What are Business Units?
Business Units let you partition your Akeneo instance by brand, subsidiary, or organizational entity. Each Business Unit gets its own set of users and product grid views, so each team works in a scoped, relevant workspace without being distracted by data that does not concern them.
For example, a company running two brands ("Brand A" and "Brand B") can create one Business Unit per brand. Each brand team sees only the grid views relevant to their products, and Business Unit Admins manage only the users in their own scope.
Business Units are available as part of the Multi Business Units add-on, for customers on the Advanced or Premium package. Contact your Akeneo representative to have it enabled on your instance.
What changes for users
Once Business Units are configured, users in a Business Unit experience the following:
- Scoped grid views: Public product grid views assigned to their Business Unit appear in their view selector. Views from other Business Units are hidden.
- Scoped user management: Business Unit Admins can only see and manage users and User Groups within their own Business Unit scope.
Users who are not part of any Business Unit are not affected: they continue to see all public views and all users they have permission to manage.
Key concepts
Business Unit
A Business Unit represents a distinct organizational entity within your instance, such as a brand, a subsidiary, or a regional team. Each Business Unit has its own set of users and grid views, keeping each team's workspace focused and separate from others running on the same instance.
User Groups and access
A Business Unit does not grant access directly to individual users. Instead, it is linked to one or more User Groups. Every user in a linked User Group is automatically part of that Business Unit. A user can belong to multiple Business Units through different User Groups.
Users not included in any User Group linked to a Business Unit are unaffected by Business Unit scoping.
Scoped grid views
When creating a public product grid view, users can assign it to a Business Unit. That view then only appears in the view selector for users whose User Groups are linked to that Business Unit. Super Admins can see all views regardless of Business Unit assignment.
Roles and permissions
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
Super Admin (user role) |
Create, edit, and delete Business Units. Link and unlink User Groups. See all Business Units, all users, and all grid views across the instance. |
| Business Unit user | See and manage users and User Groups within their own Business Unit scope. Create public grid views scoped to their Business Units. Can only see grid views assigned to their Business Units. |
A user becomes a Business Unit user by being added to a User Group that is linked to a Business Unit. There is no separate role to assign manually.