Shopify Agency Client Onboarding Checklist: Access to First Week
A practical checklist for onboarding a new client Shopify store at an agency: access, permissions, an inventory of apps and theme, baseline exports and sign-off.
In this guide
A new client store arrives with history you did not see: apps someone installed two years ago, a theme with edits nobody documented, a stock sync that only one person understands. If your team starts changing things in week one without a picture of what is there, the first problem the client reports will be one you cannot explain.
This checklist covers the first two weeks with a new client store: getting access the right way, recording what exists, taking a baseline you can compare against, agreeing who approves what, and the checks to run once your team starts working.
It assumes you already know how collaborator accounts and staff limits work. If not, read agency access to client Shopify stores first; this post does not repeat it.
Step 1: Request access the right way
Most agencies reach a client store through a collaborator account. A few details matter on day one (Shopify Help Center):
- The client finds a 4-digit collaborator request code in their admin under Settings > Users, then Security. You enter it when you submit the request.
- If the client generates a new code, older codes stop working. Ask for the code when you are ready to send the request, not weeks earlier.
- Only the store owner or a user with the Administrator role can accept a request on a single store.
- Each request gets an auto-generated role based on the permissions you asked for, and the client can edit or rename it before accepting.
- Collaborators must have two-step authentication turned on, or they can’t log in.
- Collaborators can’t get the Administrator role, and access expires if nobody logs in within 90 days.
Ask for the permissions the work needs
Write the permission request from the scope of work, not from habit. A theme project needs theme access; a catalog clean-up needs products; a promotion needs discounts. Shopify itself advises giving sensitive permissions only to your most trusted users (Shopify Help Center).
| Work you were hired for | Permissions to request | Usually not needed |
|---|---|---|
| Theme and storefront | Online store, themes | Orders, customers, payments |
| Catalog and pricing | Products, inventory | Customers, payments |
| Promotions | Discounts, products (read) | Payments, staff |
| Order operations | Orders, fulfillment | Themes, apps |
| Ongoing retainer | Agree a role with the client in writing | Anything that moves money, unless agreed |
Refunds and other money moves are the permission to think hardest about. Decide with the client whether your team ever issues them, or only prepares them for the client to approve.
Keep your own access register
Each client store grants access separately, so keep one register on your side:
| Store | Who has access | Type (collaborator or staff) | Role | Granted on | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| client-a.myshopify.com | Name | Collaborator | Theme work | Date | Date |
Review it monthly and when someone leaves your team. It is also how you answer a client’s “who on your side can see our orders?” without guessing.
Step 2: Inventory what is already there
Before you change anything, write down what the store is made of. Spend an hour on this; it saves days later.
Apps
Go through Settings > Apps and record each installed app:
- What it does, in one line.
- Whether it writes to the store (stock, prices, orders, discounts) or only reads.
- Who at the client owns it and pays for it.
- Whether it is still used.
Apps that write are the ones that surprise you. A stock sync app, a pricing app or an app that creates discounts can undo your team’s work without anyone touching the admin. For more on this, see Shopify integrations that don’t break.
Theme
Record which theme is published, which other themes exist, and whether the live theme has custom code. Ask the client who edited it last and whether there is a copy outside Shopify.
Integrations and channels
List sales channels, the payment providers in use, shipping apps and carriers, the ERP or warehouse system if there is one, and any marketing tools connected to customer data. For each, note what data flows in which direction.
Discounts and automation
Look at active discounts and their combination settings. Shopify allows at most 25 active automatic discounts, including app discounts (Shopify Help Center), so a store close to that limit needs care before the next promotion. Note any Shopify Flow workflows and what they trigger.
Step 3: Take a baseline before you change anything
Shopify does not give you a one-click backup of a whole store. What you can do is export the data Shopify lets you export and keep it as your “before” picture.
Shopify supports CSV export for products, customers, inventory, admin and POS users, orders and discounts; orders and discounts are export only (Shopify Help Center).
| Baseline item | How | Why you want it |
|---|---|---|
| Products | Products > Export | Prices, compare-at prices, tags and variants before your edits |
| Inventory | Inventory export | Stock per location on day one |
| Discounts | Discounts export | Which codes existed and their settings |
| Customers | Customers export, only if the work needs it | Customer data is personal data; don’t export it out of habit |
| Orders | Orders export for a recent period | A reference if a question comes up about past orders |
| Theme | Online Store > theme menu > Download theme file | A copy of the code before anyone edits it |
A downloaded theme arrives as a .zip at the email of the staff login, and it does not include products, collections, menus, pages, blog posts or files (Shopify Help Center).
Store the baseline in a folder named after the store and the date, with access limited to the people on the account. If the product CSV is part of your work, the product CSV guide explains how rows, handles and variants map.
Step 4: Agree who approves what
Most agency-client friction is not about the work. It is about a change the client did not expect. Settle this in the first week and write it down.
| Change | Who prepares | Who approves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme publish | Agency | Client | Preview link first |
| Price changes | Agency | Client | Test on a few products |
| New or edited discount | Agency | Client | Check combinations |
| Stock adjustments | Client or agency | Client | Count before changing |
| Refunds, cancellations, captures | Client | Client owner | Agency prepares at most; chargebacks too |
| New app install | Agency proposes | Client | Note what it writes |
Two rules help:
- One place for pending changes. If approval requests come in email, chat and calls, some get lost. Pick one channel or tool and keep the decision next to the change.
- Record the decision. Who asked, who approved, what changed, when. See approval workflows for live Shopify stores for a fuller setup.
Step 5: Set up communication
Keep it boring and predictable:
- One named contact on each side, plus a backup for holidays.
- A response time you both agree on for normal requests and for “the store is broken.”
- A weekly summary: what changed, what is pending, what you need from them.
- Order or stock alerts if your team needs to react to them. If you send them to a chat tool, keep buyer contact data out of the channel; see Shopify order alerts in Discord and Telegram.
If the store is going into a peak season soon, agree now when changes stop. A freeze before Black Friday is easier to agree in October than in November; see a change freeze for Shopify stores before Black Friday.
Step 6: First-week checks
Once the work starts, check these at the end of week one:
- Access works and is not wider than agreed. Each person on your team can do their part, and nothing else.
- No unknown writer. Compare a few prices, stock levels and discounts against the baseline. If something changed that nobody on either side changed, look at the apps that write.
- Discounts still combine as intended. Shopify lets a customer use up to 5 product or order discount codes and 1 shipping code on the same order, and discounts combine only when each one’s settings allow it (Shopify Help Center).
- The change record matches reality. Every change in your record has an approval, and every change in the store is in your record.
- The client got a summary. Even a short one.
Onboarding checklist
Copy this into your project tool:
- Collaborator request sent with a fresh request code
- Permissions match the scope of work
- Access register updated
- Apps listed, with which ones write to the store
- Theme, channels, payment providers and integrations recorded
- Active discounts and automations recorded
- Baseline exports taken and stored with limited access
- Theme file downloaded
- Approval table agreed and written down
- Contacts, response times and weekly summary agreed
- Freeze dates agreed if peak season is near
- First-week checks done
When you run many client stores
Each client store is its own admin and its own set of permissions, so this checklist runs per store. In Storefleet for agencies, you link each client store to one workspace and group stores by client. Staff can be limited to the screens and stores you choose, and every pending stock, discount or refund change across your client stores sits in one Approvals list, where each change belongs to one store and is approved for that store. After writing, StoreFleet reads the store back from Shopify and rolls back where Shopify allows; refunds, cancellations and captures are owner-only in the web dashboard. Nothing syncs between client stores automatically. For running several stores in general, see how to manage multiple Shopify stores.
FAQ
Should an agency use a collaborator account or a staff account?
Collaborator accounts are the usual route. They don’t count toward the client’s staff limit, and the client controls the request code and the role. A staff account makes sense when the client wants your person to have a named seat on their team, within their plan’s user limit.
Can we back up the whole Shopify store before we start?
Not with one Shopify button. Export the data Shopify lets you export, such as products, inventory, customers, orders and discounts, and download the theme file. Theme downloads don’t include products, pages, menus or files.
What if the client wants us to handle refunds?
Agree it in writing and decide whether your team issues refunds or only prepares them for the client to approve. Refunds can’t be reversed once issued, so many clients keep them with the owner.
How often should we review access?
Monthly is a reasonable rhythm, plus whenever someone leaves your team or a project ends. Collaborator access also expires after 90 days without a login, so a review catches accounts that are about to lapse.
What should go in the first weekly summary?
What you changed, what is waiting for the client’s approval, anything unexpected you found during the inventory, and what you need from them next week.