Why aren't my permissions working correctly?

In this Article:

• Overview: quick check for the most common scenario
• Issue: You're blocked from assigning or editing another employee's permissions
• Issue: A permission is enabled, but you still can't access the feature
• Issue: Permissions stopped working after a Toast update or reboot
• Issue: An employee lost access after their job was changed
• Issue: You're seeing a specific error message
• Before you contact Customer Care
• Related articles

Overview: quick check for the most common scenario

Applies to: Anyone managing employee permissions in Toast Web.

Before working through the decision tree below, run this two-step check — it resolves the majority of permissions issues:

• Step 1: Confirm your profile has the 8.2 User Permissions permission enabled. If you cannot see the permissions section for an employee profile, you do not have 8.2 User Permissions.
• Step 2: Confirm you hold every permission you are trying to assign to another employee. You cannot assign a permission you do not have yourself — even if you are the account owner or administrator.

If both conditions are met and the issue persists, find your scenario below.

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Issue: You're blocked from assigning or editing another employee's permissions

Applies to: Owners, admins, and managers who receive an error or are unable to save permission changes for another employee.

Most common cause: You are missing the 8.2 User Permissions permission, or you are missing at least one permission that the other employee has.

If you do not have 8.2 User Permissions:

• Another employee with higher access must enable it on your profile first.
• See Assign user access permissions in Toast Web for steps.

If you have 8.2 but are still blocked:

• You are missing at least one permission that the other employee holds. Toast blocks the edit until your permissions meet or exceed theirs.
• Open your profile and the other employee's profile in two browser tabs and compare permissions side by side. Any permission checked for them but not for you will block the change.
• See Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS for a step-by-step comparison walkthrough.

If you see a specific error message:

• Go directly to the Quick Fix table in Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.

Note: Customer Care cannot reassign permissions on your behalf. The change must come from someone at your restaurant who already holds the required access.

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Issue: A permission is enabled, but you still can't access the feature

Applies to: Employees whose permission profile shows the correct access enabled, but the feature is inaccessible, grayed out, or not appearing.

Work through these causes in order:

1. POS device not synced

If the issue is on a POS device:

1. On the POS device, select Switch User to go to the passcode screen.
2. Select the overflow menu (three dots) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Device status.
4. Select the Queues tab.
5. Review the Credit Card Queue and Red Checks (Failed Model Queue) sections.
6. If either queue contains checks, see Resync All Data on Your Devices for more information.

If your queues are empty:

1. Select Switch User to go back to the passcode screen.
2. Select the overflow menu (three dots) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Resync Data from the dropdown.

Expected outcome: The device pulls the latest permission settings from Toast Web. The employee should now have the updated access.

2. Browser cache issue (Toast Web)

If the issue is in Toast Web:

1. Clear your browser's cache and cookies.
2. Close all browser tabs and log back in to Toast Web.
3. Use Google Chrome — it is the recommended browser for Toast Web.

See Get Help With Browser Issues in Toast Web for detailed browser steps.

3. Duplicate employee profile

The permission may have been updated on the wrong profile.

1. In Toast Web, navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
2. Search the employee's name.
3. If two profiles appear, identify which one the employee uses to log in, and update the permissions on that profile. You can confirm this by reviewing the POS access codes on each account.

4. Expired Toast Web invitation

If the employee's profile shows an Expired status tag:

1. Select the Expired tag.
2. Select Resend invitation.
3. The employee must accept the invitation before their Toast Web access is active.
4. Once their status shows Active, remove the permissions.
5. Select Save.
6. Re-add the permissions.
7. Select Save again to refresh the permission state.

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Issue: Permissions stopped working after a Toast update or reboot

Applies to: Employees who had working access before a software update, device reboot, or Toast app upgrade.

Most common cause: Session state or sync data became stale during the update.

1. Ask the employee to log out of Toast completely and log back in.
2. On the POS device, select Switch User to go to the passcode screen.
3. Select the overflow menu (three dots) in the top-right corner.
4. Select Device status.
5. Select the Queues tab.
6. Review the Credit Card Queue and Red Checks (Failed Model Queue) sections.
7. If either queue contains checks, see Resync All Data on Your Devices for more information.

If your queues are empty:

1. Select Switch User to go back to the passcode screen.
2. Select the overflow menu (three dots) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Resync Data from the dropdown.

Expected outcome: Session and sync data refresh, and the employee's permissions are restored.

If the issue persists after these steps, see Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS. 

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Issue: An employee lost access after their job was changed

Applies to: Employees whose access changed unexpectedly after being assigned to a new or different job role.

Expected behavior: This is how Toast is designed to work. When you assign an employee to a new job, they inherit the permissions of that job. If the new job has fewer permissions than the previous one, the employee loses access to those features.

If the employee holds more than one job:

• They receive the combined permissions of all assigned jobs. Changing or removing one job reduces their overall access.

If you want to restore the employee's previous access:

• Add an individual permission override on their profile, or update the job's default permissions to include the needed access.
• See Assign user access permissions in Toast Web for steps.

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Issue: You're seeing a specific error message

If you are seeing a specific error message — such as "Sorry, you can't edit permissions you don't have," a Forbidden error, or "Someone needs to unlock this for you" — go directly to Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS.

That article has a Quick Fix table that maps each error message to its resolution. This is the fastest path to resolving error-specific issues.

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Before you contact Customer Care

If you have worked through the relevant issue above and the problem is not resolved, have the following ready before contacting Customer Care:

• The exact error message you are seeing (screenshot if possible)
• Your employee name and email address in Toast Web
• The name of the employee whose permissions you are trying to edit (if applicable)
• The specific permission or feature that is not working
• Whether your restaurant uses Multilocation Management (MLM)
• Steps you have already tried

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Related articles

• Assign user access permissions in Toast Web
• Get Help With User Permissions for Toast POS
• Permissions Reference Guide
• Create and Edit Jobs (Roles) for Toast POS

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