User Levels

Overview

Everyone who logs in to the Merchant Portal has one of two roles: Admin or User. You choose the role when you invite someone from Settings → Users. See Settings.

The split lets day-to-day staff take payments, handle refunds and look after products, while admins keep control of stores, terminals, payment settings, branding and the team.

Accounts created before roles existed have no role set. They work as Admin.

Quick comparison

What you can do	User	Admin
See sales, reports, terminals, stores and settings	✅	✅
Refund a payment, void a payment, void a refund	✅	✅
Open receipts	✅	✅
Create and send payment links	✅	✅
Create and update products, update stock, upload images, use the AI product tools	✅	✅
Create notifications in Settings	✅	✅
Raise and reply to support tickets	✅	✅
Create, update and delete stores	❌	✅
Register, rename, move and deactivate terminals	❌	✅
Change terminal settings and tips	❌	✅
Capture a delayed payment	❌	✅
Change a payment link’s end time	❌	✅
Update company details, and manage or delete branding	❌	✅
Publish and unpublish the storefront	❌	✅
Turn payment methods on and off	❌	✅
Create and manage campaigns, product campaign prices and gift cards	❌	✅
Order hardware	❌	✅
Delete products	❌	✅
Remove notifications	❌	✅
Invite and edit users	❌	✅

User: day-to-day operations

User is the right role for cashiers, store staff and anyone running the shop floor. In the role picker it’s described as Day-to-day sales and products: refunds, receipts, payment links, and managing products and inventory.

A User can:

• Sales: refund a payment, void a same-day payment, void a mistaken refund, and open receipts. See Refunds.
• Payment links: create them and send them to customers. See Payment Links.
• Products: create and update products, update stock levels, upload images, and use the AI tools for product descriptions and images. See Products & Catalog.
• Notifications: set up report and payment notifications in Settings.

Everything else is read-only. When a User tries an admin-only action, the button is either disabled or the portal shows You don’t have permission to perform this action. Please contact an admin.

Admin: full access

Admin is described as Full access — everything a User can do, plus stores, terminals, payments, settings, branding, and team management. An Admin can also:

• Stores: create, update and delete stores, add online information, and publish or unpublish the storefront. See Stores.
• Terminals: register, rename, move between stores and deactivate terminals, change terminal settings, and set tips. See Terminals and Terminal settings & tips.
• Payments: capture delayed payments, and change how long a payment link stays open.
• Company: update company details and branding, and turn payment methods on and off. See Settings.
• Growth: create and manage campaigns, product campaign prices and gift cards. See Campaigns and Gift Cards.
• Products: delete products.
• Team: invite people and edit their names on Settings → Users.

Choosing the right role

• If the person runs the till, handles customers or looks after products, give them User.
• If the person is responsible for the business itself, such as opening stores, managing terminals, changing payment settings or managing the team, give them Admin.

The invite form starts on Admin, so remember to switch it to User when that’s what you want.

Roles are set at invitation. You can’t change a person’s role in the portal afterwards, and you can’t remove a person from Settings → Users. If someone’s role needs to change, or someone should no longer have access, contact Surfboard through Support.

Roles apply to the whole merchant account. You can’t limit a person to particular stores.