# 2025 Roles & Access Update

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TL;DR

We're making some important changes to how roles and access work in Aphex. These changes:

* Lay the groundwork for new products we'll be shipping soon
* Give organisations better control over licence assignments
* Give free users a more powerful experience by bringing them into Planner and phasing out the Field app

These updates will go live ahead of our upcoming product launches.
{% endhint %}

## What's Happening and Why

We're making some foundational changes to how roles, access, and licensing work in Aphex. This work sets us up to start shipping some exciting new tools and capabilities we've been building behind the scenes.

Here's what's changing:

* **Organisation-level licence management**: Organisations can now directly assign and manage user seat types
* **Project roles and product access**: We're simplifying project roles and separating them from product access
* **Free user access**: We're phasing out the Field app, with free users getting access to key parts of Planner instead

### Organisation-Level Licence Management

> **Organisations can now assign seat types directly.**

While working on this foundational infrastructure, we took the opportunity to tackle something organisations have been asking for: better control over who gets billed.

Previously, Aphex automatically assigned billed seats based on the highest role a user had on any project. This gave projects flexibility but left organisations with limited visibility and control over licensing.

We're flipping that around.

* **Organisations can now control who gets a billed seat**
* Seat types are assigned at the organisation level, not worked out from project roles
* Projects can still see who on their team has access to which products
* With organisation permission, projects can assign seat types themselves

This gives you clearer billing, better user management, and sets us up for future capabilities like:

* Directory sync and automatic seat provisioning
* Product-specific seat types as we expand the platform

**What's not changing?**

* Organisation roles like *Super Admin*, *Billing Admin*, and *Member* stay the same

### Project Roles & Product Access

> **We're simplifying project roles and introducing separate product access controls.**

Until now, each user on a project was assigned one of three roles: *Admin*, *Standard*, or *Light*. These roles bundled together both project permissions and product functionality, which has the potential to create confusion as we expand the platform.

We're laying the groundwork to avoid that.

* **Project Roles** are now simply: *Admin* or *Member* (these define project-level permissions)
* **Planner Access** becomes a separate control: *Limited* or *Full* (these define product functionality access)
  * *Limited* access does **not** require a paid seat
  * *Full* access does

**How existing roles will change:**

| Current Project Role | New Project Role | New Planner Access |
| -------------------- | ---------------- | ------------------ |
| Admin                | Admin            | Full               |
| Standard             | Member           | Full               |
| Lite                 | Member           | Limited            |

This change gives projects more control and clarity:

* You can assign people to a project without worrying about unintended licence triggers
* You can choose who gets full planning functionality, and who gets access to specific views
* As new Aphex products roll out, access will be managed per product, per user

This structure also aligns with the new organisation-level seat control—ensuring consistency and visibility across both project and org contexts.

### Free User Access and Field App Sunset

> **Free users get more capability, with less confusion.**

Previously, *Lite* users had limited project roles and could only access the Field app (plus mobile).

Here's what's changing:

* **We're replacing the "Lite user" role** with *Member + Limited Planner Access*
* **Free users get access to Planner's List View**, which replaces Field functionality and unlocks features like saved views and multiple views
* **We're phasing out the Field app** (based on feedback asking for more of the functionality we've built into Planner)

**You can still add users for free:**

* They'll get List View and mobile access (same functionality as before)
* The difference is they'll access this inside Planner rather than the separate Field app
* They can still collaborate with teams without needing a paid licence

This keeps free access working the same way while simplifying the product experience.


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