Job Roles were introduced in release 7.12.0. They replace Organisational Hierarchy Roles.
Job Roles define a user’s position within your organisation — for example, Associate, Senior Associate, or Partner. They are organised into Job Families (such as Legal, HR, or Exec) to make them easier to manage and browse.
Each user has a job role history rather than a single current role. When a user moves to a new role, the previous one is given an end date and the full history is retained. This allows the system to look up the role a user held at a specific point in time, which is particularly important for time recording and fee calculations.
Job Roles are used across several parts of the system, including allocation rules, business rules, rate cards, and data composer.
Key Concepts
Job Families
A Job Family is a grouping of related Job Roles. For example, a Legal family might contain roles such as Paralegal, Associate, and Partner. Families help keep your role list organised and make the role picker easier to navigate.
Every Job Role must belong to a Job Family. You can create families in advance or add them inline when creating a role.
Job Role history
When a user is assigned a new Job Role, the system records the start date of the new role and automatically sets an end date on the previous one. This means you can always see the full history of roles a user has held and when each one applied.
This history is used by features such as Time to Fees, which calculates the hourly rate based on the role the user held when the timer started — not necessarily their current role.
Required vs optional roles
Whether a Job Role is required for a user depends on the user type they are assigned to. This is configured per user type and can be used to ensure that certain categories of user (such as those billing time) always have a role set.
Users who are missing a required Job Role are flagged in the User Advisor on the admin Users page.
Configure Job Roles
Manage Job Role Configuration
Job Role Families
Before creating individual roles, it’s worth planning your Job Family structure. Families are used to group and browse roles, so think about how your organisation is structured (for example, by department or seniority band).
Admin > Users > Job Roles > Families button
Lists all the Job Role Families, indicating whether each is in use and how many roles are using it.
Create a Job Family
- Admin > Users > Job Roles
- Select the Families button then New.
- Enter the Name. The System name will populate automatically.
- Save.
Edit a Job Family
Click the edit icon and update details as required, then save.
Delete a Job Family
You can only delete Job Families that have not been used against a Job Role. In the Job Role Families blade it indicates whether it is in use or not. The delete icon is only available when not in use. Click the icon to delete - you are asked if you are sure.
Job Roles
Admin > Users > Job Roles
The list shows all roles in the system and whether they are enabled.
Create a Job Role
- Admin > Users > Job Roles
- Click the New button.
- Complete the fields:
| Name | The name of the job role. |
| System Name | Auto-generated from the name. |
| Job Role Family | Select the family this role belongs to. |
| Description | Optional. Use this to document what the role represents or who it applies to. |
| Enabled | Defaults to on. Disabled roles are hidden from role pickers but remain on any existing assignments. |
- Save.
Edit a Job Role
Click on the row of the job role or select Actions-Edit.
Delete a Job Role
A role cannot be deleted if it is referenced anywhere in the system. The system checks for usages in:
- User profiles (including role history)
- Allocation Rules
- Time to Fees configuration
- Goods & Services items
- Business Rules
- On the Job Role select Actions-Delete.
- This checks the system and opens the Find Usages blade. If usages are found, they are listed.
- Click the settings cog to go to view the details.
- If no usages are found, click the Delete button - you are asked if you are sure.
Disable a Job Role
If you cannot delete a Job role as it is in use, disable it instead. This prevents it from being assigned to new users or used elsewhere in the system, but does not affect existing assignments or history.
Edit the Job Role and switch Enabled off.
User Types
Each user type can be configured to require a Job Role for users of that type. When enabled, users of this type who have no Job Role assigned are flagged in the User Advisor. Defaults to on for new user types.
- Modeller > Participants > Participant Types > User
- Click on the User Type to Edit > Select User Type Settings.
- In the Employee blade set Job Roles - User type requires a job role: On/Off.
- Save & Close.
The User Advisor is visible in Admin > Job Roles.
A message displays above the list view. Click to open the Assistant Advisories blade. Click on a row to view and resole the issue.
SCIM
If your environment uses SCIM to provision users, you can configure a default Job Role that is automatically assigned to new users added via SCIM.
- Modeller > Global Features
- Switch Include Advanced On
- Integrations > SCIM
- Click the cog settings
- Select the Provider
- In the Default Job Role select the job role.
- Save
Assign Job Roles
Assign Job Roles to a User
Job Roles are assigned from the user’s profile. You’ll need one of the following permissions to make changes:
- Users: ODS – Users – Manage All
- Users: ODS – Users – Manage Own Organisation
View the User Profile to see their role
- Admin > Users
- Click on the user and click Edit Profile button
or
Select Actions > Edit User - The role displays under their name
- If no role is assigned, nothing displays
Assign Initial role
- Admin > Users
- Click on the user and click Edit Profile button
or
Select Actions > Edit User - Click the Edit Profile button and click Set Role
- This opens the Edit User's Job Role blade
- Click Assign a New Role
- Select the role - open the job family and select the role.
- Enter a start date
- Save
Assign a new role
When a user moves to a new role, follow the instructions above to Assign a New Role. The system automatically sets an end date on the current role when saved. The start date of the new role cannot be earlier than the start date of the current role.
Edit the current role
You can edit the most recent role assignment to correct mistakes - for example, if the wrong role or start date was entered. Select the edit icon next to the current assignment.
A role cannot be changed if it has already been used in a Time to Fees calculation. In that case, only the start date can be edited.
Audit
Changes to a user’s Job Role are recorded in the audit history on the admin Users page. Each entry captures what changed and when.
Job Roles in Clio Operate
How Job Roles Interact with the Rest of Clio Operate
Job Roles feed into several other parts of the system.
| Time Recording |
When a time entry is created, the system looks up the Job Role the user held at the time the timer started and uses the associated hourly rate. If the user’s role changes part-way through a period being recorded, the calculation is based on the role at the point the timer began, not the role they hold when the entry is saved. If an internal cost has been overridden for a specific user, that override takes precedence over the rate associated with their Job Role. |
| Rate Card & Internal Costs | Rate cards and internal costs are configured against Job Roles. When setting up rates, select the relevant Job Role to associate the rate with users holding that role. |
| Allocation Rules | Allocation rules can be configured to target users with a specific Job Role. The role picker in the allocation rule configuration uses the Job Roles list. |
| Business Rules | User match rules can include a Job Role condition. The system checks whether the user’s current role matches the configured role and passes or fails them accordingly. A user who previously held the role but no longer does will not pass the check. |
| Security Barriers | Security barriers can be configured against Job Roles. A user must hold the specified Job Role to be placed into the relevant participant role. Users without the role are blocked. |
| Goods & Services | When configuring rate cards within Goods & Services items, Job Roles are used as the role reference. Select the appropriate Job Role when setting up pricing. |
| Data Composer |
The User context in Data Composer includes Job Role information. You can query:
This makes it possible to build calculated fields and queries that reference a user’s role or role history. |
| User Advisor | The User Advisor on the admin Users page flags users who have no Job Role assigned where one is required by their user type. Advisories are grouped by type, so job role issues appear separately from permission or email issues. You can view and resolve flagged users directly from the advisor panel. |
| Import & Export | Job Roles and Job Families can be included in environment exports and imported between environments in the standard way. When exporting other items (such as Allocation Rules or Business Rules) that reference a Job Role, the relevant Job Role is automatically included as a dependency. |