One access level, None, View, or Full, sits against every part of the product on a single grid. Set a feature to None and nobody in that role sees it.
Built by a WooCommerce operator who needed it themselves.
Which screens open, which figures show, and which buttons work all come from the same setting.
Hiding a column on screen still sends the number to the browser. Inventory Alpha doesn't send it. A role without the cost and profit grants won't see cost or profit on screen, and there is nothing behind the page to find.
Every row on a new role sits at None, all 30 of them. Moving one to View gives a role the read. Moving it to Full gives create, edit, and delete, and the read comes with it. Nothing takes hold until Save is pressed.
Where one feature depends on another, the second switches on by itself. Setting Receive Items to Full moves Purchase Orders to View. The chain runs as far as it needs to. Nothing on the grid has to be worked out in advance.
Eight groups sit on the Permissions card, each named after a page in the product: Business Overview, Orders, Stock, Purchase Orders and four more. All eight start open. A click on any header folds that group's rows out of view. The rest of the card stays in place.
The same field can be editable for one role, read-only for another, and not there at all for a third. Each member of staff meets the version their own role holds. Whether the page opens at all is settled by the same grant.
Filling a role again reuses the setup already done. Only the person changes, role and access stay as built.
Press Create Role and name it after the job, Warehouse Manager or Accountant. Role Description is optional free text. The list starts empty on a new install, and every role on it is one the store defined.
Open the Permissions card and work down the rows, marking each feature at the level the role needs. Nothing is written while you click. Press Create and the name, the description, and the whole grant set commit in one go.
Click Add Users, filter by name or email, and tick whoever is joining. Anyone already in another role shows as taken, with the role they hold visible. Press Save and the new starter picks up the role's access as it already stands.
Five pages nest a Summary Metrics row separately: Orders, Stock, Manage Suppliers, Inventory Movement, Customer Analytics.
Across the product, a denied button always carries the same fixed tooltip line.
Saving a change that removes your own access to roles shows a warning, with Cancel to back out.
Pick Stock → Cost in the Access filter and the list shows every role that can see cost.
Your save stops and tells you someone else changed the role while you had it open.
Delete Role reads "This will unassign 5 users from this role" before the confirm.
Two people with different jobs can open the same WordPress admin and read two different truths from the same order. A picker sees what needs packing and where it sits. An accountant, given the grant, also sees what the item cost and what the order made. The store keeps one order record, not a separate cut-down copy for the picker; the picker's version of it simply carries no cost or profit figure.
Each time anyone saves a change to the order, the same grant is checked again, fresh against the server rather than whatever the screen last showed. A request aimed straight at the order, bypassing the usual page, meets exactly the same check. The cost and profit figures are held back at the server, before the picker's browser is ever sent them. What arrives is already the picker's version.
Shop Manager is one switch for the whole store. These rows are about the 30 you get instead.
| Capability | Default WooCommerce | ATUM Inventory | Shelf Planner | Inventory Alpha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Named roles built without leaving the plugin | ||||
| None, View, or Full on every feature | ||||
| Assign staff from a filterable user picker | ||||
| See each person's role on the Users list | ||||
| Cost and margin hidden from chosen staff | ||||
| Dependent permissions switch on for you |
No data migration, no separate dashboard. Inventory Alpha installs as a standard plugin and reads your existing WooCommerce orders and products.
Have a question we didn't cover? Contact our team →
Shop Manager is a single WooCommerce role that covers the whole store as one unit, with no separate level for any one area. Inventory Alpha sets each part of the product on its own, at None, View, or Full, on the role assigned to a member of staff. That per-part setting decides which page that person opens and what they can do on it.
Have a question we didn't cover? Contact our team →
Stock ManagementReorder levels, costs, bulk edit
Purchase OrdersLow stock → ordered → received
Customer AnalyticsSpend, AOV, and churn risk
DashboardThe whole business on one screen
SuppliersWho you buy from, at what cost
Movement LogWhy a stock number changed
AdjustmentsCorrect stock by hand, logged
ReportsDrag-and-drop report builder
Sales & OrdersProfit per order, pick and pack
Name a role after a job and set its levels once. Drop a new starter into that role, and access, screens, and figures fall into place on their own.