Last updated: Apr 16, 2026, 11:13 AM
Troubleshoot permission errors on Toast Web and Toast POS, including the Forbidden error, "can't edit permissions you don't have," expired profiles, and owner access issues.
| To assign or edit another employee's permissions, you must have all of their permissions yourself, plus the 8.2 User Permissions permission. If you're missing even one permission that the other employee has, Toast will block the change. Start by verifying your own permissions match or exceed those of the employee you're trying to edit. If you're seeing a specific error message, use the table below to go directly to the fix. |
| What you're experiencing | Go to |
|---|---|
| Can't assign or edit another employee's permissions | I'm having difficulty assigning permissions |
| Seeing "Sorry, you can't edit permissions you don't have" | Error: Can't edit permissions you don't have |
| Seeing a Forbidden error when saving | Forbidden error |
| Seeing "Someone needs to unlock this for you" | Unlock error |
| Need owner-level access for your account | I need owner permissions |
| Added permissions but employee still doesn't have access | FAQ: Permissions added but not working |
Permissions in Toast control what your employees can access on the POS and in Toast Web. Rather than assigning permissions to individuals, permissions are typically assigned to a Job. When you assign an employee to a job, they inherit the permissions for that role.
To assign or edit another employee's permissions, you must have all of that employee's permissions yourself, plus the 8.2 User Permissions permission. The person at a restaurant who has all permissions enabled is sometimes called a "super admin."
Inherited vs. overridden permissions:
To add owner-level permissions to your account, another user at your restaurant who already has owner permissions must log in to Toast Web and update your employee profile. This change cannot be made by Customer Care — it must come from an existing owner or admin at your restaurant.
This error means the account currently signed in to Toast Web doesn't have all the permissions of the employee being edited. To make a permission change, you must have that permission yourself.
This error also appears when a user has full permissions at more than one location and is trying to edit permissions for employees who have access to those same multiple locations. To proceed in that scenario, the editing user must have group-level permissions on top of the required permission at each individual location.
Resolution: Have a restaurant admin or manager with the required permissions make the update, or work with the restaurant owner to add the missing permissions to your profile first.
A Forbidden error when saving permission changes means you're attempting to edit group-level permissions you don't have yourself. Group-level permission changes cannot be made by Customer Care — contact the owner, operator, or finance contact for your restaurant to resolve this.
If an employee sees this message when logging in to Toast Web:
If you can't access a specific location within a multilocation group, your location-specific permissions may not be correctly configured. Contact your restaurant's administrator or owner to review and update your permissions for that location.
Bumping prep time for online orders requires the 3.29 Throttle Online Orders permission. To assign it, you must have 8.2 User Permissions and 3.29 Throttle Online Orders yourself. You can assign this at the job level (applies to all employees in that job) or the individual employee level.
To assign at the individual level:
Two common causes:
Toast doesn't support cloning or mirroring an employee profile automatically. To match another employee's access, assign the same jobs at the same locations. Using job-based permissions (rather than individual overrides) makes this consistent and easier to maintain.
Inherited permissions come from the employee's job role. They appear as gray checkboxes and are applied automatically — don't override an already-inherited permission, as it is already active. Overridden permissions are manually set at the employee level and appear as blue checkboxes. Override when an employee needs access beyond their job role's defaults, or when you need to restrict a specific permission for one employee.
If you've worked through the steps above and still need help, have the following ready before reaching out to Customer Care: