User Management - Gavel

Gavel Roles Overview

Gavel organizes everyone who accesses your account into one of four roles: Admin, Builder, Organizational User, and User. Each role defines what a person can see, build, and do. Choosing the right role for each person keeps your client data secure, your workflow library tidy, and your billing under control. One important principle to keep in mind: Organizational Users and Users have no access to any workflow by default. Access must be explicitly granted by an Admin or Builder — either by assigning a workflow directly or by assigning a bundle.

Role overview

Admin

Who it’s for: The person responsible for the Gavel account — typically a firm administrator, managing partner, or operations lead. The Admin has comprehensive control over every aspect of the account. This role is best held by whoever manages billing and is responsible for onboarding and offboarding team members.

Key capabilities:

• Manage billing and account subscription details
• View and manipulate all client data across the entire platform
• Change any user’s role and contact information
• Invite and deactivate users
• Perform every action available to a Builder — create, edit, share, and assign workflows and bundles

Things to know:

• It is recommended that an account has only one Admin seat, since the Admin controls the billing portal and payment for Gavel services.
• An Admin can still build and test workflows just like a Builder.
• To cancel your Gavel account, the Admin should follow the account cancellation process.

Builder

Who it’s for: Attorneys, paralegals, or consultants who create and manage document automation workflows. Builders are the practitioners who design questionnaires, upload document templates, configure logic, and share completed workflows with clients or colleagues. They can see and work with the client data that flows through their own workflows.

Key capabilities:

• Create and edit workflows, questionnaires, and document templates
• Share workflows with clients via link or direct assignment
• Assign workflows to specific users and revoke that access
• Collaborate with other Admins and Builders by sharing a workflow
• Access and manipulate client data associated with their workflows

Things to know:

• A Builder cannot manage billing or change other users’ roles — that requires the Admin.
• If you are working with an outside consultant or Gavel Expert to build your workflows, you can add them as a Builder.

Organizational User

Who it’s for: Power users who need to run workflows repeatedly — such as a paralegal at a partner firm, a high-volume client, or a B2B customer who licenses access to your automation. An Organizational User can answer assigned workflows and reuse the data they enter across multiple sessions.

Key capabilities:

• Complete workflows assigned to them by an Admin or Builder
• Generate documents by answering the questions in those workflows
• Access and edit their submitted data in Data Manager to make corrections or generate updated documents

Things to know:

• Organizational Users cannot create or edit workflows.
• They only see workflows that have been explicitly assigned to them.

User

Who it’s for: Individual clients who need to answer a questionnaire once and receive their documents. The User role is the lightest-weight role, designed for one-time or infrequent use.

Key capabilities:

• Access and respond to assigned workflows in their client portal
• Have their answers saved automatically (data persistence)

Data persistence: If a User has previously entered a value for a variable — for example, their name as clientname — every other workflow that uses the clientname variable will automatically populate with the same value. Users never need to re-enter the same information.

Things to know:

• A User cannot run the same workflow again with new data. Their session is saved and persists.
• Users only see workflows and data that you have assigned to them — nothing else is visible.
• You can have unlimited Users on your account.

Role comparison at a glance

Builder Collaboration

Admin and Builder users can collaborate with each other by sharing a workflow. Sharing sends the selected user a copy of the workflow and its documents, which they can edit, run, and share on their own account.

Only Admins and Builders can send and receive workflow copies this way.

Best practices for Builder Collaboration

1. Designate an owner: Decide which Admin or Builder account will hold the official, most up-to-date version of each workflow.
2. Send a copy to a colleague: Use Send Copy to Builder to let a colleague make edits.
3. Colleague sends their edits back: Once the colleague finishes editing, they use Send Copy to Builder to send the updated workflow back to the original Builder.
4. Original Builder merges the update: Back on the original account, the Builder chooses how to bring in the update.

Inviting and managing users

All user management is handled from the Users page.

1. Open the Users page: Click Users in the left-hand navigation of your Dashboard.
2. Invite a new user: Click Invite User. Enter the person’s email address and select their role.
3. Edit an existing user: Find the user in the list. Click their row or the edit icon to change their name, email address, or role.
4. Deactivate a user: To remove someone’s access, deactivate their account from the Users page. Their historical data is retained, but they can no longer sign in.