What each role can see
Let a whole role see part cost or customer balances, choose whether everyone sees store revenue, and understand what each choice gives away.
Meridian starts every shop on careful defaults. Advisors, counter staff and technicians don't see what parts cost you. Technicians don't see what a customer owes. Only people who can open reports see the store's revenue.
Those are starting points, not rules. Plenty of shops let their people see cost on purpose, because someone who can see the margin tends to protect it. This page is where an owner opens (or closes) those things for a whole role at once.
Open a setting for a role
Open Settings → What each role can see. It's in the Team & security section. Managers can look at this page; only an owner can change it.
Turn a role on or off. A note shows when your choice differs from Meridian's default. Before you save a change that opens cost, the row says who it will reach.
Click Save. People see the change the next time a page loads. The change is recorded in Settings → Change history with who made it.
Part cost and margin
Owners, managers and accounting always see cost. Turn it on for Advisors, Counter staff (parts clerks) or Technicians and everyone in that role sees:
- what parts and labor cost you, and the profit on each ticket (the profit view on a ticket);
- the rule and markup behind each price on a ticket;
- what a partner shop charges you for a part (Our cost) in partner search and on a part's Partners tab, and ordering from a partner.
When cost is off for a role, people in it still see every price they need to quote and sell. They see the price a customer pays, not the rule, tier or markup that produced it, and in partner search they see the partner's stock and Sell price: what you'd charge for the part. They can't order from a partner; someone who can see cost places that order.
What you give away: cost travels. Anyone who knows it can repeat it to a customer who is haggling, or take it to a competitor. Counter staff already see what you pay vendors on purchase orders, because they can't buy parts without it. This adds your margin on top.
Customer balances
What a customer owes on their account: balance and aging, credit limit, statements, payment history and saved cards. Advisors and Counter staff see it by default, because they take payments and answer "what do I owe?". Technicians don't, because they rarely need it and it is the customer's private business. Turn it on for technicians if yours collect past-due amounts or run on-account sales in the field. Owners, managers and accounting always see balances.
A ticket's balance due is always shown
The balance due on one ticket is not the same thing as the customer's account. It shows on that ticket and at checkout for everyone who works the ticket, whatever this setting says, because that is what the counter collects. The account view (every open invoice, aging, statements) is what this setting controls.
Store revenue on everyone's dashboard
Off (the default): only people who can open reports see Month Revenue, the 12-month revenue chart, and the projected and at-risk revenue on Fleet PM. Everyone else sees Overdue Tickets in that spot.
On: everyone sees them. It shows what the shop takes in, not your cost or margin. This never shows what customers owe; the Outstanding AR tile keeps its own rule.
Companies in an enterprise
If your shop is one of several companies in an enterprise, parts move between them on intercompany transfers. The company buying sees the transfer price, which is what it pays. Only people who can see cost in the selling company see what the parts cost it.
An enterprise owner can change that in Intercompany → Enterprise Settings with Companies can see each other's cost on transfers (off by default). On: anyone who can see cost in any of your companies also sees the seller's cost and margin on every transfer. Turn it on if one team keeps the books for all your companies. Leave it off if each company sets its own prices.
Custom reports never include the seller's cost on transfers, because a report can include transfers your company bought; open the transfer to see it. And if a transfer agreement prices at cost or cost plus a markup, anyone who can read the agreement can work the cost back out of the transfer price. Price those transfers with a fixed or custom price if that matters.
One person can still be different
These settings apply to everyone in a role. To make an exception for one person, set it on them in Team members & roles. A person's own setting always wins, in either direction: you can open cost to all advisors and still keep one advisor out, or keep it closed for the role and let one trusted technician see it.
API keys and customer balances
An integration or AI tool connected with an API key follows the same split. See customers lets it read accounts and contacts; a customer's balances, aging, credit limit and payments also need See customer balances ticked on the key. Without it those figures are simply left out. Tick it when you create the key if the integration needs them. You can only tick it if you can see customer balances yourself.
Keys created before 8 October 2026 that could see customers were checked once: a key whose creator can see customer balances kept them, and any other key stopped receiving them. Settings → Change history has a row for each key either way.
What happens behind the scenes
The setting is checked every time someone loads a page or Meridian answers a request, in the same place as their role and their own overrides, so every screen, export and report follows it. An API key can never be given more than the person who creates it holds, and that now includes what this page opens for their role.
Troubleshooting
That advisor probably has Never allow set on See cost & margin in Settings → Team members & roles. The top of the settings page says how many people have their own setting. A person's own setting wins over the role. Set it back to Role default.
Only an owner can change this page. Managers can see it but not change it.
No. A ticket's own balance due is shown on purpose, so whoever is working the ticket can collect it. The customer's account (aging, statements, other invoices) stays behind Customer balances.