Discover how to manage user permissions using role-based access controls in the Shopify admin, ensuring a streamlined and efficient operational workflow.

Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes

On This Page

• What are Role-Based Access Controls?

• Why Role-Based Access Controls?

• Setting Up a Role

• Shopify Point of Sale

• Now It’s Your Turn!

What are Role-Based Access Controls?

In any organization, team members often have different responsibilities that require varying levels of access to information and tools. Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) allow you to assign permissions based on the specific roles individuals occupy within your Shopify store. This means that instead of managing permissions on a user-by-user basis, you can define roles that encapsulate the necessary permissions, making it easier to manage access and reduce the risk of errors.

Why Role-Based Access Controls?

Implementing RBAC in your Shopify admin provides numerous advantages:

• Efficiency: Assigning roles rather than individual permissions saves time and reduces administrative burden.

• Consistency: Changes made to a role automatically propagate to all users assigned that role, ensuring uniformity in permissions.

• Scalability: As your organization grows, RBAC makes it easy to adapt permissions without extensive reconfiguration.

With RBAC, you can ensure that each team member has the appropriate access needed to perform their tasks without overwhelming them with unnecessary permissions.

Setting Up a Role

To set up a role in your Shopify admin, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Settings section of your Shopify admin.

2. Click on the Users section, followed by the Roles subsection.

3. Click on the Add role button to create a new role.

4. Provide a name and description for the role.

5. Select the appropriate permissions for this role. You can choose to enable all permissions within a category or select specific permissions as needed.

Once you have created the role, it can be assigned to any user within your Shopify store or organization. Additionally, you can assign roles to specific stores, making Shopify's RBAC highly adaptable to your organization's needs.

Shopify Point of Sale

If your organization uses Shopify Point of Sale (POS), you can create distinct user roles for handling permissions associated with POS. Define the POS access permissions within the role, and once assigned, the user will automatically inherit those permissions.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Role-based access controls simplify the management of user permissions, allowing you to align permissions with your organizational structure effectively. Consider creating a new role, such as a Customer Service role, which permits the creation of draft orders and customers while restricting product visibility. Assign this role to a user and observe how it streamlines your operations.

If you already have user permissions in place, explore how to migrate them into the new role-based access control model for a more organized approach to user management.