Roles overview
What each role can do — Owner, Admin, Manager, Staff — with a quick decision guide.
ShopRunner uses four roles per business: Owner, Admin, Manager, and Staff. Each role has a well-defined set of things they can and can't do. Pick the smallest role that lets the person do their job.
Buyer is a separate capability, not a role - you can mark anyone (Staff or Manager) as a Buyer for a specific shop to unlock the Buy tab there.
What can each role do?
Day-to-day work. The default for most team members.
Can do
- See lists in the shops they're added to
- Scan barcodes, add items, mark items purchased
- Take and attach photos
- Submit items for approval (when their role is in the list's approver roles)
Cannot do
- Invite, edit or remove other staff
- Freeze lists, manage templates, print labels
- Mark items as non-carrying (slow movers / stop carrying)
- Change business or shop settings
Operational lead — runs the day-to-day at the shops they're added to.
Can do
- Everything Staff can do
- Freeze lists, manage templates, print labels and promos
- Mark items as non-carrying / slow mover
- Manage reorder reminders
- Assign Buyer to staff members in their shops
- Add and remove shops in the business
- Use the Buy tab in any shop without needing the buyer flag
- Approve queue items, review offer lists and non-carrying requests
Cannot do
- Invite or remove staff at the business level
- Manage suppliers (favourites, supplier settings)
- Change business settings (name, industry, departments)
- See billing / change subscription
Owner's right-hand operator — full operational control without ownership rights.
Can do
- Everything Manager can do
- Invite, edit and remove staff (except the business owner)
- Manage suppliers and favourites
- Edit business settings — name, industry profile, departments
- View subscription / billing details
Cannot do
- Modify the business owner's membership
- Transfer ownership
- Delete the business
- Pay for or change the subscription
The legal owner of the business. Only one per business. Ownership transfer is a separate explicit flow.
Can do
- Everything Admin can do
- Modify other owners (when transferring ownership)
- Pay for and change the subscription
- Delete the business
A capability, not a role. Anyone — Staff or Manager — can be set as a Buyer for a shop.
- Use the Buy tab in shops they're a buyer for
- Pick items at the wholesaler for the active shopping run
Quick decision guide
- The person needs to do shopping runs only. Make them a Staff member and mark them as a Buyer in the shops they work in.
- The person runs a single shop day-to-day. Make them a Manager and add them to that shop.
- The person helps you run the whole business. Make them an Admin - they get everything except ownership transfer, billing, and deleting the business.
- You want to hand the business over completely. Use the explicit Transfer Ownership flow (in business settings).
One important rule about per-shop roles
When a member has access to multiple shops, you can override their role on a single shop. Per-shop overrides only allow Staffand Manager. Admin is always business-wide - it can't be scoped to a single shop.