Groups & Departments
Organise employees into groups or departments. Every member inherits the group's budget rules, catalog access, approval settings, and default shipping address.
Last updated: March 2026
Creating a group
Groups belong to a specific company. To create one:
- 1Open the companyIn the admin panel, navigate to Companies and open the company.
- 2Go to the Groups tabClick the Groups tab in the company detail view.
- 3Click "Add Group"A form opens with Name and Description fields.
- 4Enter a name and optional descriptionChoose a name that reflects the department or team (e.g. "Warehouse", "Sales").
- 5SaveThe group is created. You can now configure its settings.
Default group when it is created. This group cannot be deleted. Employees who are not assigned to a specific group fall back to the Default group's settings.Assigning employees to groups
An employee is assigned to exactly one group. The group assignment can be set or changed on the employee create or edit page. Employees inherit all settings from their group — budget, catalogs, and approval rules.
Employees with the BUYER role can additionally be assigned to one or more Purchaser Groups — a list of groups they are allowed to order on behalf of. This is configured on the employee edit page.
Group budget settings
Budget rules are set at the group level. Each employee's spend is tracked individually — one employee's purchases do not affect another's remaining budget.
| Field | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Budget Amount | Any number | Maximum spend per reset period in the shop's currency. |
| Budget Period | DAILY / WEEKLY / MONTHLY / YEARLY / UNLIMITED | How often the employee's used-budget counter resets. |
| Reset Type | Fixed Date / Rolling | Whether everyone resets on the same calendar date, or individually based on when they joined the group. |
Fixed Date reset
All employees in the group reset on the same calendar date. Configure these additional fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Reset time (HH:MM) | Time of day the reset runs. |
| Reset day (1–31) | Day of month — used with the MONTHLY period. |
| Reset weekday (0–6) | Day of week (0 = Monday) — used with the WEEKLY period. |
| Reset month (1–12) | Month of year — used with the YEARLY period. |
Rolling reset
Each employee resets relative to when they were assigned to the group. Configure a rolling window in days, weeks, or months.
Example: rolling 30 days — an employee assigned on January 15 resets on February 14, then March 16, and so on.
Catalog settings
Assign one or more product catalogs to a group. Employees in the group can only see and purchase products from the catalogs assigned to their group.
A group can have multiple catalogs — for example, one for standard office supplies and another for seasonal items. Employees see the combined product set from all assigned catalogs.
Approval settings
Control whether orders from this group require manual approval before they are processed in Shopify.
| Setting | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-approve Orders | Yes / No / Inherit | When Yes, orders are approved instantly. When Inherit, the company-level setting is used. |
| Approval Handler | Shop Admin / Buyer | Who receives and acts on approval requests for this group. |
| Use Own Approval Settings | On / Off | When on, select specific people as approvers for this group, overriding the company-level approvers. |
| Approval Recipients | Select employees | The specific Admins or Buyers who receive approval-request emails and can approve or reject orders. |
Shipping settings
You can set a default shipping address for the group, chosen from the company's saved locations. This pre-fills the address during checkout for all employees in the group.
The Allow Custom Shipping Address toggle controls whether employees can override this default at checkout. Set to Inherit to use the company-level policy.
How settings cascade (inheritance)
Many group settings can be set to Inherit from company. When a setting is inherited, the group uses whatever the parent company has configured. The inherited value is shown in parentheses — for example, "Inherit from company (No)".