Documentation

Business Units and Associates

Create and manage companies as customers.

Business Units are representations of Buyer organizations, designed to model company hierarchies. A single Business Unit might represent an entire company or a division within it.

Associates are customer representatives of a company and can hold specific Associate Roles. These roles determine their permissions to access and perform various actions, like creating Carts or placing Orders.

Business Unit hierarchies support inheritance, allowing divisions to inherit Stores, Associates, and their roles from parent units within the hierarchy.

Business Units

Create a Business Unit

  1. In the Merchant Center main menu, go to Customers > Add business unit.

  2. In the General information section, enter values for the following fields:

    • For Business unit name, enter a name for the Business Unit.
    • For Business unit key, enter a unique identifier that helps identify the Business Unit.
    • Optional: For Business unit contact email address, enter a contact email address for the Business Unit.

  3. In the Business Unit details section, do the following:

    • For Business unit type, select an option depending on the position of the Business Unit in a hierarchy.
      If the Business Unit is a new company, select Company. If the Business Unit is a division of an existing company, select Division.

    • For divisions only: For Top level unit, select the Business Unit that represents the company at the top of the hierarchy.

    • For divisions only: For Parent unit, select the Business Unit that represents the closest ancestor in the hierarchy.

    • Optional: If you've selected Division, all Stores linked to the parent unit are automatically inherited. To clear linked Stores and set the Stores manually, click the Inherit stores from parent unit toggle to deactivate.

      Image highlighting the UI element for editing Business Unit details.

    • For divisions only: To inherit Associate Roles defined on any parent units, including the top-level unit, click the Inherit role assignments from all ancestors toggle to activate.

      Activating the inheritance of Associate Roles does not restrict you from assigning additional Associate Roles explicitly on the Business Unit.

  4. Optional: If Custom Fields are defined for the Business Unit, you can select them from the drop-down in the Custom fields section. Depending on the field type, enter or select the value for it.

    Custom Fields are implemented using the Custom Fields API.

  5. Click Next.

  6. Optional: To create a new address and assign it to the Business Unit, click Add address. You can add multiple addresses, for example, a different billing and shipping address.

  7. Click Next.

  8. Optional: To assign existing Customers to the Business Unit, click Add associate and follow these steps.

  9. Click Save. New Business Units are created with an Active status by default. To change the status, follow Deactivate a Business Unit.

Business Unit list

To view Business Units, navigate to Customers > Business unit list in the Merchant Center main menu.

You can search for Business Units using the following fields:

  • All fields
  • Business unit name
  • Key
  • Contact email address

Additionally, you can filter the list to only display the top-level Business Units by clicking the Show only top-level units toggle to activate.

Deactivate a Business Unit

  1. In the Merchant Center main menu, go to Customers > Business unit list.
  2. Select the Business Unit, and on the Business Unit's details page, select Inactive from the Status drop-down.

Deactivating a Business Unit prevents it from being associated with new Carts, Orders, or Quotes. However, this doesn't affect inheritance. Even if a parent unit is inactive, its children remain active and can inherit role assignments.

Configure Business Unit settings

To align with your organization's policies and workflows, you can configure the default settings for Business Units created by Buyers.

To access Business Unit settings, go to Settings > Project settings, and then click the Business units tab.

Adjust the default status

By default, Business Units created by Buyers are inactive. It allows administrators to undertake necessary checks and configurations before making the Business Unit available.

To change the setting, follow these steps:

  1. In the Business unit settings section, click Edit.
  2. For Default status, select Active, and then click Save.
  3. Click Save.

Adjust the default Associate Role

When a Buyer creates a Business Unit, they are automatically assigned to it. This setting allows you to specify in which default role Associates should be assigned to newly created Business Units. Before setting the default Associate Role, you must have existing Associate Roles; see Create an Associate Role to learn more.

To specify the default role, do the following:

  1. In the Business unit settings section, click Edit.
  2. For Default associate role, select the role to set as a default, and then click Save.

Associate Roles and Permissions

Associates and their roles allow you to ensure that the right Customers have access to the right resources within a Business Unit. You can group specific permissions into roles and assign them to Associates, ensuring they can only perform approved actions.

Create an Associate Role

  1. In the Merchant Center main menu, go to Settings > Project settings, and then click the Business Units tab.

  2. In the Associate roles and permissions section, click Add associate role.

  3. In the General information section, enter values for the following fields:

    • Optional: For Role name, enter a name for the Associate Role.
    • For Role key, enter a unique identifier to help identify the Associate Role.
    • The Assignable by buyers toggle lets Buyers allocate the role to other Associates. To allow only sellers to assign the role, click the Assignable by buyers toggle to deactivate.

  4. In the Associate permissions section, select the role's permissions:

    • Optional: Under Select predefined permissions, you can choose from several role templates. These templates streamline permission assignment based on typical role responsibilities. For example, the Buyer template auto-selects permissions, granting the Associate control over their resources but not those owned by Associates.

    • Under Choose permissions, pick the desired permissions for the role.

      Permissions are categorized by resource types. 'Manage my own ...' refers to resources owned by the Associate, whereas 'Manage others ...' refers to resources of other Associates.

  5. Click Save.

Add Associates to a Business Unit

  1. In the Merchant Center main menu, go to Customers > Business unit list.

  2. Select the Business Unit, and in the Associates tab, click Add associate.

  3. In the Associate details section, enter values for the following fields:

    • For Search existing customer, search for existing Customers by their exact email addresses to add them to the Business Unit. You can add multiple Customers as Associates.

    • For Explicit roles, select at least one role for the Associates to hold within the Business Unit. You can assign up to 5 roles.

    • Optional: By default, all roles are inherited from parent Business Units. To avoid inheriting, click the Children will inherit toggle to deactivate.

      To inherit Associate Roles defined on any parent units, the Inherit role assignments from all ancestors toggle (on child Business Units) must be activated too.

  4. Click Save.

The inherited Associates for a Business Unit are updated each time an Associate in a parent Business Unit is added, updated, or removed. However, since this process is subject to eventual consistency, you may need to wait a few minutes or refresh the page to see the changes.