If you’re using ServiceTitan to manage your field service business, you likely rely on its native employee roles and permissions to organize your team. But what happens when your dispatcher becomes a manager? Or when an hourly tech moves to salary? Managing these transitions cleanly can be messy with default settings.
Here’s the most overlooked but wildly powerful way to fix that: using custom fields and employee groups outside of ServiceTitan’s default role system
Why Native Roles Aren’t Enough
ServiceTitan’s built-in permissions are great for controlling access. But they weren’t designed to flex with the real-world shifts in payroll categories, departmental structures, or evolving job responsibilities. You can assign someone as a “dispatcher,” but what if that same person is also salaried, manages two business units, and handles reporting tasks?
Default roles don’t cover that. And if you start modifying ServiceTitan roles for every nuance, you risk breaking permissions or creating role bloat.
The Real-World Problem
You’ve seen it:
- A technician moves from field to office.
- Someone switches from hourly to salaried mid-year.
- A new “floater” helps across business units.
And suddenly, payroll becomes a nightmare, reports are inaccurate, and nobody knows which group the employee belongs to.
The Hack: Custom Fields + Employee Groups
Add custom fields to your employee records that define:
Payroll Type: Hourly, Salary, Commission
Internal Role: Dispatcher, Field Tech, Manager, Admin
Business Unit: HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Office
This creates a parallel structure that lives outside of ServiceTitan’s native roles but informs your own workflows.
How to Set It Up (Step-by-Step)
1. Go to Settings > Employees in ServiceTitan
2. Add custom fields to the employee profile screen
- Field Type: Dropdown
- Labels: Payroll Type, Role Category, Business Unit
3. Use this metadata to organize your team for payroll, internal grouping, and reporting
This lets you:
- Instantly switch someone’s payroll class without editing their ServiceTitan permissions
- Run reports by internal roles or BU
- Assign people to multiple groups
Use Cases That Matter
Payroll: Integrate with your accounting/payroll software using these groupings
Reporting: Filter performance metrics by custom categories
Org Changes: Handle promotions, BU transfers, or hybrid roles without disrupting system-level access
Bonus Tip
Want to do this for technicians too? The same process applies. Set up a custom field for techs that labels their crew, certification, or pay model.
Want Help? We’ll Do It Free.
We’re giving away a free 15-minute optimization session to help ServiceTitan users implement this system, no strings attached.
This one tweak saves hours in payroll and makes your system more resilient to org changes. Get it done.
