Viewing all roles configured in your Zoho Desk account is done through the Setup area under user management, where roles and profiles are maintained separately to control data visibility across your support team.
Why this matters
Zoho Desk uses a role hierarchy to mirror your organisation's structure, ensuring that agents only access the tickets and customer data appropriate to their position — for example, a Support Manager may need visibility across all tickets, while a front-line agent sees only their own.[1] Before adding new agents or auditing permissions, you'll want a clear picture of every role that already exists in your account. This is also a common first step when onboarding new staff or troubleshooting access issues. As independent expert support (Beam Help — not official Zoho support), we walk through this process regularly with clients.
Step-by-step
Step 1. Log in to your Zoho Desk account as an Administrator. Only users with administrator-level access can view and manage roles and profiles in the system.[1]
Step 2. Click the Setup icon (the gear/cog symbol) located in the top-right corner of the Zoho Desk interface. This opens the central configuration area for your account.[1]
Step 3. In the Setup menu, navigate to the Users and Security section (sometimes labelled User Management and Security depending on your plan and interface version). This section houses all permission-related configuration.[1]
Step 4. Click on Roles and Profiles within that section. You will land on a page that presents both role management and profile management as distinct areas.[1]
Step 5. Select Managing User Roles (or the Roles tab if your interface separates them). This displays the full list of roles currently configured in your Zoho Desk account, arranged according to your organisation's hierarchy.[1]
Step 6. Review the role hierarchy displayed on screen. Each role entry shows its position relative to other roles — senior roles typically have broader data access, while subordinate roles are scoped more narrowly.[1]
Common pitfalls
- Confusing Roles with Profiles. Roles govern *which data* an agent can see (data visibility based on hierarchy), while Profiles govern *what actions* an agent can perform — such as replying to tickets, importing records, or creating workflow rules. These are configured separately within the same Roles and Profiles section.[1] Mixing them up is a frequent source of misconfigured permissions.
- Insufficient access level. If you cannot see the Users and Security section in Setup, your account profile likely does not have administrator permissions. You will need to ask your Zoho Desk administrator to either grant you access or perform the lookup on your behalf.[1]
- Role hierarchy gaps. If your organisation has recently restructured, the role list in Zoho Desk may not reflect current reporting lines. It is worth cross-referencing the on-screen hierarchy against your actual org chart before making any changes.[1]
What to check
- Confirm the hierarchy is complete — verify that every level of your support team (e.g., agents, team leads, managers) has a corresponding role listed, with no gaps in the chain.
- Cross-reference with active agents — after viewing the roles list, navigate to Agents under the same Users and Security section to confirm each active agent has been assigned an appropriate role.[1]
- Review associated profiles — once you have the roles list, check the Managing User Profiles area in the same section to ensure each role is paired with a profile that grants the correct action-level permissions.[1]