Business Units and Associates

In B2B settings, purchases are made by individuals acting on behalf of a company or one of its divisions. You can model companies and their divisions as Business Units, and the individuals as Associates. Associates can hold different roles (and permissions) within a Business Unit to ensure they access the right resources and perform only approved actions. Business Units can be organized hierarchically, enabling child units to inherit Stores, Associates, and roles from their parent units.

Add a Business Unit

1. Go to Customers > Add business unit.

2. Enter the details for the Business Unit.

   • For Business unit name, enter a name for the Business Unit.
   • For Business unit key, enter a unique identifier value for the Business Unit.
   • Optional: For Business unit contact email address, enter a contact email for the Business Unit. The email address acts as a unique identifier for a Business Unit within Composable Commerce.
     If you use contact information other than email addresses (for example, phone numbers) for Business Units, you can deactivate email format validation for the field. To deactivate, go to Settings > Project settings > Miscellaneous and click the Disable email format validation for customer emails toggle.

     Only users in Teams with appropriate permissions can manage the setting. The permissions are managed by the Administrators Team in your Organization.
   • For Business unit type, select Company if the Business Unit is a top-level unit, or Division for a sub-unit.
   • If you selected Division in the previous step, do the following:
     • For Top-level unit, select a Business Unit that represents the company at the top of the hierarchy.
     • For Parent unit, select a Business Unit that represents the closest ancestor in the hierarchy. Any Stores linked to the parent unit are automatically inherited.
     • Optional: To remove inherited Stores or link to different Stores, click the Inherit stores from parent unit toggle. Confirm the action; to link to other Stores, select the necessary Stores.
     • Optional: To inherit Associate Roles from the parent unit, click the Inherit role assignments from parent unit toggle and confirm the action.
       You can also assign additional roles to the Associate beyond the inherited ones for the Business Unit.

3. Optional: If present, select a Custom Field for the Business Unit and enter a value for it.

   Custom Fields are defined using the Custom Fields API.
4. Click Next.
5. Optional: Click Add address, enter the address information and click Save.
6. Click Next.
7. Optional: Click Add associate, select a Customer and their role, if defined already, and click Save.
8. Click Save.

Duplicate a Business Unit

1. Go to Customers > Business unit list.
2. Click the Duplicate business unit icon in the Business Unit row on the Business unit list page.
3. Enter a name and key for the Business Unit. All other details are replicated from the chosen Business Unit.
4. Click Next.
5. Optional: Click Add address, enter the address information and click Save.
6. Click Next.
7. Optional: Click Add associate, select a Customer and their role, if defined already, and click Save.
8. Click Save.

Deactivate a Business Unit

1. Go to Customers > Business unit list.
2. Select the Business Unit and select Inactive from the Status drop-down.

Add an Associate to a Business Unit

1. Go to Customers > Business unit list.
2. Select a Business Unit, and in the Associates tab, click Add associate.

3. Enter the details for the Associate.

   • For Customer, select a Customer. You can add multiple Customers as Associates.
   • For Explicit roles, select a role for the Associates (to hold) within the Business Unit.
     • Optional: By default, all roles are inherited from parent Business Units. To avoid inheriting the role, click the Children will inherit toggle to deactivate.
     Ensure the Inherit role assignments from all ancestors toggle is activated on child Business Units to inherit Associate Roles from parent units.
4. Click Save.

Add an Associate Role

1. Go to Settings > Project settings and click the Business units tab.
2. Click Add associate role.

3. Enter the details for the Associate.

   • Optional: For Role name, enter a name for the Associate Role.
   • For Role key, enter a unique identifier value for the Associate Role.
   • Buyers can assign the role to other Associates. To only allow sellers to assign the role, deactivate the Assignable by buyers toggle.
4. Optional: Select the permissions for the role. Alternatively, you can also select a template of predefined permissions from the drop-down.
   The templates help in streamlining permission assignment based on typical role responsibilities.

5. Optional: If present, select a Custom Field for the Associate Role and enter a value for it.

   Custom Fields are defined using the Custom Fields API.
6. Click Save.

Manage Business Unit settings

You can manage the default settings for Business Units to align with your company's policies and workflows. To change the default setting, do the following:

1. Go to Settings > Project settings and click the Business units tab.
2. Click the Edit icon and select an option.
   • Status: By default, newly created Business Units created by buyers are inactive. This ensures that administrators can perform necessary checks and configurations before activating the Business Units.
   • Associate role: An Associate is automatically assigned a default role in any Business Unit they create. You can customize this default role.
3. Click Save.