Short answer: Your firm has one owner, optionally some co-founders, and teammates. Teammates only work on the sections shared with them, and there is no self-service way to change your own role.
The roles at a glance
Owner. The person the firm was set up around. There is exactly one. They can do everything, and four things are theirs alone: billing, making someone a co-founder, appointing an admin, and being the firm's registered contact.
Co-founder. A founding peer, designated by the owner. They see the firm's Financials and get their own private Vision & Leadership entry, and they run the day to day: inviting teammates, managing integrations, sharing sections.
Teammate. Anyone else. They open the content of the sections that have been shared with them, and nothing else.
You may also hear "ops lead", "delegate" or "finance seat". Those are not separate account types, just names for how much has been shared with a teammate. For the full picture, including exactly who can connect Xero and who can share Financials, see Roles explained: owner, co-founder, ops lead and delegates.
Note: "Adviser" is not a portal role at all. It is a label that comes from the person's role in Your Team (any role flagged as requiring a licensed financial adviser). It affects capacity and book-analysis figures in Optics & Finance, not what a person can click on in the portal.
What each person can see
Every teammate sees the status and completion percentage of all nine onboarding sections on the dashboard, including any they cannot open. Those show locked, with a CONFIDENTIAL chip. They can only open the content of sections shared with them.
Shared reference lists, like the Roles list and Document types list, are visible to any member.
How to change your role
There is no self-service option to change your own role in the portal. Role changes work like this:
Owner status is fixed to whoever the firm was created around.
Co-founder status is granted by the owner, and only by the owner.
A teammate's employment role (for example Adviser, Paraplanner) is set on the Your Team roster and can be updated there by anyone with access to that section.
What a teammate can reach is controlled by the owner, a co-founder or an admin through sharing, not by a setting the teammate can change themselves.
Tip: If you need access to a section, ask the owner or a co-founder to share it from the delegate panel rather than looking for a role switch in your own account.