How to stop apprentices and subbies seeing your margins

The moment you've got a team, you've got a question you didn't have as a sole trader: who should see what you pay for materials, and what you make on a job? Your leading hand needs more than a first-year apprentice. A subbie needs the job details but never your buy price. Most tradie tools are blunt about this — you're either an admin who sees everything or a worker who sees far too much. Here's how to give people the access they need without handing over your numbers.

Why "everyone sees everything" is a problem

When any team member can open a job and see cost price, markup and profit, two things happen. Awkwardly, your apprentice knows exactly what you make on the work they're doing. Damagingly, a subbie can see your buy price and margin — the kind of thing that walks out the door to a competitor or gets used against you at quote time. And the businesses that *do* care usually paper over it with workarounds — separate spreadsheets, hidden columns, "don't open that screen" — which are fragile and one wrong tap from exposure.

Step 1 — Decide the roles in your business

Start with the real shape of your team. A typical trade business has an owner, an admin/office person, a supervisor or leading hand, tradies, apprentices, and someone on the money (bookkeeper/finance). Each needs a different slice: the leading hand needs scheduling and jobs, the bookkeeper needs the money but not the roster, the apprentice needs today's job and nothing sensitive.

Step 2 — Separate "the money" from "the work"

The core move is splitting financial visibility from operational access. Field crew need the job — address, scope, what to do — but not cost, markup or sell price. Money people need the financials but not necessarily the field detail. Once you think of access as two separate layers, "who sees margins" becomes a clean decision rather than all-or-nothing.

Step 3 — Limit people to the jobs they're on

Beyond hiding money fields, contain information by relevance: a worker should see the jobs, shifts and clients they're actually assigned to, not your entire client list and pipeline. It's tidier for them and safer for you — less data sitting in front of people who don't need it.

Step 4 — Don't rely on spreadsheet workarounds

Hiding a column, keeping a secret sheet, or trusting people not to open a screen isn't access control — it's hope. It breaks the moment someone's curious or taps the wrong thing. Real control means the sensitive numbers aren't *sent* to that person's view at all, so there's nothing to accidentally reveal.

Step 5 — Add a check on the sensitive stuff

Some actions deserve an extra beat — changing bank details, editing someone's identity or access, handling money. A step-up check on those (a quick re-confirmation) means a logged-in phone left on a bench can't be used to do real damage. Low friction for normal work, a speed bump on the risky bits.

Common mistakes

• One "worker" role that can see costs and margins.
• Managing access with hidden spreadsheet columns.
• Giving every worker the whole client list.
• Trusting "please don't open that" instead of controlling it.
• No extra check on money or identity changes.

FAQ

Make the control part of the software

You can juggle roles with separate spreadsheets and good faith — or use built-in roles where cost and margin are kept out of field crews' hands, and people only see the jobs they're on.

→ See how team roles & permissions in My Apprentice keep your margins yours.