Seat entitlements and viewer fallbacks

Team and Business workspaces use paid seats to control how many people can actively work inside the workspace.

A paid seat is needed for users who can create, edit, or manage workspace data. Viewer access is free and does not use a paid seat.

What is a paid seat?

A paid seat is a workspace slot for a user with write access.

Write-access users can track time, edit entries, manage workspace data, or help manage the team depending on their role.

The following roles require a paid seat:

• Owner

• Manager

• Member

These roles are considered active workspace users because they can create or modify data.

Viewer access is free

The Viewer role does not require a paid seat.

Viewers have read-only access to timesheets and reports. They can review workspace activity, but they cannot track time, edit entries, create projects, manage clients, invite members, or change workspace settings.

This makes Viewer access useful for clients, finance teams, stakeholders, or anyone who only needs visibility.

What happens when all paid seats are used?

If your workspace has reached its paid seat limit, new write-access users cannot be added until more seats are purchased.

However, Timether does not block invited users completely.

If a new user accepts an invitation after the workspace has already reached its paid seat limit, they will automatically join as a Viewer instead.

This means they can still access the workspace in a read-only mode, even if there are no paid seats available.

Example

Imagine your Team plan has 5 paid seats.

You already have:

• 1 Owner

• 1 Manager

• 3 Members

That means all 5 paid seats are being used.

If another invited user accepts their invitation, Timether will add them as a Viewer because there are no paid seats left.

They will be able to view timesheets and reports, but they will not be able to track time or edit workspace data until an additional paid seat is added.

Upgrading a Viewer to Member or Manager

To upgrade a Viewer to a write-access role, the workspace must have an available paid seat.

Workspace owners can buy additional seats from the billing settings page.

To add more seats:

1. Go to Workspace Settings.

2. Open Billing or Subscription Settings.

3. Increase the number of paid seats.

4. Confirm the billing change.

5. Return to the members section.

6. Change the Viewer’s role to Member or Manager.

Once the role is upgraded, the user will be able to use the permissions included with that role.

Who can manage seats?

Only the Owner can manage billing, subscription settings, and paid seats.

Managers can help invite and manage members, but they cannot purchase additional seats or change the workspace subscription.

If a Manager needs to upgrade a Viewer to Member or Manager and there are no seats available, the workspace Owner must first add more paid seats.

Why Timether uses viewer fallback

The Viewer fallback helps keep invitations flexible.

Instead of preventing someone from joining the workspace completely, Timether gives them read-only access when paid seats are full.

This allows the person to still review reports, timesheets, and workspace activity while the Owner decides whether to purchase another seat.

It also helps teams avoid confusion when invitations are accepted before seat limits are updated.

When to add more paid seats

You should add more paid seats when a Viewer needs to actively work inside the workspace.

For example, add another paid seat if the person needs to:

• Track time

• Create manual time entries

• Edit their own time entries

• Manage projects

• Manage clients

• Manage tags

• Invite or manage team members

If the person only needs to view reports or timesheets, they can remain as a Viewer without using a paid seat.