Buyer roles
Every member of a company holds a role that decides what they can see and do when purchasing for that company. There are two roles. You assign them in the seller admin; a Location admin can also invite, re-role and revoke teammates within their own branch.
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Buyer | Place orders for their location, see their own orders and balances, pay their own invoices, reorder, buy again, and quick-order by SKU. |
| Location admin | Everything a Buyer can do, plus see every order and unpaid balance at the branch they cover, reorder or file a return on a colleague’s order, maintain the address book, and manage branch teammates. |
Both roles buy the same way, at the same prices, on the same terms. The difference is visibility and address management, not purchasing power.
What a Location admin adds
A Location admin is a Buyer with five extra abilities at the branch their grant covers:
- A branch orders tab. Their account gains a tab named after the branch (“Nashik orders”) listing every order placed for it, whoever placed it.
- Branch balances. In Invoices, a location-balances view shows every open invoice at the branch, not just their own.
- The address book. A Location addresses page lets them add, edit, remove and re-default the branch’s approved delivery addresses, and set the single billing address, without emailing you. Vinayak Infra’s office manager adds “Wakad Tower B, 411057” and makes it default herself.
- Branch-wide reordering. They can reorder or return a colleague’s order, and their Buy again list covers everything the branch has bought in the last year, not only their own purchases — see quick order & buy again.
- Teammate management. From the Company screen they can invite a Buyer or Location admin by email, change that teammate’s branch role, or revoke their access at the selected location.
Meera runs Nashik as a Location admin and sees all ₹11,80,000 of open branch invoices. Ravi, a plain Buyer at the same branch, sees his own three orders.
Two things a Location admin still cannot do
- Pay a colleague’s invoice. Only the person who placed an order may settle it online. A Location admin can see the whole branch’s debt and chase it internally, but the Pay now button belongs to the buyer who ordered. You can always record a payment yourself from the order page.
- See a colleague’s quote. Quote visibility is own-quote only, even for a Location admin. This is deliberately narrower than order visibility: a quote thread carries POs, negotiated rate sheets and messages, so widening it would expose a conversation, not just a number.
Who sees what
| Buyer | Location admin | You | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Own orders | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Colleagues’ orders at their branch | No | Yes (branch tab) | Yes |
| Branch unpaid balances | Own only | Yes | Yes |
| Pay a colleague’s invoice | No | No | Record it manually |
| Reorder or return a colleague’s order | No | Yes | Yes |
| Edit the branch address book | No | Yes | Yes |
| Invite, re-role or revoke branch teammates | No | Yes | Yes |
| Quotes | Own only | Own only | All |
| Personal loyalty and store credit | Personal orders only | Personal orders only | — |
The buyer’s Company page is read-only for commercial policy. Buyers cannot rename branches or change terms, credit, tax, catalogs or payment methods. A Buyer can search and page through the selected branch’s teammate roster but cannot change it. A Location admin gets the scoped Teammates controls on that page.
Assigning a role
You choose the role when you add a buyer, and can change it afterwards. Both live on the company’s page.
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Open the company under Companies and, in the Buyers card, choose Add a buyer — or use the role dropdown next to an existing member to change theirs.
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Set the Role — Buyer or Location admin.
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Choose the scope:
- Pick a Location for a grant scoped to one branch. This is the safer default and where a first contact should start.
- Turn on Company-wide access to cover every location, including ones you add later. For a Location admin that means orders, balances and addresses across the whole company.
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Confirm.
Grants are additive and each carries its own scope, so the same person can be a Location admin at one branch and a plain Buyer elsewhere. A company-wide Location admin is the closest thing to a company manager: one person who watches every branch’s orders, balances and addresses, with no ability to change financial policy.
Which of your own staff can manage companies
Access to the Companies area rides your staff access levels at Users → Access level.
- Administrator, Store manager and Operations include viewing and managing companies — and can view the storefront as a buyer where that module is on.
- Fulfillment, Marketing and Support do not see Companies at all.
Give two field reps Operations so they can open company pages and take phone orders; your content editor never sees a customer’s credit limit.
Assigning Location admin does not change how a buyer signs in or checks out. It is the same account and the same company pricing; the extra views simply appear. See the buyer portal guide.