Team members, in depth

You are Maya Chen, and your email is maya@brightblend.example. You are on Pro. You invite two helpers: Sam Ortiz as a manager, and Jo Kim as a VA. A seat is one person who can sign in to your account. An open invite holds a seat too. A VA uses only the pages you turn on. A manager uses the pages you turn on, and can invite VAs. The short page is Team members. This page walks the same screens with Maya’s numbers.

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Seats on each plan

Pro has 5 seats. You count as 1, so 5 minus 1 leaves 4 seats for other people. Flagship also has 5 seats. A new seller can pick Premier or Pro. Premier has 1 seat, and that seat is you. 1 minus 1 leaves 0 seats for a helper. A trial has the same seats as its plan. A Pro trial has 5 seats, and a Premier trial has 1. A plan that has ended has 1 seat, the same as Premier. A later section walks that drop. SourceDock counts used seats like this: 1 for you, plus each person on the team, plus each open invite. An open invite is one nobody has accepted or cancelled, and that has not run out. A paused person is still on the team, so a paused person still counts.

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The Team tab with two invites open

You invite Sam and Jo on the morning of October 28, 2026. Neither has joined yet, and no one else is on the team. That is 1 for you, plus 0 people, plus 2 invites, which makes 3. Open Account, then Team. The label TEAM sits at the top, with “3 of 5 seats used” beside it. Point at that line and it says The account owner counts as one seat. That is the 1 at the start of the 3. Under it is the line People you invite sign in with their own email. They see only the pages you turn on. Then comes the card, top to bottom.

1. You, with the badge OWNER. Your email, “maya@brightblend.example”, sits under it.
2. “sam@brightblend.example”, with the badge MANAGER. Under it: “Desk, Vault, Scanner, Purchases, Recovery”. Then “Invite sent. It works until Nov 4.” Then the button Cancel invite.
3. “jo@brightblend.example”, with the badge VA. Under it: “Purchases (view only)”. Then “Invite sent. It works until Nov 4.” Then Cancel invite.
4. The button Invite someone.

An invite row uses the email as its name, in small letters. It does not show the email a second time. You have 5 minus 3, which is 2 seats left, so Invite someone stays on. The pages always show in the same order. A view-only page adds (view only) after its name. Jo has only Purchases, so her line is “Purchases (view only)”. “Nov 4” is the end date in your computer’s time zone. The email spells the date out in US Eastern time. Near midnight, those two can be one day apart. The line Only you so far. Invite a VA or a manager to help with your SourceDock account. does not show here. It shows only when there are no people and no invites.

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After they join, the 3 stays 3

Sam and Jo accept. Each invite stops counting, and each person starts counting. That is 1 for you, plus 2 people, plus 0 invites, which is still 3. The line still says “3 of 5 seats used”, because each invite seat became a person’s seat. The rows change. Sam’s row now says “Sam Ortiz”, with MANAGER and his email under his name. His page line stays “Desk, Vault, Scanner, Purchases, Recovery”. Change access and Remove take the place of Cancel invite. Jo’s row works the same way, with VA and “Purchases (view only)”. You invite one more person, and 1 plus 2 plus 1 makes 4. The line says “4 of 5 seats used”. You invite one more after that, and 1 plus 2 plus 2 makes 5. The line says “5 of 5 seats used”. Now Invite someone turns off, because used seats have reached the limit of 5. Next to it is Every seat is taken. Remove someone or cancel an invite to free a seat. Cancel one open invite, and it stops counting at once. 5 becomes 4, and the button turns back on. You do not wait for the end date. Send a new invite to an address that already has an open invite, and SourceDock cancels the old one first. That address still holds 1 seat, not 2.

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Send an invite

Invite someone opens a box called Invite someone to your team. The same intro line sits under the title. Then comes the form, top to bottom. When it works, a note says “Invite sent to sam@brightblend.example. The link works for 7 days.” If the email does not go out, the invite still holds its seat. The note says “SourceDock saved the invite but couldn’t send its email to sam@brightblend.example. Cancel the invite and send a new one to try again.” If that person is already on the team, nothing is sent. The note says This person is already on the team. SourceDock compares emails after it trims spaces and makes every letter small. So Sam@Brightblend.example is the same as sam@brightblend.example. Dots and plus signs stay part of the address.

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The email and the 7 days

An invite lasts 7 times 24 hours. You send Sam’s at 9:00 AM Eastern on October 28, 2026. Clocks go back one hour on November 1, so it ends at 8:00 AM Eastern on November 4, 2026. The subject is “Maya Chen invited you to their SourceDock team”. The title is You’re invited to a team. The first line says “Maya Chen invited you to join Maya Chen’s team on SourceDock as a manager. You’ll help run Maya Chen’s Amazon store, using the pages Maya Chen shares with you.” The first name in that line is whoever sent the invite. If Sam invites someone, it starts with “Sam Ortiz invited you”. The subject always names the owner, so it still says “Maya Chen invited you to their SourceDock team”. The email says “a manager” or “a VA”. If a person has no name saved, SourceDock uses their email in place of the name. Next it says “The invite works until November 4, 2026. Sign in or create an account with this email address to accept it.” The button says Accept the invite. Under it: Not expecting this? You can ignore this email. Nothing happens unless you accept. The email ends with The SourceDock team. The footer says If you were not expecting this, you can safely ignore this email. An invite past its end stops counting by itself, and its row goes away. You do not have to press Cancel invite.

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Accept the invite

Sam presses Accept the invite. The join page checks the link first, and while it checks it says Checking your invite… Then the title is “Join Maya Chen’s team”, with A SourceDock team invite. under it. The page says “Maya Chen invited sam@brightblend.example to their SourceDock team as a Manager.” Under that: “Pages: Desk, Vault, Scanner, Purchases, Recovery”. Jo’s page says “as a VA” and “Pages: Purchases (view only)”. If Sam is not signed in, the page says “Sign in or create a SourceDock account with sam@brightblend.example to join.” The buttons are Sign in and Create account. He must use the address the invite went to. Once he is signed in, the button says “Join Maya Chen’s team”. While it works, it says Joining… He then lands on his first page, in the same order as the switches. Sam’s first page is Desk. Jo has no Desk, so she lands on Purchases. Some problems show only after he presses the button. If he signed in with another email, the page says “This invite is for sam@brightblend.example. Sign out, then sign in with sam@brightblend.example.” The button changes to Sign out. An account with a password must check its email first. If Sam has not, the page says Verify your email first. Check your inbox, then open the invite link again.

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What each role can do

You, Sam, and Jo are all in. The seat line still says “3 of 5 seats used”. You see the team list and no member card, because you are the owner. Sam sees a card first, then the list. The card says “You’re on Maya Chen’s team.”, then “Your role: Manager”, then “Your pages: Desk, Vault, Scanner, Purchases, Recovery”. Under that is the button Leave team. In Sam’s list, the first row is “Maya Chen” with OWNER, and your email under it. Sam’s own row says You with MANAGER. His row has no Change access or Remove, because he leaves from the card. Sam can use Change access and Remove on Jo’s row. He cannot on another manager’s row, and he cannot cancel a manager’s invite. When he invites, Manager is grayed out, so he can only pick VA. If an address already has an open manager invite, Sam cannot send it a new one. He sees A manager can manage VAs, not other managers. Sam can give Jo only pages he has, and never more than his own level. He never sees a switch for a page he does not have. Say you gave Jo a page Sam lacks. When Sam saves her access, she keeps that page. If Jo has Full Purchases and Sam has View only, her Purchases switch stays on, and Sam cannot change it. Jo sees only the card. It says “You’re on Maya Chen’s team.”, “Your role: VA”, and “Your pages: Purchases (view only)”, then Leave team. She does not see your row, Sam’s row, or Invite someone. Anyone who is on a team has two accounts: their own and the team’s. So they get a button in the top bar. It shows the account they are in, in capital letters. At home it shows Your account, and pointing at it says Switch account. In your account, Jo’s button shows your name, and pointing at it says “You’re working in Maya Chen’s account.” Her menu title is SWITCH ACCOUNT. Its rows are Your account with Owner under it, and “Maya Chen’s account” with VA under it. Jo has no plan of her own. So when she signs in, SourceDock starts her in your account, unless she picked her own account herself. Her own account shows the plan page, with the same button to get back. A page you did not share is missing from a helper’s menus. If they open its address, they see The account owner hasn’t shared this page with you. Ask the owner to turn it on. If Jo opens the Desk address, she goes to Purchases instead. Alerts shows only alerts from the pages that person has. Sam has no Alerts page, so he does not open it. Say you turn on Alerts for him and leave Scout off. He then sees alerts from his pages, and no Scout alerts.

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Pages, and Jo’s view only

Full means they can use the page and change things on it. View only exists only on Purchases. Jo opens Purchases. A line at the top says You can view Purchases but not change it. Record Purchase is gone, and Export sits in its place. The Import from Amazon tab is hidden, and the Reconcile tab does not show. Write-offs stays. If a change is tried anyway, SourceDock refuses it with You can view this page but not change it. Expenses is not a switch in the invite. A helper gets it with Sales or Recovery, on a plan that has either one. Sam has Recovery at Full on Pro, so he sees Expenses and can change it. Jo has neither page, so Expenses stays hidden for her. On the phone app, Calculator goes with Vault, and Box photos goes with Purchases. They are not extra switches. Jo’s Box photos says You can view Purchases but not change them, so you can’t add photos.

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What a helper never sees

While they work in your account, Sam and Jo never see these Account tabs: Billing, Connections, Reports, Features, and Danger. They see these, in this order: Profile, Team, Security, Sessions, and Badges. While they work in your account, their menus don’t show Billing & pricing or Connections. In their own account, they see their own. Account stays. If they open the Connections address, they get the not-shared line. On Profile, a helper sees the SourceDockIQ (Chrome extension) card. You see that card on Connections instead. On Profile, a helper also sees Sync purchases to Google Sheets. It says Connected. or Not connected. The account owner can turn it on in Connections. When it is connected, it adds Only the account owner can connect or disconnect Google Sheets. They get no connect or disconnect button. A manager sees the Team tab’s seat line, like “3 of 5 seats used”. Only the line about a plan with no team seats, and its See plans button, are yours alone.

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Remove someone, or leave

On Sam’s row, you press Remove. The box asks “Remove Sam Ortiz from your team?” It says “Sam Ortiz loses access to your SourceDock account right away. Sam Ortiz’s own SourceDock account, if Sam Ortiz has one, stays.” Remove does it, and Keep closes the box. His seat frees at once. 1 plus 1 person plus 0 invites makes 2, so the line says “2 of 5 seats used”. Sam can do this to Jo, but not to another manager. Jo presses Leave team on her card. The box asks “Leave Maya Chen’s team?” It says “You lose access to Maya Chen’s SourceDock account right away. To come back, Maya Chen has to invite you again.” Leave team does it, and Stay closes the box. She lands in her own account. With no plan of her own, that is the plan page. To bring someone back, you send a new invite. The old one is used up. Cancel invite on an open row frees that seat at once. The note says Invite cancelled. Change access opens “Change Sam Ortiz’s access”. It has the role and the pages, but no email box. Save keeps your changes, and the note says Access saved. In a new invite, changing the role resets the pages. Here it does not, so Sam’s pages stay until you change the switches.

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When the plan pauses or ends

Start from the joined team. The line says “3 of 5 seats used”, and Sam and Jo both work. You move to Premier, which has 1 seat. Room for helpers is 1 minus 1, which is 0. So both helpers pause as soon as your plan is Premier. There is no 3-day wait for a plan change. A failed payment is different. For 3 days after it fails, your plan still works. The limit stays 5, the line stays “3 of 5 seats used”, and Sam and Jo keep working. Say the payment fails at 9:00 AM Eastern on October 28. The 3 days run until 9:00 AM Eastern on October 31. After that, your plan has ended and the limit drops to 1. A plan you cancel keeps its seats until the paid time runs out. After that, the limit is 1 too. On an ended plan, or on Premier, seats for helpers are 1 minus 1, which is 0. So 0 people can work, and 2 minus 0 means 2 people are paused. The “3 of 5 seats used” line hides, because it shows only when the limit is more than 1. The used count is still 3, because paused people still count. You just do not see it. A bar at the top of your pages says Your plan has no team seats. SourceDock paused your team members. With only 1 paused person, it says Your plan has no team seats. SourceDock paused your team member. Its button, See plans, opens your Billing tab. Only you see this bar. On the Team tab, under the rows, you see “Your plan has no team seats. Pro has 5 seats, and you count as one.” Its See plans opens Billing too. Invite someone is gone. Each helper’s row gets a PAUSED badge. Point at it, and it says “Sam Ortiz stays on the team but can’t use this SourceDock account, because the account owner’s plan has no seat for Sam Ortiz right now.” Jo’s says the same with her name. Nothing is deleted, and their pages stay saved. You can still use Change access and Remove. Sam’s menu still lists “Maya Chen’s account”, but he cannot pick it. Under it, it says “Paused. Maya Chen’s plan has no seat for you right now.” If Sam was in your account when his seat ended, SourceDock sends him to his own account. A note says The account owner’s plan has no seat for you right now. Ask the account owner to pick you. If he never had a plan of his own, and every team he is on is paused, that sentence fills the screen with a Sign out button under it. Say you sent an invite before the move to Premier. It cannot be accepted now, because the seats used are more than the limit. After the person presses the join button, they see “Every seat on Maya Chen’s plan is taken. Ask Maya Chen to free a seat.” The invite stays open until you cancel it or it runs out. You go back to Pro, and the limit is 5 again. Room for helpers is 4, and you have 2 people, so both can work at once. The PAUSED badges go away, and the line says “3 of 5 seats used” again. You do not send new invites.

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Empty states and errors