Improve Accountability and Staff Performance in Your Retail Store with Shopify POS

From highly specialized tasks to more general responsibilities, staff roles look different for everyone working at your retail stores. Instead of worrying about sensitive information getting into the wrong hands, use POS roles to assign staff permissions.

It’s simple to assign roles—and when you do, you can onboard staff quickly, get more control across your devices and locations, and foster a team of high performers. 

Learn more below about how to set up roles within POS systems for retail, and why this new feature can help you operate your business with confidence.

Creating staff roles is extremely valuable even in high-trust retail environments

Keep store staff accountable

To do their best work, your staff need to have access to the actions and information required for their role. With the all-new Shopify POS, you can create an unlimited number of staff roles which restrict or permit access to over 15 POS permissions. From managing customer records to reporting on daily sales, create staff roles to reflect the full spectrum of responsibilities in your store.

Once a staff member has been assigned to a role, they receive a unique PIN to access POS on any device, at any location, with the confidence that they will always have access to the same set of permissions required for their role.

Reward high performers and identify coaching opportunities

With the all-new POS, it’s now easier than ever to track and keep accurate records of sales activity by staff members. When staff members log into POS with their unique PIN, their names are attributed to all orders they process. Staff also have the option to indicate other staff members that helped in making the sale when checking out. This gives you better insight into net sales by staff, which will allow you to better coach and reward team members based on their performance.

Simplify staff management for store managers

Staff management is an integral part of the retail day-to-day, which is why we’ve made it easier to do more in POS. Store managers and supervisors can now add or remove staff accounts and assign roles to staff members directly in POS, without needing access to your Shopify Admin. Onboarding new team members or promoting existing staff is now a matter of a few quick taps.

Allow for extra POS oversight with manager approvals

In addition to Allowed and Denied, certain permissions that require more oversight, like the ability to create discounts or edit taxes, come with a third access level: Approval required, which means that a staff member’s ability to perform an action is contingent upon explicit approval from another member of staff. The Manager approval permission, when granted, enables a staff member like a manager to approve actions for other staff members by entering their PIN when prompted on POS. 

Manager approval is available for the following POS permissions:

• Apply discount
• Ship to customer
• Edit taxes
• Add custom sales
• Refund and exchange orders

Getting started with Shopify POS roles

Make sure you’re using the all-new Shopify POS

In order to set up POS roles for your store, you need to be using the all-new Shopify POS. You’ll automatically get to try the POS Pro subscription, packed with powerful retail features like POS roles, for free until October 31st. Learn how to switch to the all-new POS in a few steps and access resources to train your staff.

Create new roles and assign them to staff

Once you’ve switched to the all-new POS, start creating POS roles for your store staff in the Point of Sale channel of your Shopify Admin. By default, any staff members who had POS-only access on POS Classic (i.e., store staff who did not have access to your Shopify Admin) will be assigned to the Associate role.

You can create an unlimited number of POS roles on the all-new POS that can be customized with more than 15 permissions, such as:

• Manager approval
• Apply discount
• Ship to customer
• Edit taxes
• Add custom sales
• Refund and exchange orders
• Manage customers
• Manager orders made at the device’s location only
• Manager orders made at all store locations
• Use apps that are installed on Shopify POS
• Manage Point of Sale staff
• Manage Point of Sale roles
• View analytics for the device’s location
• Customize the smart grid for the device’s location
• Log out store from Point of Sale app
• Manage payment settings for device
• Manage receipt settings

Visit your Shopify Admin to start creating POS roles for your store.

Once you’ve created POS roles for your store, you can select a new default role that will be assigned to all new staff members. To speed things up, you can also assign roles in bulk.

Indicate actions requiring manager approval

If you would like for certain POS roles to require manager approval before completing an action such as applying discounts or editing taxes, you must first indicate which staff members have the authority to approve these actions by enabling the Manager approval permissions for their roles. The Manager approval permission, when set to Allowed, enables a staff member to approve actions for other staff members requiring approval by entering their PIN. Note that only store owners or staff with full admin permissions and the Manage POS roles permission can enable the Manager approval permission for other staff.

To require manager approval for actions such as applying discounts or editing taxes, ensure that the access level is set to Approval required for that role.

Use POS to assign roles to new staff members

Once you’ve created and customized POS roles for your store, you can now add new staff member records and assign POS roles to staff from the Staff settings directly within POS. Enabling the Manage Point of Sale staff permission for your store managers is a great way to empower them to do more without needing access to Shopify Admin. 

Recap

Regardless of the size of your store, number of locations, or headcount, POS roles add an additional layer of control to your POS staff management. Empower staff with access to the information and workflows they need to do their job⁠s, without compromising on security or the control of sensitive information.

To take advantage of Staff roles, upgrade to the Shopify POS Pro subscription. It’s completely free until October 31st, 2020 so you and staff have time to evaluate the powerful omnichannel features that will help make your retail stores future-proof. After October 31st, Shopify POS Pro will be available for $89/month per location, in addition to your Shopify plan.