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# Delegate — overview

**Where:** Your OnAccount admin + your buyers' customer accounts + your online store **Who:** You turn it on once; your B2B **company admins** run it day to day

Delegate lets your B2B customers **manage themselves**. A company can invite its own staff, decide which of *your* locations each person can buy from, set spending limits, and require approval on larger orders — all from inside their customer account, without emailing you. You stay in control of the master switches; they handle the day-to-day.

It's built around a **two-tier model**:

- **You (the merchant)** decide *which* companies get self-service, choose *which features* each one gets, assign each one a **company admin**, and can switch any of it off at any time. You also own the **company locations** (they're Shopify B2B, and they control which catalog and prices a buyer sees) and get a store-wide audit log.
- **The company admin** (your customer) manages *their* staff, spend rules, and approval flows, and assigns each staff member to the locations you've set up — but never creates or edits the locations themselves.

Delegate isn't a single on/off switch — it's a **self-service portal made of three feature modules** you grant per company: **Staff management**, **Purchase rules & approvals**, and **Payments**. You set what every company gets by default and override any company individually (see [Choose which features each company gets](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/set-up-delegate-3mslt1/#2-choose-which-features-each-company-gets-feature-modules)). The **Payments** module also hosts two things covered in these guides: a **Finance** role for the people who settle invoices, and the **monthly outstanding statement** emailed to a company's accounts-payable contacts.

> Delegate's modules map to OnAccount plans: **Staff management** and **Purchase rules & approvals** are on the **Governance** plan; the **Payments** module (lump-sum payments, monthly statements, and the Finance role) is on the **Payments** plan. Delegate relies on Shopify's native **B2B** (Companies, Locations, contacts), so the [Getting started](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/getting-started-1n8p534/) B2B setup is a prerequisite. **Collecting** payments (lump-sum + buyer self-pay) additionally requires **Shopify Plus**; monthly statements work on any store — see [Customer-account payments](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/let-buyers-pay-invoices-from-their-account-6rsgfw/).

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## The pieces, and why each matters

Delegate is **one console plus its enforcement**, and *which* parts you need depends on the **feature modules** you grant each company. The console is always the hub. The two storefront enforcement parts exist **only to serve the Purchase rules & approvals module** — a company that only uses **Staff management** or **Payments** needs neither.

| Part | What it does | Needed for | If it's off |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Turn on Delegate + assign a company admin** | Chooses which companies are governed and who runs each one | Every company (a **Payments-only** company needs no admin — see below) | Delegate off → no company is governed, every console disappears. No admin → the staff/rules console is unreachable, but a Payments-only company stays reachable by a Finance contact |
| **Delegate console** (customer-account page) | The self-service UI: staff, rules, approvals, requests, payments | Every company | Admins and buyers have nowhere to manage or track anything |
| **Delegate gate** (theme app embed) | Shows buyers when a cart needs approval and blocks storefront checkout | **Purchase rules & approvals** only | No wall is shown, and there's **no way to submit** a cart for approval |
| **Delegate checkout rule** (checkout validation) | Server-side backstop so the wall can't be bypassed | **Purchase rules & approvals** only | The wall is client-side only and **can be bypassed** at checkout |

> **If you use Purchase rules & approvals**, the two enforcement parts — the **gate embed** and the **checkout rule** — are the pair that makes approvals binding. Turn on **both**: the embed alone can be worked around, and the rule alone has nothing to act on. If you're only using **Staff management** or **Payments**, skip them.

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## How these guides are organized

Delegate has a lot of moving parts, so it's split across several pages:

- **[Set up Delegate](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/set-up-delegate-3mslt1/)** — turn it on, assign company admins, add the console, wire up storefront enforcement, and choose each company's feature modules.
- **[Staff, roles & the Finance role](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/staff-roles-the-finance-role-1i5oblp/)** — what a company admin manages: staff, location access, and who can settle invoices.
- **[Spend rules & approval flows](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/spend-rules-approval-flows-8p03l0/)** — how admins set limits and build approval chains.
- **[What your buyers experience](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/what-your-buyers-experience-13qel7o/)** — the staff buyer, the approver, and the emails they get.
- **[Audit logs & monthly statements](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/audit-logs-monthly-statements-3fh8x2/)** — the store-wide audit trail and the monthly outstanding-order statement.
- **[Test & troubleshoot Delegate](https://molsoft.crisp.help/en/article/test-troubleshoot-delegate-1h2qtzb/)** — a quick end-to-end test and a fix-it table.