Who can create and send emails
This article explains which staff accounts can manage templates and send emails, and what a custom role needs.
Administrators and Shop managers
Managing templates and sending emails need the WooCommerce permission to manage the store, the manage_woocommerce capability. Two roles have it by default:
- Administrator
- Shop manager
A user with one of these roles can see the Order Emails menu, create, edit and delete templates, preview and test them, and send emails from the Orders list, from an order, or in bulk. Other built-in roles, such as Editor or Customer, can do none of this.
Custom roles
If your store uses a custom role for staff, the simplest way to give it access is to base it on the Shop manager role. A role built from scratch needs these capabilities, which a role editor plugin can add:
| Capability | What it allows |
|---|---|
manage_woocommerce |
Everything in the Order Emails menu: creating, editing, publishing and deleting templates, previews and test emails, and sending emails to customers. |
upload_files |
Choosing an attachment or adding images with Add Media. |
| WooCommerce’s order capabilities | Opening WooCommerce → Orders and the order screens, where emails are sent from. |
A user who can open the Orders list but lacks manage_woocommerce doesn’t see the Custom Email column, its filter links, the bulk actions or the Custom Email box on the order screen.
Keep in mind that manage_woocommerce is a broad permission: it also opens WooCommerce’s own settings.
Who sent what
Each send records the display name of the staff member who sent it, shown in the order’s History. See Seeing which orders got an email.