Managing staff

You can add staff accounts to your store, allowing your team members to complete various tasks within your Shopify admin. Staff accounts can be assigned specific permissions, giving you control over what your staff can view and do in your Shopify admin or Shopify POS.

Adding additional staff accounts is only available on the Shopify plan and higher. The Basic Shopify and Shopify Starter plans don't support adding staff accounts.

The number of staff accounts that you can add depends on the pricing plan that your store is on. The store owner isn't counted towards the staff account limits.

Staff account limits

The maximum number of staff accounts that you can have depends on your store's Shopify subscription plan. Review the following details:

  • Pause and Build: 1 staff account
  • Shopify: 5 staff accounts
  • Advanced Shopify: 15 staff accounts
  • Shopify Plus: Unlimited staff accounts

The following plans don't support adding any staff accounts, and these plans also don't include any staff accounts:

  • Basic Shopify: 0 staff accounts
  • Shopify Starter: 0 staff accounts

Staff accounts and pricing plans

The Basic Shopify and Shopify Starter plans don't support adding staff accounts. If you're on one of these plans and require the ability to add staff members, then you'll need to upgrade to a higher plan such as Shopify, Advanced Shopify, or Shopify Plus.

By default, staff have no permissions and need to be given permissions. There are some actions that only a store owner has permission to do. Carefully consider which permissions you give to your staff. For security reasons, only create one staff login per staff member.

Giving a staff member a staff login also helps them get more specialized support. Shopify Support offers advice and assistance based on the permissions the staff member has. If your staff member has a staff account, then Shopify Support can give detailed support in all the areas of the admin that the staff member has access to. If your staff member doesn't have a staff account, then Shopify Support can only provide general advice.

Add staff

You can add staff accounts to your Shopify store to let staff log in as separate users. To add staff, you need to be the store owner or have the Edit permissions and Add and remove staff permissions.

If you want to add staff who can log in to your admin and to Shopify POS to add POS app only staff, then you also need the Manage Point of Sale staff permission and the required Shopify POS permissions.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click Add staff.
  3. Enter the staff members's full name as it is displayed on any government-issued ID, and their email address.
  4. Do either of the following:
    • Select which permissions you want to give the staff member.
    • To give the staff member all available permissions, click Select all.
  5. Click Send invite.

The staff member receives an email invitation. Invitations to create a staff login expire in 7 days.

Create staff

After you add a staff member, the staff member needs to accept your invitation to complete the setup of their staff login.

Steps:

  1. In the invitation email, click Create staff, and then click accept invite.
  2. Optional: To create a Shopify account, enter the following information:
    • email address
    • first name and last name
    • phone number (optional)
    • password
  3. Click Create account.

Give Shopify POS permissions

If you're the store owner or staff with the Edit permissions permission, then you can give existing staff access to your Shopify admin and Point of Sale (POS) app.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the staff member's name.
  3. In the Point of Sale access section, click Access Point of Sale.
  4. From the POS Role list, select the role that you want to assign to the staff member.
  5. Optional: To create a different personal identification number (PIN) from the default PIN, in the PIN section, click Generate random PIN or enter a PIN. Staff use this PIN to access Shopify POS. Make sure that your staff knows what their PINs are.
  6. Click Save.

You can also create and assign roles to your Shopify POS staff. Learn more about managing Point of Sale staff.

Manage staff

Store owners and staff can edit their account details and add a picture to the account when they log in to the Shopify admin with their credentials. You can only edit the details for your own account.

Edit staff permissions

You need to be the store owner or have the Edit permissions permission to edit other staff members' permissions. Which permissions you can edit for other staff members depends on which permissions you have. You might not be able to edit staff permissions in some cases. Learn more about the Edit permissions permission.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the staff member's name.
  3. Do any of the following:
    • Select the permissions that you want to give to the staff member.
    • Clear the permissions that you want to remove.
    • To give the staff member all available permissions, click Select all.
  4. Click Save.

Update staff details

You can always make changes to your own login to update your account details.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click your store name and account picture.
  2. Click Manage account.

  3. Update your account details.

  4. Click Save.

Update staff emails

If you use a Shopify account and you change your email address, then your email address is updated for all the stores that are linked to your Shopify account:

  • If you need to update the email address for existing staff, then add a new staff member and enter the new email address.
  • If you need to update the email address for the store owner, then add a new staff member, and then transfer ownership to them.

Revoke staff device permissions

If an existing staff member uses a device or an application to access your Shopify store, but lose the device, then you can log the staff member out and require them to log in again. This can help prevent unknown users from accessing your store.

Only the store owner or a staff member with the Revoke access tokens for other staff permission can revoke staff device permissions.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the staff member's name.
  3. Click Revoke Access next to the device or application.
  4. Click Revoke to confirm.

Your staff can't access your store using that device without logging in again.

Deactivate or reactivate a staff member's account

You can deactivate a staff member's account so that the staff member can't log in to your store any more. For security purposes, deactivate any unused staff logins. If you deactivate a staff member's account who is a Shopify Credit secondary cardholder with active cards, then their cards are automatically locked and can't be used.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the staff member's name.
  3. Click Suspend access.
  4. Click Suspend.

You can reactivate the staff member's account at anytime by clicking Reactivate. If you reactivate a staff members's account who is a Shopify Credit secondary cardholder with active cards, then their cards are automatically unlocked.

Remove a staff member's account from your store

Store owners and staff with the Add and remove staff permission can a remove a staff member's account from a store. You can't undo this action. If one or more staff members share the account that you want to delete, then create separate staff accounts for your active staff member first.

If you remove a staff member's account who is a Shopify Credit secondary cardholder with active cards, then their cards are automatically canceled and can't be used.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the staff members's name.
  3. To permanently remove the staff from your store, click Remove *staff name*.
  4. Enter the password for your staff account that you're signed into, and then click Remove.

The staff member's account is removed permanently from your store, and is no longer available from your Shopify admin.

Remove a collaborator account

You can permanently remove a collaborator account from your store. You can't undo this action.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the collaborator's name.
  3. Click Remove collaborator account.
  4. Enter your password, and then click Remove.

The collaborator account is removed permanently from your store, and is no longer available from your Shopify admin. The collaborator's name and actions are still listed in any relevant timelines, such as the store activity log and order timeline.

If you want to give a collaborator access again, then the collaborator needs to resend their collaborator request.

Transfer store ownership

The store owner can choose another staff member to be the store owner and transfer the store ownership to them.

Considerations for transferring store ownership

Review the following considerations before you transfer store ownership:

  • Your store can have only one store owner at a time. Only the store owner has complete access to every part of the Shopify admin and can manage the account details. If you choose another staff member to be the store owner, then you lose this unrestricted access, and you might not be able to manage staff permissions in future.
  • When selling or gifting a store to a new owner, remember to update the billing and Shopify Payments information if those are set up. The new owner will need to complete the following steps as soon as possible after the transfer:
    • Update their billing details. This is important to avoid a charge to the original owners' payment method.
    • Contact Shopify Support and request to update the existing Shopify Payments details to their own details. This is important for tax reasons.
    • If you haven't met your billing threshold when you transfer ownership of a store to a new owner, then the new owner is responsible for paying. You might want to factor this into your transition plan.

Steps:

  1. Log in to your store as the store owner.

  2. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.

  3. Click Transfer ownership.

  4. Enter the email of the new store owner. If the new store owner isn't existing staff, then you need to enter their name, too.

  5. Enter your password to confirm the change.

  6. Click Transfer store ownership.

View login history

As the store owner or staff with the Edit permissions permission, you can review the login history of any staff member. Staff members can review their individual login histories as well.

You should review staff login histories periodically to verify that there hasn't been access from unknown ISPs, locations, or IP addresses. This could be an indication that the staff member's account has been compromised.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click the staff members's name.
  3. In the Recent access to store section, review the five most recent login sessions and the following information about each session:
    • date
    • IP address
    • ISP (internet service provider)
    • the staff member's location at login
    • web browser and operating system version, which you can review by hovering your cursor over the information symbol
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