Move a customer's buyer from a sales agent account to a company
Applies toShopify
Why move
A restricted sales agent account works, but it was built for your own sales team, not your customers. A company is built for a business with several branches.
| Restricted sales agent today | Company with locations | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Uses a sales agent place on your plan, or $39 a month | Included on every plan |
| Branches | A separate customer account, and email address, for each branch | A location for each branch, all inside one company |
| Ordering | The buyer picks a branch from My Customers, as a sales rep would | The buyer picks a branch from the location chip, as a customer would |
| Prices and pay later | Set on each branch account | Set once on the company, and changed only on the branches that differ |
| Credit limit | One per branch account | One for the whole company, shared by every branch |
| Who sees what | Kept to their business by a sales agent group. Remove it, and they see every B2B customer | Kept to their own company by design |
| Branch staff | Order on the branch account, or not at all | Get their own login, added to their branch as a Buyer, Approver or Manager |
Example
Northside Cafés has 3 cafés. Today, each café is a customer account in your store, and Sam, their purchasing manager, has a sales agent account limited to the northside-cafes sales agent group.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| The business | 3 customer accounts in the northside-cafes sales agent group | The company Northside Cafés |
| The cafés | Northside Cafés - Leeds, York and Hull, as customers | The locations Leeds, York and Hull |
| Sam | A sales agent with a custom role | A company admin, who can order for every location |
| Your sales agent places | 1 used by Sam | 1 free |
Before you start
- Company locations turned on. It's on by default at
SparkLayer Wholesale,Settings,Configurations,Ordering (in your Shopify admin). - A list of the business's branches, with each branch's address and any prices or payment terms that differ from the rest.
- The buyer's account, with the email address they sign in with. Find it at SparkLayer Wholesale,Sales agents (in your Shopify admin).
- A time to switch. The buyer keeps their sales agent access until the last step, so they can order throughout. Let them know it's changing, and that they'll pick a location instead of a customer.
Choose where to build the company
You can build the company in Shopify or in SparkLayer. Either way, you set its prices and terms in SparkLayer.
| Build it in | What happens | Choose it if |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify (recommended) | You create the company, its locations and its contacts at Customers,Companies (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab), and they sync through to SparkLayer. | You use Shopify Companies, or might in future. |
| SparkLayer | You create the company, its locations and its people at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin). | You don't use Shopify Companies and don't plan to. |
The Shopify Companies integration replaces companies built in SparkLayer
If you build a company in SparkLayer and later turn on the Shopify Companies integration, your Shopify companies replace the companies you built in SparkLayer. If there's a chance you'll use Shopify Companies, build the company in Shopify now. See Companies built in SparkLayer.
Move them across
Create the company
In your Shopify admin, go to Customers,Companies (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) and add the company, for example Northside Cafés. It syncs to SparkLayer, where you'll find it at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin).
Go to SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin), click Create company and enter the Company name, for example Northside Cafés.
Then open the company at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin) and set its terms once, for every branch:
| Field | What to choose |
|---|---|
| Customer group | The group the branch accounts are in today |
| Price list | Leave as Use the customer group's price list, unless the business has its own prices |
| Let them pay later | On, if the branches pay by invoice today |
Click Save. See Create a company.
Add a location for each branch
On the company in Shopify, add a location for each branch, for example Leeds, York and Hull, with the branch's shipping address. The locations sync to SparkLayer.
On the company, click Manage locations, then Add a location for each branch, for example Leeds, York and Hull. For a business with regions, add each region first, then the branches inside it.
Each location uses the company's settings. Open a location at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies,Manage locations (in your Shopify admin) and change its Price list or Pay later only if that branch is different. See Add a location.
Orders for a location go to that location's address, so check each branch's address is right.
Make the buyer a company admin
Add the buyer's existing customer account to the company. They keep the same login.
On the company in Shopify, add the buyer as a contact. They sync to SparkLayer as one of the company's people.
On the company's page at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin), add the buyer's account to the company's people.
Then, on the company's page in SparkLayer, tick the buyer as one of the Admins under People. Choose them as the Main contact too if they should get the company's order and invoice emails. Click Save.
Admins can order for every location, so you don't need to add the buyer to each one.
Add branch staff, if they order themselves
Optional. If people at a branch sign in and order today, add them to the company the same way as the buyer: as contacts in Shopify, or as people on the company in SparkLayer. Then open their location in SparkLayer and, under People, add them and choose a role:
| Role | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Buyer | Staff who order for their branch |
| Approver | Staff who check and approve orders before they're placed |
| Manager | A branch manager who also manages the branch's people |
See Add people to a location. People only see the locations they're added to.
Check the buyer can order for every branch
Sign in to your store as the buyer, or ask them to. The location chip in the widget's top bar shows a location. Click it, and Choose a location lists every branch.
Pick a branch and add a product. The cart shows that branch's prices, and checkout delivers to its address. See How buyers order for a location.
Remove their sales agent access
Once the buyer can order through the company, go to SparkLayer Wholesale,Sales agents (in your Shopify admin), click their name, choose Customer under Role and click Save.
They keep their account and their company access, and the sales agent place is free for someone on your team. See Change or remove a sales agent.
Tidy up the old set-up
Once you're happy:
- Clear the sales agent group from each branch account's
sparklayer.sales_agent_groupsmetafield, and remove the choice, such asnorthside-cafes, from the metafield's definition. - Delete the custom role at SparkLayer Wholesale,Sales agents,Roles (in your Shopify admin) if no one else uses it. Used by shows "No one".
- Keep the old branch accounts until you've checked their order history.
Check it worked
- The company's page at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin) lists the buyer under Admins, and the Locations card names every branch.
- The Sales agents screen at SparkLayer Wholesale,Sales agents (in your Shopify admin) no longer lists the buyer, and the "used" count on Your agents has gone down by 1.
- The buyer signs in and sees the location chip, not a My Customers tab.
- A test order for one branch shows that branch's prices and address, and the confirmation names the branch.
If something's not right
- The buyer sees "No location". They're not an admin and haven't been added to a location. Tick them under Admins on the company. See Why can't someone see a location?
- The buyer isn't in the Admins list. They're not in the company yet. Add them as a contact of the company in Shopify, or to the company's people at SparkLayer Wholesale,Companies (in your Shopify admin).
- The buyer still sees My Customers. They still have a sales agent role. Change it to Customer at SparkLayer Wholesale,Sales agents (in your Shopify admin), then ask them to sign out and back in.
- A branch has the wrong prices. Check the location's Price list, then the locations above it and the company. See Why don't the prices match the customer group's price list?
- The buyer can't pay on account. Pay later is off on that location, or the level above it.
FAQs
No, the old set-up keeps working. We recommend companies because they don't use a sales agent place, they keep the buyer to their own business without a sales agent group, and they let you set prices and terms once for every branch.
Yes. Choose them under Sales agents who look after them on the company, or leave Any sales agent. A sales agent can order for any of the company's locations.
No. They sign in with the same account and email as before. Instead of choosing a customer, they choose a location.
Yes. Add them to their branch's location and nowhere else. Only company admins see every location.
No. A company has one credit limit, shared by every location. Each location shows what it owes, and Financials shows how much of the company's limit is left.
Companies is only on Shopify. On other platforms, company users let several people share one account, or keep the restricted sales agent set-up.
Next steps
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