v5.16 is here — the free core is unlimited — no trial clock — with Pro as an add-on.Changelog
Operating manual

Volant B2B Manager Suite documentation

Everything lives under Admin → Volant B2B Manager Suite. Each module is independent — configure only the ones you use.

Doc 01 · Setup

Installation

  1. Upload the zip via Plugins → Add New → Upload. (Directory listing is pending review.)
  2. Activate it from Plugins → Installed Plugins.
  3. Open Volant B2B Manager Suite in the admin sidebar.
WooCommerce must be active — the plugin waits politely and shows a notice if it isn't.
Doc 02 · Overview

The dashboard

The Feature Status panel shows which modules are live, with direct links to the pages where your shortcodes were detected. Amber usually means a shortcode hasn't been placed on a published page yet.

The dashboard also shows recent orders, Net Terms activity (Pro), and the number of BOMs your customers have built.

Doc 03 · Accounts

Customer roles & the Role Manager

A buyer's whole experience — homepage, catalog, stock visibility, payment terms — is defined by their role. Volant B2B Manager Suite ships its own Role Manager (Settings → Roles), so you can build wholesale tiers without a separate role-editor plugin. It also plays fine with roles you already have: every role picker in the plugin lists customer, wholesale_buyer, or anything another plugin registered.

Creating roles

Type a name — "Wholesale", "VIP Distributor" — and the role is created as an exact permissions clone of a WooCommerce customer. Roles made here are labels for your pricing and access rules; they never grant admin powers. Create as many as your pricing needs — there is no limit.

Renaming & deleting

Rename any time — the slug (what your rules key on) stays stable, so nothing breaks. Deleting a role asks where its members should go and migrates every user first; nobody is ever left role-less. If you ever uninstall the plugin entirely, the same cleanup runs automatically: members move to customer and the roles are removed.

Who has a role & the bulk assigner

Each role row expands to show its members — avatar, name, email, each linking to the user's profile — with a one-click jump to the filtered Users screen. Below that, the bulk assigner searches your customers by name or email; tick any number of them, pick a role, assign in one action. Safety is structural: your own account and anyone who can edit content (admins, editors, authors) never even appear in the results.

Doc 04 · Module BOM-01

BOM builder

Adding the builder to a page

Place the shortcode on any published page:

[volant_b2b_bom]

Logged-in customers can create named BOMs, browse by category tab, search by name or SKU, pick variations, and add the entire list to their cart in one click.

Settings

  • Picker style — centered modal; a slide-in panel is available with Pro.
  • Product images / hide out-of-stock — control what the picker shows.
  • Cart mode — merge duplicate products across BOMs (with a per-BOM breakdown shown in cart), or keep each BOM's items on separate cart lines.
  • Checkout button — optionally send buyers straight to checkout after adding.

Order linking

Orders placed from a BOM are linked back to it — buyers see each BOM's order history, and stock or availability problems are reported per line instead of failing the whole cart.

Doc 05 · Module ORD-01

Orders page

Add it with the shortcode:

[volant_b2b_orders]

Buyers get a styled order history with two reorder paths: Reorder repeats the whole order at original quantities; Edit & reorder opens a modal to adjust quantities first. Out-of-stock or non-purchasable items are skipped with a clear note rather than blocking the rest.

Stats panel

Optionally show buyers their totals: spend, order count, average order, top products, most active month, last order date, and favorite category — each stat toggles individually in settings. Stats are cached per customer and refresh automatically when their orders change.

Doc 06 · Modules HOME-01 / LOGIN-01

Role homepages & login redirect

Assign a different front page per role under Homepage & Login. The swap happens before the page query runs — no redirect, no flash, and canonical URLs stay correct. Only the site root is affected; every inner page is untouched.

The login redirect sends buyers to the homepage (pairing naturally with role homepages), to a custom URL, or leaves WooCommerce's default behavior.

Doc 06a · Editions

Free vs Pro — what's what

The free plugin is fully functional, never expires, and has no plan limits: unlimited parts lists and items in the BOM builder, and unlimited custom roles in the Role Manager. Generous safety ceilings (50 lists / 200 items, adjustable by filter) protect your database, and Pro screens in the admin are readable previews — never blurred.

Pro adds the modules marked · Pro in this index: net payment terms with credit limits, category access and stock visibility per role, edit-first reordering, BOM-to-order linking, and the buyer stats panel.

Everything the free plugin stores — lists, settings, roles — carries over untouched when Pro is added. Pro extends the free core; it never replaces it.
Doc 06b · Setup

Kit Builder — product bundles PRO

Turn any product into a bundle of components. Edit a product → Product data → Kit Builder, search for products or specific variations and pick them — they're added instantly with drag-to-reorder and duplicate protection. Variable products work as bundle parents too: every variation can carry its own component list, or inherit the parent's.

Auto pricing (optional) prices the bundle as the sum of its components × quantities, respecting component sale prices. Stock sync reduces component stock on sale and restores it on cancellation or refund — with order notes, never double-counted. The storefront gets a "What's included" section (grid or compact list, customizable heading), and each bundle line shows its components on the cart, checkout, order pages, and every order email — classic and Blocks checkout alike.

Installing Pro

Pro is an add-on: the free plugin stays installed and active. After purchase you receive the Pro zip and a license key by email.

  1. In wp-admin go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and upload b2b-manager-pro.zip.
  2. Activate it. A new License tab appears inside Volant B2B Manager Suite, and the dashboard header switches to the Pro plan chip.
  3. Enter your license key on the License tab (next section) to enable updates and priority support.
Pro requires the free plugin — if the free core is missing or below the minimum version, Pro stays dormant and shows an admin notice telling you exactly what to do.
Doc 06c · Licensing

Your license

Open Volant B2B Manager → License, paste the key from your purchase email (format B2BM-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) and press Activate license. The tab always shows your current standing: status, renewal date, and activations in use — for example “2 of 5 sites”.

Moving a license between sites

Press Deactivate on this site and the slot frees instantly — activate the same key on the next site. Staging to production takes a minute and needs no support ticket. Fair use: one key can only ever touch a limited number of different domains (several times your plan's site count), which stops key sharing without ever affecting normal moves. If a rebuild or domain change hits the cap, support resets it.

If the license expires

The plugin keeps working — every feature, untouched. An active license is what delivers updates and priority support; renew whenever you want those back.

Doc 06d · Maintenance

Updates & changelog

With an active license, Pro updates arrive through the normal WordPress flow: they appear under Dashboard → Updates and on the Plugins screen, and install with one click like any other plugin. WordPress checks about twice a day; the Check for updates now button on the License tab forces an immediate check after a new release.

View details on the Plugins screen opens the release notes for the pending version — the same changelog we publish, delivered straight from our license server.

Sites without a valid license simply stop receiving updates — the installed version keeps running. That's the whole licensing model: features are never locked, maintenance is what you renew for.
Doc 07 · Module NT-01

Net payment terms Pro

Enabling terms for a customer

Open the customer's profile in Users and tick Enable Net Terms. Choose their term (Net 15 / 30 / 45 — or any schedule you define under Volant B2B Manager → Net Terms) and an optional credit limit.

How credit limits are enforced

At checkout, the order total is checked against the buyer's available credit (limit minus outstanding balance on open orders). If it fits, the order is placed on account with its due date recorded; if not, the buyer sees exactly how much credit is available. Works in both classic and Blocks checkout.

Early-payment discounts

Optionally offer a percentage discount for invoices settled within a set number of days — shown to the buyer at checkout and on the order.

Credit applications

Link an application form (for example a PDF) and unapproved buyers see an "apply for terms" notice at checkout instead of the payment method.

Recording payment & open balances

Net Terms orders are regular WooCommerce orders — the payment method and due date sit right on the order. An order counts against the buyer's credit while it's open; the moment you record payment (complete the order or mark it paid), it drops out of their outstanding balance and that credit is available again.

To review what's outstanding, filter WooCommerce → Orders by the Net Terms payment method — each order shows its due date, so overdue invoices are easy to spot. The Volant B2B Manager Suite dashboard also surfaces recent Net Terms activity.

My Account widget

Approved buyers see their limit, balance, and available credit on the My Account dashboard.

Doc 08 · Module CAT-01

Category access Pro

Choose which product categories are available globally, then subtract categories per role (a blocklist model — a category hidden for any of a user's roles stays hidden). Enforcement covers the BOM builder, its search and AJAX endpoints, and category archive pages — restricted visitors are redirected to the shop page.

Featured categories

Mark categories as featured — globally or per role — and they appear first as tabs in the BOM picker.

Doc 09 · Module STK-01

Stock visibility Pro

Tick the roles that should see stock status on the storefront; everyone else has availability text and stock-driven styling hidden. Store managers always see inventory, and WooCommerce's own cart and checkout validation is never interfered with — carts still respect real stock.

Doc 09 · Presentation

Layouts

Both buyer-facing pages can change how they look without changing how they work. Pick a layout under Volant B2B Manager → Orders Page → Layout and Volant B2B Manager → BOM Builder → Layout. Every layout shares the same data, reorder logic, cart-conflict handling and brand color — only the presentation changes, so switching is always safe.

Orders page

The free plugin ships Classic (stacked order cards). Pro adds Compact Table — text-only dense rows for buyers who live in their history; Timeline — a slim chronological ledger grouped by month; and Cards Grid — order cards three abreast with capped, scrollable item lists.

BOM builder

Free ships Classic. Pro adds Spreadsheet — imageless zebra rows with keyboard-friendly steppers; Visual Grid — image-forward tiles, five across on wide screens; and Quote Sheet — an airy document view where the controls fade until you reach for them, and printing hides them entirely, so File → Print produces a parts list ready to share for approval.

If Pro is ever deactivated while a Pro layout is selected, both pages fall back to Classic automatically — nothing breaks, nothing goes blank.

Doc 10 · Reference

Shortcodes

  • [volant_b2b_bom] — the BOM builder
  • [volant_b2b_orders] — the orders / fast-reorder page

Place each on a published page; the dashboard detects them automatically and links straight to the live pages.

Doc 11 · Reference

Developer reference

Adjust behavior with WordPress filters — add them to a child theme's functions.php or a small custom plugin.

Raise or lower the BOM limits

// BOMs allowed per customer (default 50) add_filter( 'volant_b2b_bom_max_per_user', function () { return 100; } ); // Line items allowed per BOM (default 200) add_filter( 'volant_b2b_bom_max_items', function () { return 500; } );

Disable remote notices (Pro)

add_filter( 'volant_b2b_pro_remote_notices_enabled', '__return_false' );

Disable the deactivation feedback modal

add_filter( 'volant_b2b_manager_deactivation_feedback_enabled', '__return_false' );
Doc 12 · Compliance

Requirements & data

  • WordPress 6.0+ · WooCommerce 7.0+ · PHP 7.4+
  • Compatible with WooCommerce HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) and the Blocks cart/checkout — both declared.
  • Translation-ready — a complete .pot template ships in /languages.

Where data lives

  • Settings: a single option, plus per-feature options for homepages and stock visibility.
  • BOMs: three dedicated database tables.
  • Net Terms: per-customer user meta; orders are regular WooCommerce orders.
Deactivating keeps everything. Deleting the plugin removes all of its data — options, tables, caches, and customer meta — only if you opt in under General → Delete data on uninstall. A customer's BOMs are removed automatically if their account is deleted.
Doc 13 · Revision register

Changelog

5.7.0
2026-08
  • No more plan limits — unlimited items and roles in the free plugin; the caps and all their machinery were removed. Lists keep only a filterable safety ceiling (50 per customer) against runaway data.
  • BOM behavior settings (picker images, out-of-stock visibility, variable products, cart lines) moved to Pro; the free builder uses sensible defaults, adjustable via filters.
5.6.0
2026-08
  • Layouts — the orders page and BOM builder each gained a layout system: one free Classic plus three Pro layouts per page, including a print-ready Quote Sheet.
  • Settings polish: layout pickers lead both tabs, per-page settings became single-line rows.
  • Hardened free-plan capacity checks.
5.4.0
2026-08
  • Role Manager — create, rename and delete wholesale roles from Settings → Roles; deleting migrates every member first, and uninstalling cleans up after itself.
  • Bulk assigner — search customers and assign a tier in one action; admin and editor accounts are structurally untouchable.
  • Pro admin screens are now readable previews with a full-width upgrade hero — the blur is gone.
  • Buyers at a BOM limit see plain guidance; upgrade messaging is shown to store managers only.
  • Consistency pass: one info-notice style on every tab, unified control heights, SVG icon set.
5.0.0
2026-07
  • Free + Pro architecture: the free core ships on WordPress.org; Pro installs alongside it.
  • Pro licensing: activation slots per plan, self-serve site moves, updates & changelog delivered through wp-admin.
  • All product categories are now visible by default; Pro adds per-role restriction.
  • Admin UI consistency pass — brand-color aware across every screen.
4.10.0
2026-07
  • Declared WooCommerce HPOS and Blocks cart/checkout compatibility.
  • Translation-ready: full .pot template, translator comments on every placeholder string.
  • New developer filters: volant_b2b_bom_max_per_user and volant_b2b_bom_max_items.
  • Faster orders page: buyer stats now persist in a cache that refreshes the moment an order changes.
  • Faster BOM category tabs: category data fetched in a single query.
  • Security hardening across database queries; complete opt-in data cleanup on uninstall.
  • Internal restructuring: leaner codebase, one unified BOM module.
4.9.2
2026-06
  • BOM picker refinements: variation swatches, stock badges, and pagination polish.
  • Orders page: smarter cross-order cart conflict handling.