Add a custom role

A custom role holds exactly the permissions one job needs, no more. Use it when the three built-in roles give someone too much or too little. This article covers adding a role, choosing its permissions, giving it to your staff, and editing or deleting it later.

Custom roles are on Business and up. See plans and what each includes. Adding, editing and deleting roles needs the Add roles, Edit roles and Delete roles permissions, which only the Store owner role has out of the box.

When a custom role helps

The built-in roles are fixed. A Store manager sees your sales and profit, and Sales staff can refund. A custom role is how you give a job its own set of permissions. Some examples from Layal Boutique:

Role	For	Permissions ticked
Fulfilment team	Packing orders and handing them to delivery providers, without refunds or sales figures	View products; View orders, Update order status; View shipments, Manage shipments; View shipping rates and delivery providers; View customers
Customer care	Answering messages and reviews, and following up on orders	View orders; View customers, Edit customers; both Reviews & questions permissions; both Messages permissions
Content editor	Adding products and writing the store’s pages, without seeing orders	The whole Catalogue section; both Content permissions; Upload files

The Content editor can use AI translation on policy pages and the FAQ, because that comes with Edit content. To let it translate products with AI as well, add Edit storefront design, which also lets it design and publish your storefront.

A person can hold a custom role alongside a built-in one, and gets the permissions of both.

Add a role: name and description

Creating a Customer care role: its name, what it is for, the permissions it needs, then Save. It joins the list with 0 members.

In the sidebar, under Administration, open Staff, then Roles. You can also open your roles (opens in a new tab) from here.
Select Add role.

The empty Add role dialog: Role name with the example Fulfilment, Support, Description, and the permissions list starting with Catalogue and Orders — Every section starts unticked. Nothing is given until you tick it.

In Role name, type a short name for the job, such as Customer care.
In Description, say what the role is for.
Tick its permissions. See tick its permissions.

The Add role dialog filled in for Customer care: the name, its description, and View orders ticked under Orders — A customer-care role taking shape. Scroll down the dialog for the rest of the sections.

Select Save at the bottom of the dialog.

You see Role created. The role joins the list with 0 members, and the Custom card counts it.

Field	Required	What to know
Role name	Yes	Up to 100 characters. No two roles in your store can share a name, whatever the capital letters, and that includes the built-in roles. The name shows exactly as you type it, in every console language.
Description	No	Up to 500 characters. It shows under the name on the Roles page, and under the role when you add or edit a staff member, so make it say what the job is.

If you save without a name, the field turns red with Enter a role name. and you see Fill in every required field.

The Add role dialog after saving with no name: the Role name field in red with Enter a role name. under it — Only the name is required. The description can stay empty.

If the name is taken, you see A role with this name already exists. Choose another name.

Tick its permissions, one by one or a whole section

Permissions are grouped into sections, in the order of the sidebar: Catalogue, Orders, Fulfilment, Shipping & delivery providers, Customers, Discount codes & gift cards, Reviews & questions, Messages, Storefront, Content, Newsletter, Analytics, Files, Staff, Roles, Settings and Subscription.

One permission: tick the box beside it.
A whole section: tick the box beside the section’s name. Every permission in it is ticked. Untick it to clear them all.

A section’s own box shows ticked only when every permission in it is ticked.

The Add role dialog for a Content editor: the whole Catalogue section ticked, then Content and Files ticked further down — Whole sections ticked in one go for a content editor.

Staff roles: what each one can see and do explains what every permission opens. A few things to know while you choose:

Start with the View permission. A role that can manage something usually needs to see it too. For example, Manage shipments is little use without View orders to find the order.
Shipping an order asks for a delivery provider. A role that ships orders needs View shipping rates and delivery providers to see the list.
Sales and profit stay hidden unless you tick View analytics and reports.
AI translation on products, categories, collections and Journal posts, and in the Studio, needs Edit settings or Edit storefront design. Translate to other languages on policy pages, and the FAQ’s translate buttons, need Edit content.
The audit log needs View settings, which also lets the role read your settings, card payments and domain pages.
Tick at least one permission. A new role with none can be saved, but whoever holds it can sign in and open nothing.

For someone who designs your storefront, tick the Storefront section. Its one permission, Edit storefront design, lets them design and publish your storefront in the Storefront Studio, and use AI translation. To let them upload their own pictures in the Studio too, add Upload files under Files.

If someone other than the store owner builds roles, they can only give permissions they hold themselves. Anything more is refused with You cannot give a permission you do not have yourself.

Give the role to your staff

A new role does nothing until someone holds it.

Open Staff users.
Select Edit on the person’s row, or Add staff member for someone new.
Under Assigned roles, tick your new role. Its description shows under its name.
Select Save, or Add staff member for someone new.

The member count on the role’s row goes up by one. See change their roles.

Edit a role

Open Roles.
Select Edit on the role.

The Edit role dialog for Fulfilment team: its name and description, and View products, View orders and Update order status ticked — Layal’s packing role. Scroll down to see its Fulfilment and Shipping permissions.

Change its name, its description or its permissions.
Select Save.

You see Role updated. The change applies to everyone who holds the role. A permission you add reaches anyone already signed in within about 15 minutes, and straight away when they reload the console or sign in again. A permission you take away stops working at once. A console they already have open takes them to the sign-in page the next time it loads or saves anything. If they reload the console or open it in a new tab instead, it carries on without a new sign-in, with only what the role now allows.

Unticking every permission and saving leaves the role with none. The dialog does not warn you first, and you see the usual Role updated. As with any permission you take away, every one of the role’s permissions stops working at once for everyone who holds it. Someone for whom it is their only role can still sign in, but nothing on their pages loads until you tick the role’s permissions again or give them another role.

On Business and up, your own roles have Edit. The built-in roles show View instead and cannot be changed. On a plan without custom roles, your own roles show View too. See on plans without custom roles.

Delete a role

You can delete a role only when nobody holds it. First move its members to another role. See change their roles. The member count on the role’s row tells you when it reaches 0 members.

On the role’s row, select Delete (the bin).
Read the box Delete role?. It says Staff with this role lose its permissions. This cannot be undone. A role that anyone holds cannot be deleted, though, so move its members first.

The confirmation box Delete role? with Cancel and Delete buttons — The last check before the role is deleted.

Select Delete to confirm, or Cancel to keep it.

You see Role deleted. and the role leaves the list.

If someone still holds the role, the delete is refused with This role is given to staff. Give them another role, then delete it., and nothing changes. Move them, then delete again.

Warning

Deleting cannot be undone. To use the same set of permissions again, you have to add the role again and tick them one by one.

The built-in roles cannot be deleted: their bin button is greyed out.

On plans without custom roles

Custom roles are on Business and Enterprise. On Free, Starter and Growth, Add role carries a padlock, and so does the delete button of every role of your own. Pointing at a padlocked button shows Included from a higher plan.

The Roles & permissions page on the Growth plan: Add role with a padlock, the store’s own Fulfilment team role with a View button and a padlock on its delete button, and the three system roles with View and a greyed-out bin — On Growth, Add role and your own role’s delete button carry a padlock, and your own role reads View.

Selecting Add role does not open the dialog. Instead, a message names the plan that includes custom roles and its monthly price, with a See plans link to your Subscription page.

The Roles & permissions page with the message This is on Business — $79/month. and a See plans link — The message names the plan that has custom roles.

The three built-in roles work on every plan, and you can view them on any plan.

Roles you made on a higher plan

If you move down from Business or Enterprise, your custom roles stay, and the staff who hold them keep every permission the role gives. Until you move back up, the console lets you read them but not change them:

On your role’s row, select View, which takes the place of Edit on these plans.

Role details opens read-only, with the note Custom roles are not included in your plan. Staff with this role keep every permission it gives. The name, the description and every box are greyed out, and the only button is Close.

Role details for Layal’s Fulfilment team role on the Growth plan: the note that custom roles are not included in your plan and its staff keep every permission, the greyed-out name and description, and its permissions still ticked, including View products, View orders and Update order status — Read-only on Growth, and still working for the staff who hold it.

Select Close.

The delete button on the row carries a padlock: selecting it shows the same message as Add role, naming the plan that includes custom roles. So you cannot add, edit or delete your own roles on these plans, and nothing on screen lets you try.

You can still give these roles to staff, or move people to a built-in role, on the Staff users page. See change their roles and upgrade or change your plan.

Next, give the role to a staff member, or see what each permission opens.