The Shopify POS setting your agency isn't allowed to press
Shopify limits what collaborator accounts can reach inside POS. Some settings need staff-level access, which means your development partner can know exactly what to do and still be unable to do it. We built a controlled process around that limit rather than handing the client a list of instructions.
- Certain Shopify POS settings require staff access, not the collaborator access agencies normally hold.
- Almost everything else — locations, inventory mapping, fulfilment rules, POS Pro, staff permissions, hardware, training — an agency can do in full.
- For the restricted steps we use scoped temporary staff accounts, or run a booked session and walk an authorised staff member through it.
The brief
The retailer's Shopify Plus store is supported by a growing network of physical stores. As the POS footprint grew, we were asked to add locations, configure fulfilment and make sure what happened in-store matched what happened online.
Then we hit Shopify's permission model.
Shopify restricts parts of POS to staff-level accounts. Collaborator access — the access agencies are given — doesn't reach them. This is a platform rule, not a client permissions oversight, and no amount of asking changes it.
What an agency can actually do
Most of it. The restriction is narrow, and it tends to get treated as a reason to hand the whole job back to the client. The work we did here covered:
The workaround
Where a restricted setting was in the way, we used one of two routes.
A temporary staff account, scoped to only the permissions the task required and removed once setup and testing were signed off. Or, where temporary access wasn't appropriate, we prepared the configuration in advance and ran a booked session with an authorised staff member, who pressed the button while we drove.
Either way, the client didn't have to become a Shopify POS expert to open a store. Shopify's permissions limit the access an agency gets. They don't limit the support an agency can give.
Put your store through the same read.
Every engagement starts with a free store diagnostic. Send the URL and we'll come back with the specific things costing you orders, ranked by what they're worth — whether or not you ever work with us.
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