> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.peakcommerce.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.peakcommerce.com/product/using-peakcommerce/users-and-user-roles/user-roles.md). # User Roles Every user has a **role** and a **profile**, and the two do different jobs. The **role** sets the broad kind of access a person has — which portal they sign in to and the overall experience they get. The **profile** fine-tunes the specific permissions *within* that role — what they can actually see and do. Understanding the split matters because the role alone never grants detailed permissions; the profile always does. You set both when you create or edit a user (**Settings → Users → Add User**), and you manage permission profiles separately in **Settings → Profiles**. ## The five roles | Role | For | | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Admin** | Tenant administrators who configure the platform — catalog, content, journeys, integrations, users, profiles, and settings. | | **CSR** | Customer service reps who work their assigned customer accounts — search, view, assist with subscriptions and orders, and respond to support cases. | | **Sales** | Sales reps who work their assigned book of business from their own **Sales portal** — an account workspace kept separate from support, so sales access and screens can be managed and evolved independently of the CSR portal. Sales users start from the seeded *Sales Default* profile, which gives a new sales team similar coverage to CSR support staff but is managed on its own. | | **Partner** | Resellers and channel partners who manage their assigned customers from the partner portal. | | **Customer** | End customers managing their own account and subscriptions in the customer portal. | The role list is fixed — these five are the only roles. (Customer and Partner users also get an **External Account** link to a billing account; Admin, CSR, and Sales users do not.) ## How the profile fine-tunes the role Roles are broad; **profiles** carry the detailed permissions. Each user is assigned exactly one profile, and you can create several profiles per role — for example a *CSR Senior* profile with refund permissions alongside a *CSR Junior* profile without them. The same applies to Sales — every tenant starts with a *Sales Default* profile (seeded with similar coverage to *CSR Default*, managed independently); create additional Sales profiles the same way you would for CSR if you need finer-grained variants. When you change a user's role, you reselect their profile, since profiles belong to a specific role. **Gotcha:** picking the role is only half the job. A user with the right role but a thin profile may still be missing the permissions they expect — check the profile, not just the role. See [Profiles & Permissions](/product/using-peakcommerce/profiles-and-permissions.md) and [Portal action permissions](/product/using-peakcommerce/profiles-and-permissions/portal-action-permissions.md). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.peakcommerce.com/product/using-peakcommerce/users-and-user-roles/user-roles.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.