VarroaVault Team Features: Share Your Apiary With Partners and Employees
Commercial operations with team access reduce duplicate data entry by 85% compared to single-user accounts. When every person on your crew can log counts and treatments from the field on their own device, you eliminate the bottleneck of a single person transcribing everyone else's data at the end of the day.
Here's how VarroaVault's team features work and how to set them up.
TL;DR
- VarroaVault's team features is designed specifically for varroa mite tracking and PHI compliance
- Setup takes under 30 minutes for most beekeeping operations
- All data is securely stored and exportable as formatted PDF for state inspections
- Free trial available with no credit card required
- Mobile app access works offline at remote apiaries without cell service
- Efficacy scoring and resistance trend flagging are built-in features unavailable in general beekeeping apps
Three Access Roles
VarroaVault uses role-based access to give each team member the right level of access for their responsibilities.
Viewer: Can see all hive records, count data, treatment history, and reports. Cannot enter or modify any data. Suitable for: silent partners, mentors you want to keep informed, extension agents reviewing your records, or anyone who needs to see your data without being able to change it.
Logger: Can enter mite counts, treatment applications, and inspection notes. Cannot modify account settings, adjust thresholds, create or delete hives, or access financial data. Suitable for: employees, apprentice beekeepers, or family members who are actively managing hives and need to log field data.
Admin: Full account access equivalent to the account owner. Can create and delete hives, modify thresholds and monitoring schedules, manage billing, and invite or remove other users. Suitable for: business partners, co-owners, or senior managers with full responsibility for the operation.
What Each Role Can and Cannot See
Financial information and billing: Only the account owner and admins see billing and subscription information. Logger and Viewer roles never see subscription details, payment methods, or billing history.
Treatment and count logs: All roles can view full count and treatment history for all hives in the account. There's no restriction on historical records visibility within the team.
Alert configuration: Only the account owner and admins can change alert settings. Loggers can view which alerts are active but can't modify them.
Export and reporting: All roles can view reports within the app. Only admins can export records to CSV or PDF.
Setting Up Your Team
To add a team member:
- Go to Settings > Team Access.
- Select Add Team Member.
- Enter the person's email address.
- Select their role: Viewer, Logger, or Admin.
- Send the invitation.
The invitee receives an email with a link to create their VarroaVault account (or sign in to an existing account). Once they accept, they have access to your apiary data at their assigned role level.
For employee logging: If you have multiple employees logging field data on treatment days, set each up as a Logger. The team activity log records who logged each entry, so you can see exactly which crew member entered which treatment or count.
For seasonal employees: Team members can be removed at any time from Settings > Team Access. When a seasonal employee's contract ends, remove them promptly. Their logged historical entries remain in your account; only their future access is revoked.
The Team Activity Log
Every entry in VarroaVault shows the username of the team member who created it. This accountability record matters for operations with multiple people entering data.
The team activity log in Settings > Team Access shows all entries logged by each team member in the past 30 days. If you're trying to reconcile which employee treated a specific hive on a specific day, the activity log gives you the answer with timestamps.
This audit trail is also useful for training. Reviewing a new employee's first month of entries lets you catch any logging errors before they create gaps in your records.
Common Team Use Cases
Family operations: A spouse or adult child who manages a yard while you handle another can have Logger access. Both yards feed into a unified dashboard that either of you can view from any device.
Part-time employees: A seasonal employee who helps with treatment days and inspections from June through October logs their own treatments in real time. You review the entries from your admin account and approve or flag any discrepancies.
Mentorship: A more experienced beekeeper mentoring a new beekeeper can receive Viewer access to review records, identify patterns, and give feedback without touching any data.
Pollination contract documentation: A pollination buyer requiring inspection records can receive temporary Viewer access to verify the colony health records they need without you having to generate and send individual reports.
See also: Commercial beekeeper management software and Multi-apiary management software.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add an employee to my VarroaVault account?
Go to Settings > Team Access and select Add Team Member. Enter the employee's email address and assign their role (Logger for field data entry, Admin for full access). Send the invitation. They receive an email to accept and create an account if they don't have one. Once accepted, they can log counts and treatments from their own device. All entries are attributed to their username in the team activity log.
What is the difference between viewer and logger roles?
Viewers can see all hive records, count history, and reports but cannot enter or modify any data. Loggers can enter mite counts, treatment applications, and inspection notes but cannot access account settings, modify thresholds, or manage billing. Both roles have read access to complete treatment and count records. The difference is write access: Loggers can enter field data; Viewers cannot.
Can an employee log treatments without seeing my financial data?
Yes. Logger role provides access to count and treatment logging only. Financial information including billing details, subscription status, and payment methods are visible only to account owners and Admins. An employee assigned the Logger role can log all the field data they need without ever seeing billing information.
How do I know if my varroa treatment is working?
Run a mite count 2-4 weeks after the treatment ends and compare it to your pre-treatment count. The efficacy formula is: ((pre-count - post-count) / pre-count) x 100. A result above 90% indicates effective treatment. Results below 80% should trigger investigation for possible resistance, application error, or reinfestation. Log both counts in VarroaVault to track efficacy trends across treatment cycles.
How often should I check mite levels in my hives?
At minimum, once per month (every 3-4 weeks) during the active season. Increase to every 2 weeks when counts are near threshold or after a treatment to verify it worked. In fall, monitoring frequency matters most because the window to treat before winter bees are raised is narrow. VarroaVault's monitoring reminders can be set to your preferred interval for each apiary.
What records should I keep for varroa management?
Each record should include: date of count or treatment, hive identifier, monitoring method used, number of bees sampled, mites counted, infestation percentage, treatment product name and EPA registration number, dose applied, treatment start and end dates, and PHI end date. State apiarists typically expect this level of detail during inspections. VarroaVault captures all of these fields in a single log entry.
Sources
- American Beekeeping Federation (ABF)
- USDA ARS Bee Research Laboratory
- Honey Bee Health Coalition
- Penn State Extension Apiculture Program
- Project Apis m.
Get Started with VarroaVault
The information in this guide is most useful when you have your own mite count data to apply it to. VarroaVault stores every count, flags threshold crossings automatically, and builds the treatment history you need for state inspections and effective management decisions. Start your free trial at varroavault.com.