Knowledgebase

For customers with a CMS-based website (such as WordPress), a wide range of content can be managed by logging into the website's dashboard. To maintain security and stability, access is granted based on specific user roles.

Access Levels Explained

• Customer / Subscriber: Usually reserved for your own customers or site members.

• Contributor / Author: A basic level of access, typically used for writing and submitting blog posts.

• Editor: Access to most core content functions. Editors can update pages, text, images, and blogs, but cannot install plugins or alter core settings.

• Shop Manager: Access to all Editor-level functions, plus e-commerce and order data (cannot install plugins).

• Admin Team: Access to all day-to-day functions except Super Admin.

• Super Admin: Full, unrestricted access to the entire system, core code, and site configurations.

For most day-to-day operations, the Editor or Shop Manager role provides all the tools required to manage your content. If you require additional access—such as the ability to install plugins—we can provision Admin Team level access. Please note that with Admin Team access, the user assumes responsibility for any issues caused by configuration changes, and repairs will be subject to standard support fees.

Is Access Restricted?

If you have contracted Purple Dog to manage your website security and maintenance (such as our Club Purple members or those on a dedicated maintenance agreement), access is typically set to Editor or Admin Team level.

Full Super Admin access is restricted by default so that we can successfully deliver our Service Level Agreement (SLA). This restriction allows us to:

• Simplify your experience: Hiding complex technical settings keeps the dashboard clean and focused on content management.

• Prevent accidental downtime: It eliminates the risk of inadvertent changes breaking the site layout or functionality.

• Ensure service consistency: It allows us to deliver a reliable, high-quality management service.

• Maintain enhanced security: It protects the site from core vulnerabilities and unauthorized access.

Do I Need Super Admin Access?

Platforms like WordPress offer millions of third-party plugins and themes. While this flexibility is a great feature of open-source software, the vast majority of these add-ons are unregulated and untested by a centralised body.

In our experience, a significant number of these tools are poorly coded. Installing them can lead to software conflicts, performance drops, or severe security vulnerabilities (such as hacking, data breaches, and spam).

Your website has been carefully configured, optimized, and tested to work in a very specific environment. This is particularly critical for e-commerce or booking sites, where backend settings are highly sensitive. Making untested modifications can have immediate, unintended consequences that destabilise the site. Reverting these changes is often complex and time-consuming.

Requesting Super Admin Access

In 99% of cases, full Super Admin access is not required to run a successful website. If you have a specific task or integration that requires temporary administrative access, it is usually much safer and more efficient to let us handle it for you. If you are on a management plan, this is often covered at no additional cost.

However, if you require full Super Admin access permanently, we can provide this upon agreement to a transfer of liability. Because we cannot control or monitor changes made to the backend, the following terms will apply immediately upon granting access:

• Voiding of SLAs: All ongoing maintenance, security, and uptime obligations (SLAs) previously agreed with Purple Dog will become void.

• Best Endeavours Basis: We may choose to continue delivering elements of your management service, but this will be done on a "best endeavours" basis without any warranty or guarantee of effectiveness.

• Licences & Proprietary Software: To protect intellectual property, security, and compliance, we reserve the right to restrict, remove, or relocate certain proprietary software, licence keys, or API codes included in your managed plan. This may affect site performance or prevent certain plugins from updating automatically.

• Client Responsibility: Unless proven otherwise, any technical issues, vulnerabilities, data breaches, or downtime that develop following the provision of admin access will be entirely your responsibility.

• Support & Repairs: We reserve the right to decline further technical assistance. If we do choose to assist with repairs or troubleshooting, all work will be billed at our Standard Non-Maintained Rates. Emergency assistance cannot be guaranteed and, where available, will be billed at our Emergency Non-Maintained Rate.

Next Steps

Super Admin access carries significant operational and legal responsibilities—especially for complex e-commerce or API-integrated sites. We strongly encourage you to review whether this level of access is strictly necessary for your team.

If you still wish to proceed, please please open a support ticket from your account dashboard to begin the transfer process.