores shortcut, but bulk-add for a single store is fast — pick all relevant staff in the multi-select and click Assign to Store.

User profiles, roles and permissions