Skip to main content

What Permissions Are Associated with Each Project Role?

Within projects, there are four main roles: Owner, Manager, Editor, and Reviewer.

Project access is assigned per project. Being added to one project does not give someone access to other projects in the same workspace. Collaborators must be added to each project separately.

Some project roles require a workspace seat.

Project Owners and Project Managers must have a seat in the workspace where the project was created. Starting August 1, 2026, Editors will also need a workspace seat. Reviewers remain free.

Learn more about workspace role requirements.

Overview

Owner

Managers

Editor

Reviewers

Create and manage projects

✅

✅

❌

❌

Sharing projects

✅ Full (email and public link)

✅ Full (email and public link)

✅ (Editors and Reviewers only, via email)

❌

Manage role permissions

✅

✅

❌

❌

Upload new assets

✅

✅

✅

⚠️ (first-round only, if enabled)

Upload and manage rounds

✅

✅

✅

❌

Assign assets

✅

✅

❌

❌

Create and add labels

✅

✅

✅

❌

Apply existing labels

✅

✅

✅

✅

Rate and star assets

✅

✅

✅

✅

Comment and markup

✅

✅

✅

✅

Compare to all previous rounds

✅

✅

✅

✅

Approve assets

✅

✅

✅

✅

Download

✅

✅

✅

⚠️ (if enabled)

Download PSD layered files

✅

✅

✅

❌

Project Owner

The Project Owner is the person who created the project. They have full control over project settings, people, permissions, and assets, and are the only one who can delete it.

  • Seat required: Yes, creating a project always requires a workspace manager seat or being the account owner.

  • Ideal for: whoever is ultimately accountable for the project, usually the person who kicked it off.

Project Managers

Project Managers have the same day-to-day control as Owners, managing project settings, people, permissions, and assets, and inviting or managing Editors and Reviewers. The one thing they can't do is delete the project.

  • Seat required: Yes, a seat in the workspace where the project was created.

  • Ideal for: producers, ops leads, or account managers running a project day-to-day without owning it.

Editors

Editors do all the operation work inside a project: uploading rounds, applying labels, and moving the retouching pipeline forward.

  • Seat required: Starting August 1, 2026, yes, a workspace editor seat.

  • 30-day grace period: Editors get full access for 30 days, limited to the projects they're already invited to. This gives everyone room to sort out seats without stopping collaboration mid-project. After the 30 days: if they're assigned a paid seat, they keep Editor permissions; if not, they automatically switch to a free Reviewer on those projects.

  • Ideal for: retouchers, art directors, and anyone doing hands-on production work.

Reviewers

For those who need to review assets, leave feedback, rate, and approve work, without uploading or organizing. They can now also compare the current round against any previous round.

  • Seat required: No, Reviewers are always free, with no limit on how many a project or workspace can have.

  • Some permissions depend on link permissions customization. Learn more about how to manage reviewer role permissions.

  • Ideal for: clients, leadership, and other stakeholders who need to weigh in without managing the project.

Reviewers cannot:

  • upload revisions

  • delete assets

  • create or edit labels

  • load label groups

  • invite new collaborators

  • change collaborator permissions

Assigning Roles

Project roles are assigned when someone is invited to a project.

You can invite collaborators two ways:

  • Invite via email: account required, higher security

  • Invite via link: no account required, faster access

Project Managers and Editors must be invited via email.

Reviewers can be invited by email or public link via No Account Collaboration.

  • Only Project Owners and Managers can enable public links.

  • When someone joins through a public link, they enter their name and email so VeryBusy can attribute their feedback. They will not receive project notifications if they join through a public link. Learn more about the public share link here.

Collaborators and their roles can be edited from the People tab in the Share Modal or in Project Settings.

Learn how to remove a collaborator from a project here.

Related Articles
Did this answer your question?