# Custom roles: give a supervisor their own inboxes

A **custom role** sits between **Agent** and **Administrator**. You choose what it can open (conversations, contacts, reports, help center), and the person sees it only for the inboxes they are a member of. A branch supervisor gets their branch's chats, customers and numbers, not every branch's. Only administrators create and assign custom roles.

## Create a custom role

![The Add custom role dialog](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/custom-role-add-dialog.jpg){ width="460" }

1. Open **Settings → Custom Roles** and click **Add custom role**.
2. Enter a **Name** (for example "Branch Supervisor") and a **Description**.
3. Tick the **Permissions** the role needs, then click **Submit**.

| Permission | What the person can do, in their own inboxes |
|---|---|
| **Manage all conversations in their inboxes** | Open and reply to every conversation, assigned or not |
| **Manage unassigned conversations in their inboxes and those assigned to them** | Pick up unassigned conversations and work their own |
| **Manage participating conversations and those assigned to them** | Work their own conversations and the ones they were added to |
| **Manage contacts of their inboxes (view, import, export)** | Open **Contacts** for customers who wrote in on those inboxes |
| **View reports for their inboxes** | Open **Reports**, including CSAT |
| **Manage knowledge base** | Manage **Help Center** portals, categories and articles |

When several conversation permissions are ticked, the widest one applies.

![Settings → Custom Roles](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/custom-roles-list.jpg){ width="700" }

The list shows each role with its permissions. Edit or delete a role from its row; a change applies to everyone who has the role. Deleting a role turns its members back into plain agents.

## Give the role to someone

![Picking the custom role in Edit Agent](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/custom-role-assign-agent.jpg){ width="460" }

1. Open **Settings → Agents** and click the pencil on the person's row, or **Add Agent** for someone new.
2. Pick the custom role under **Role** and save.
3. Add them to the inboxes they should cover under each inbox's **Collaborators** tab; see [Inbox settings, tab by tab](/settings/inbox-settings-tabs).

The agents list then shows the role name in place of **Agent**.

## What the person sees

![A supervisor's conversation list, one inbox only](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/custom-role-supervisor-conversations.jpg){ width="300" }

Everything follows the inboxes they are a member of:

* **Conversations**: **Mine**, **Unassigned** and **All** count only those inboxes, and conversations from other inboxes do not open.
* **Reports**: every report, CSAT and the calls list count only those inboxes, and other inboxes do not appear in the inbox report.
* **Contacts**: only customers who have written in on one of those inboxes.
* Search, AI summaries and reply suggestions, and macros stay inside the same inboxes.

![Reports Overview counting one inbox](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/custom-role-supervisor-reports.jpg){ width="560" }

![Contacts limited to the supervisor's inbox](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/custom-role-supervisor-contacts.jpg){ width="700" }

## Good to know

* Only administrators see every inbox.
* A role never limits an administrator.
* Contacts that have not written in on any inbox (added by hand or imported) are visible to administrators only, until the customer writes in on one of the person's inboxes.
* Account settings, inboxes, billing and other administrator pages stay with administrators.

## Related

* [Managing agents and teams](/settings/managing-agents-and-teams)
* [Inbox settings, tab by tab](/settings/inbox-settings-tabs)
* [Conversation, agent and team reports](/reports/conversation-agent-and-team-reports)
* [Assigning conversations to agents and teams](/conversations/assigning-conversations)

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Source: https://help.mampuai.com/settings/custom-roles