# Admin panel

URL: https://tnb-tech.com/en/glossary/admin-panel/

## What is an admin panel?

An admin panel is the protected part of a website or system where the team does its daily work: orders, customers, stock, deliveries, users and permissions, reports. A content management system looks after the pages; an admin panel looks after the work and the data behind them. Most open on a dashboard — the few numbers that decide what gets done first each morning.

**Example**

A shop taking 60 orders a day has four roles behind the login. The warehouse sees only the orders to pick and the button that marks one shipped. The salesperson sees customers, prices and promotions. The owner sees everything, including the reports. The accountant signs in read-only and pulls the month’s documents without emailing anyone for them.

The dashboard at the top carries the five numbers that decide the morning: orders waiting, orders with a problem, products below minimum, turnover for the day, and the last successful exchange with the warehouse. When one of them looks wrong, two clicks lead to the list behind it.

**An admin panel and a CMS are not the same thing**

A CMS looks after pages: copy, images, menus, publishing. An admin panel looks after work and data: orders, customers, stock, deliveries, users and permissions, reports, settings. In most projects the two sit behind one login and feel like one place, but the questions you ask them differ. Of the content side you ask who writes and who publishes; of the panel you ask who may change a price, and whether the change is visible afterwards.

**Why it matters for a business**

The panel is where your team spends hours every day, and every unnecessary click is multiplied by the number of orders. It is also where the expensive mistakes happen, which is why permissions, a change log and a second step at sign-in are not a luxury. A good panel is learned in an hour and does not need a developer for everyday work.

**What to ask**

- What roles exist, and can a role be built that sees only its own part?
- Is there a log of who changed what, and how far back does it reach?
- Is there a second step at sign-in, and what happens to the access of someone who leaves?
- Does the panel work on a phone or tablet, if it is used in a warehouse or on site?
- Can fields, statuses and filters be added without rewriting the system?
- Can any list be exported to a file without asking a developer?When the work does not fit a standard panel, the missing part is written as web software on the same login and the same permissions.

- Services: [Web software](https://tnb-tech.com/en/services/web-software/)
- Glossary: https://tnb-tech.com/en/glossary/