Discord role-based access control for FiveM refunds with least-privilege perms

Refund handling is one of the easiest places for a FiveM community to lose money and trust. The risk rarely comes from “hackers”; it comes from over-broad Discord permissions, unclear staff boundaries, and refund evidence scattered across DMs and channels. Role-based access control (RBAC) with least-privilege permissions fixes that by making refund actions deliberate, reviewable, and limited to the minimum set of people and bots.

This guide focuses on Discord-native controls (roles, channel overwrites, audit logs) plus common FiveM community tooling (ticket bots, logging channels, and refund systems). The goal is a workflow where staff can process legitimate refunds quickly, while your server retains strong controls, traceability, and separation of duties.

Define your refund threat model (before you touch permissions)

Least privilege starts with knowing what you’re protecting and from whom. For FiveM refunds, the assets are typically Tebex/Stripe/PayPal payouts, in-game perks tied to Discord roles, and your community’s reputation. The most common failure modes are internal: a staff member with too much access, a compromised staff account, or a bot token leak that grants broad permissions.

• Over-permissioned roles (e.g., “Support” can manage roles, view private logs, and edit channels).
• Refund evidence stored in DMs or public channels, making it easy to delete or dispute later.
• No separation of duties: the same person approves, executes, and closes refunds.
• Bots with Administrator permission, allowing them to bypass channel restrictions and overwrite roles.
• No immutable audit trail: refund decisions aren’t logged with timestamps, IDs, and staff attribution.

Design a least-privilege role hierarchy for refunds

A secure refund workflow uses multiple roles with narrow scopes instead of one powerful “staff” role. In Discord, keep your refund-related roles below your server owner/admin roles, and avoid giving refund roles any permissions that impact server structure (Manage Server, Manage Channels, Manage Roles). The refund process should rely on ticket channels and bot commands, not manual role edits by general staff.

• Support Agent: can read/respond in ticket channels, add internal notes, and tag escalation roles. No access to finance logs.
• Refund Reviewer: can view payment proof channels/attachments in tickets, mark a refund as approved/denied, and trigger a “review complete” status. Cannot execute payouts.
• Refund Executor (Finance): can execute the refund action (via payment platform or refund tool) and post confirmation. Cannot change ticket evidence or delete messages.
• FiveM Perks Manager: can add/remove specific perk roles (e.g., “Donator Bronze,” “Priority Queue”) but cannot manage staff roles or edit channels.
• Audit/Compliance: read-only access to refund logs and closed tickets for periodic review; cannot participate in decisions.

If your community is small, one person may wear multiple hats. Least privilege still applies: assign multiple roles to that person rather than creating a single “super role.” This makes it obvious which permission set was intended and helps during audits or staff transitions.

Lock down ticket channels, evidence, and logs with channel overwrites

Refunds live and die on evidence. Your Discord structure should keep evidence visible to the right roles and immutable enough that staff can’t quietly “clean up” a bad decision. Use a ticket system (e.g., a dedicated ticket bot or a custom bot) that creates a private channel per refund request and applies strict overwrites.

Example channel layout:

1. #refund-requests (public): users can only see instructions and a button to open a ticket; no one posts refund details here.
2. ticket-#### (private): visible to the user, Support Agent, Refund Reviewer, and (optionally) Audit/Compliance read-only.
3. #refund-logs (private): bot-only posting; visible to Refund Reviewer, Refund Executor, Audit/Compliance, and server ownership.
4. #finance-ops (private): limited to Refund Executor and server ownership for payout confirmations, chargeback alerts, and platform notices.

In each ticket channel, deny @everyone “View Channel,” then explicitly allow the roles that need access. For evidence integrity, avoid granting “Manage Messages” to refund roles. If moderators need to remove doxxing or accidental leaks, create a separate “Content Moderator” role with narrow permission and require that removals be logged (see the logging section).

Control bot permissions and command scope (no Administrator)

Most refund workflows rely on bots: ticket creation, status changes, role syncing for perks, and logging. The biggest mistake is giving bots Administrator, which bypasses your careful RBAC design. Instead, grant only the permissions the bot needs in the channels it needs them, and restrict who can run sensitive commands.

Concrete examples:

• Ticket bot: needs View Channel, Send Messages, Manage Channels (only if it creates/archives tickets), and Read Message History in the ticket category. It does not need Manage Roles or Administrator.
• Refund workflow bot: if it posts to #refund-logs, give it Send Messages and Embed Links only in that channel.
• Role sync bot (FiveM perks): restrict to Manage Roles but only for a defined set of perk roles. Place the bot’s role above perk roles and below staff roles so it can’t assign staff permissions.
• Command permissions: allow “/refund approve” only for Refund Reviewer; allow “/refund execute” only for Refund Executor; allow “/refund close” for Support Agent after a decision is logged.

If you use a purpose-built refund workflow such as LD Refund System, treat it like any other privileged integration: create a dedicated bot role, scope it to specific channels, and ensure its actions are logged to a private channel that staff cannot edit. This keeps the tooling helpful without becoming a backdoor around your RBAC.

Add separation of duties: approve vs execute vs restore perks

Least privilege isn’t only about limiting access; it’s also about preventing a single compromised account from completing a full fraud chain. For refunds, the cleanest separation is: one role verifies and approves, another executes the payout, and a third handles in-game/Discord perks changes. This reduces both intentional abuse and honest mistakes.

A practical workflow in a ticket channel might look like this: the Support Agent gathers proof (transaction ID, Tebex package, Discord ID, FiveM license identifier), the Refund Reviewer marks the request approved/denied with a reason, and the Refund Executor performs the payout and posts the confirmation reference. Finally, the FiveM Perks Manager removes the perk role (e.g., @Donator Gold) and notes the change in the ticket.

1. Support Agent: confirm identity and collect required fields (Discord user, CFX license, transaction ID, reason).
2. Refund Reviewer: validate eligibility (time window, chargeback risk, duplicate claims) and record a decision message using a template.
3. Refund Executor: execute refund in the payment platform and paste the confirmation/reference number; never rely on “trust me, I did it.”
4. FiveM Perks Manager: remove/adjust roles and any in-game entitlements tied to your framework; document what changed.
5. Support Agent: close the ticket only after logs show decision + execution + perk changes.

If your FiveM server uses role-based perks (priority queue, whitelisted jobs, donor vehicles), avoid letting refund staff directly edit server configs or ACLs. Keep those changes in a separate ops process, or automate them through a controlled role sync that only touches the relevant perk roles.

Make refunds auditable: logs, templates, and retention

Refund disputes often happen weeks later, especially when chargebacks appear. Your Discord setup should produce an audit trail that answers: who requested, what evidence was provided, who approved, who executed, what changed in perks, and when. Do not rely on memory or staff DMs.

Implement these controls:

• Decision templates: require Refund Reviewer to post a standardized message including ticket ID, transaction ID, decision, policy citation, and reviewer tag.
• Immutable logging channel: #refund-logs where only bots can post; deny staff “Manage Messages” to reduce tampering.
• Discord Audit Log review: periodically check role changes, bot additions, and permission edits; restrict “View Audit Log” to ownership/admin only.
• Ticket transcripts: export closed tickets to a private archive channel or external storage with access limited to Audit/Compliance and ownership.
• Retention policy: define how long you keep transcripts and logs (e.g., 90–180 days) and who can access them.

When you automate any part of the workflow, ensure the automation writes to your log channel with enough context to reconstruct events. For example: “Refund executed: user @Name, ticket-1842, amount $X, platform ref ABC123, executed by @FinanceRole.” If you use LD Refund System or a similar tool, configure its log output to include staff attribution and ticket identifiers so your logs remain meaningful during reviews.

Finally, test your controls with a “permissions drill.” Create a test user with Support Agent only and confirm they cannot see #refund-logs, cannot run execute commands, and cannot assign perk roles. Repeat for each role. This is the fastest way to catch accidental privilege creep before it becomes an incident.