Reviewed October 13, 2026
How to set up Shopify staff permissions without giving away the store
Give each staff member the smallest set of permissions that lets them do their job, keep payouts, billing, and account ownership with the owner, and review the list monthly. Most store security problems start as convenience permissions nobody removed.
Why permissions deserve ten careful minutes
A staff account with full access can change prices, edit bank details for payouts, export your customer list, and delete products. That is not a trust issue, it is an accident and security issue: one phished login with full access can do full damage.
Role based limits shrink that blast radius. They also make training cleaner, because a new hire sees the parts of the store they actually work in.
Permissions to keep owner only
Payout bank details, billing, account ownership transfer, and installing apps that can access customer data should stay with the owner in almost every store. Refund settings and gift card creation deserve limits too, because they move money.
If a task truly needs one of these, grant it for the task and remove it after, rather than leaving it on permanently just in case.
Sensible roles for common jobs
Order support needs orders, fulfillments, and customer profiles for lookup, but not themes, apps, or banking. Marketing needs products, content, discounts, and reports, but not payout settings. A developer needs themes and apps in a development copy first, production access second.
Write the role down before creating the account. If you cannot describe the job in a sentence, the permission set will come out vague too.
Contractors and agencies
Give agencies their own collaborator access rather than a shared staff login, so access can be revoked in one place when the engagement ends. Shared logins also break your audit trail, because the activity log cannot tell people apart.
Set a calendar reminder at the end of every project to remove access. The most common leftover access in stores belongs to agencies from two redesigns ago.
The monthly ten minute review
Once a month, open the users list and ask three questions per account: does this person still work with us, does this role still match their job, and have they signed in recently. Remove or reduce anything that fails a question.
Turn on two step verification for every account while you are there. Permissions limit what a login can do, and two step verification limits who can become that login.
Frequently asked questions
How many staff accounts can a Shopify store have?
It depends on your plan, with higher plans allowing more accounts and roles. Collaborator accounts for partners and agencies work differently and do not use a normal staff seat in the same way.
Can staff see customer personal data?
Only if their role includes customer access. Limit customer profile permissions to people who need them for support or fulfillment, and review that access regularly.
Should I share the owner login with my team?
No. Shared owner logins remove accountability and bypass every permission limit you set. Give each person their own account with the right role instead.
What happens to orders when I remove a staff account?
Past orders and activity stay in the store history. Removing an account only stops future sign ins, which is why a monthly review is safe to do.