The Talent module of Washstacks is where you manage everything tied to your people — from employee files and pay history to schedules, reviews, counselings, and time-off requests. Because this module contains some of the most sensitive information in the entire platform, getting the permissions right is especially important. Sloppy permissions here can expose private employee information, allow incorrect pay edits, or let unauthorized staff modify schedules and records.

This document walks through every permission setting in the Talent module and provides our recommendations for who should have access to what. As always, these are guidelines based on what we have seen work well across most car wash organizations. You should feel free to adjust them to fit how your team is structured.

Like all Washstacks modules, the Talent module uses a permissions matrix made up of five possible actions for most features: View, Add, Edit, Delete, and Reports. Not every permission row uses all five actions — some features intentionally omit certain columns based on how they work.

With Talent data especially, a good default rule is: if a role does not need to see this to do their job, do not give them View. Privacy matters, and most of your team should never see counselings, pay history, or HR requests that do not belong to them.

This guide uses the same role categories as the Operations module, with one addition (HR Management) that is particularly relevant for the Talent module:

Achievements are a recognition tool used to celebrate employees who hit milestones, complete training, or perform exceptionally well. Because achievements are tied to morale and culture, you generally want them visible to the entire team while keeping creation tightly controlled.

Everyone should be able to View achievements. Recognition only works when the team sees it. Only top store management and above should have Add and Delete permissions, so that achievements remain meaningful and consistent rather than handed out informally. All management levels should be able to view the Achievements report — it is a useful tool for understanding team performance and identifying who is consistently being recognized.

Counselings document corrective conversations and disciplinary actions. This is highly sensitive information that should be tightly restricted.

Top and mid-level management at each store should be able to View counselings, since mid-level managers often participate in coaching conversations and need to understand a team member's prior history. However, only top management should be able to Add, Edit, or Delete a counseling record. Counselings are part of an employee's permanent file and can become evidence in a wrongful termination or unemployment claim — they must be created and maintained by accountable leaders only.

The Employee Docs area stores signed paperwork, doctors notes, ID copies, and other employee-specific files. This is among the most private data in the system.

Only top-level management should have any access to Employee Docs. These files often contain things like driver's licenses, Social Security numbers, signed handbook acknowledgments, and other documents that should never be visible to peers or lower-level supervisors. Restrict this access tightly and revisit it regularly.

The Employees area is the main directory of everyone who works for your organization. It is where new hires are added, profiles are maintained, and terminations are processed.

All management levels should be able to View the employee directory so they know who is on their team and how to contact them. However, only top-level management should be able to Add, Edit, or Delete an employee record. Onboarding and offboarding are HR-sensitive processes that need a single source of truth — you do not want shift managers creating duplicate employee records or accidentally deleting someone's profile.

HR Requests are submissions from stores to the HR team — things like pay raises, transfers, promotions/demotions, or other HR-related asks. These are confidential by nature.

Only corporate management or HR management should have any access to HR Requests. Typically HR requests have something to do with employee compensation and therefore should only be seen by HR and corporate management.

Import Employees allows for bulk upload of employee records, typically from a CSV file. It is most commonly used during initial system setup or when onboarding a large group of acquired employees.

Only corporate admins should have access to Import Employees. A bulk import can create dozens or hundreds of records in seconds — and mistakes are very hard to clean up after the fact. Restrict this to the smallest possible group at the home office.

The Injuries area is where workplace injuries are documented for safety tracking and workers' compensation reporting. Speed matters here — incidents need to be logged promptly by whoever was on duty.

Mid-level management and above should have full access to Injuries. When someone gets hurt at the wash, the person in charge — whether that is the GM, assistant manager, or shift manager — needs to be able to immediately log the incident with timestamps, witnesses, and any details that may be needed for a claim. Restricting this to top management only creates dangerous delays. Lower-level management and front-line staff should not have access, since they typically are not the person handling the incident response.

Pay Details / History shows an employee's wage information and historical pay changes. This is some of the most sensitive employee data in the system.

Only top store management and above (along with HR) should have View access. Pay information is confidential — exposing it to peers or lower-level supervisors can create morale problems, equity disputes, and legal issues. If an assistant manager needs to know whether they are within budget on labor, give them payroll-level data through reports, not raw individual pay history.

The Payroll area is where the payroll report is reviewed, edited, and finalized. Changes here translate into real dollars paid to employees.

Top store management and above, along with HR management, should have full Payroll access. They are the people responsible for ensuring hours are correct, exceptions are noted, and the payroll run is accurate before it is finalized. Everyone else should be entirely shut out — payroll mistakes are expensive, time-consuming to fix, and damaging to employee trust.

Reviews are formal performance evaluations used to document an employee's growth, ratings, and goals over time. Like counselings, they become part of the employee's permanent record.

Top store management and above, plus HR, should have full Reviews access. Performance documentation needs to come from accountable leaders who are properly trained on how to conduct and document a review. Allowing lower-level managers to issue reviews creates inconsistency across the team and can introduce legal risk if reviews are later cited in employment decisions.

Schedules are the published shift plan for each location. Visibility is broad — every employee needs to know when they work — but editing must be restricted.

All employees should have View access to the schedule — there is no good reason to hide it. However, only top management and above should be able to Add or Edit schedules. Schedule writing requires understanding labor budget, coverage needs, and individual employee availability, and that responsibility should sit with the GM or above. If you let assistant managers freely change shifts, you will quickly lose control of your labor costs.

Time tracks employee clock-ins, clock-outs, and worked hours. This is the source data that flows into payroll, so accuracy is critical.

Top store management and above should have full Time permissions, including reports. They are responsible for catching missed clock-outs, fixing time entry errors, and approving hours before payroll. Restrict this from lower management — time edits change what people get paid, and that authority belongs at the top of the store hierarchy.

Time-Off manages PTO, vacation, sick day, and other leave requests. Approval authority needs to sit with leaders who understand staffing impact.

Top store management and above should be able to view, edit (approve/deny), and delete time-off requests. They are the people who understand coverage needs and PTO balances. Employees submit their own time-off requests through their account — they do not need an Add permission here. Lower management should not see other employees' time-off, as PTO balances can be a sensitive topic.

Uniform Requests track when employees need new shirts, pants, jackets, or other branded apparel. These typically route to a central HR or operations person who fulfills them from inventory.

Only corporate management and HR management should have full access to Uniform Requests. They are typically the people who track sizes, order inventory, and hand out apparel.

Talent permissions deserve a higher level of caution than most other areas of Washstacks. The information in this module — pay history, counselings, HR requests, employee documents — is exactly the kind of data that can create real problems when it is exposed to the wrong person, even by accident. When in doubt, default to less access and grant more only when there is a clear business reason.

A few guiding principles to keep in mind:

As with the Operations module, these recommendations are a starting point. Your organization knows its team and its trust structure better than anyone else. Adjust freely — and revisit your role permissions periodically, especially when employees change positions.

This is the end of the Talent module section of this guide. The Maintenance and Marketing modules will be covered in separate documents.

Washstacks Training Guide — Roles & Permissions: Talent Module