What this is
Staff roles in MaterialOS split what each person can see and do. Sales and inventory staff bill and move stock without purchase cost or profit margins. Owners keep cost data, minimum rates, and approvals. Five roles: owner, manager, sales staff, inventory staff, and accountant — gated server-side, not a polite UI hide.
Hide purchase cost at the counter
Sales staff see what they need to finish a bill — not landing cost or margin. That keeps the counter fast and your cost data off the shop floor, whether you hired help or a cousin is covering the till. Shared logins are how cement and steel margins leak in week one.
Five roles, not one shared login
Owner sees profit and settings. Manager runs day ops without default margin visibility. Sales staff bill on an assigned shop. Inventory staff handle stock requests. Accountant works payments, ledgers, and exports — not open sales. That matrix is the product, not a checkbox buried in settings.
Below-margin sales need your say (Growth and Pro)
Set minimum selling rates. When a sale would go under, Growth and Pro can queue an approval for owner or manager instead of hoping someone remembers the floor price. Starter still includes the five roles and margin hide; approvals wait until Growth or Pro.
Leave paper, then protect the till
First job is getting bills and udhaar off memory and notebooks. The day someone else holds the phone, roles become the reason you do not outgrow a one-phone app. MaterialOS is paid — 30-day Pro trial, no card — not freemium forever.
