What Is TikTok Business Center? Setup and Permissions

TikTok Business Center is the hub for managing ad accounts, team members and business assets on TikTok in one place, while TikTok Ads Manager is where campaigns are built and run. Business Center does not run ads itself; it controls who can reach which ad accounts, pixels and catalogs, and at what permission level.

A business with one ad account and one person running it can get by with Ads Manager alone. Once there are several accounts, a team of several people, or an agency that needs access, Business Center is what keeps permissions in one place and lets you take them back when you need to.

What is TikTok Business Center, and how is it different from TikTok Ads Manager?

Think of Ads Manager as the workroom and Business Center as the office that holds the keys to every room. In Ads Manager you create campaigns, ad groups and ads, set budgets, choose audiences and read results for that account. In Business Center you manage everything above the campaign level: members and roles, multiple ad accounts, shared assets, outside partners, and finance at the business level.

According to TikTok's help center, the assets managed through Business Center include ad accounts, TikTok accounts, shops, pixels, catalogs, audiences and leads. The practical difference is ownership. If an ad account was created by an individual straight in Ads Manager, access is tied to that person, and recovering it after they leave can be messy. If the account sits in the company's Business Center, the company's admins add and remove people themselves without depending on anyone.

How to sign up and create a Business Center

For a new user with no TikTok for Business account, TikTok's help center gives these steps:

1. Go to business.tiktok.com and click Sign up in the top right.
2. Set the login email and password.
3. Accept the terms and enter the verification code sent to the email.
4. Choose the business type: agency or advertiser.
5. Enter the country or region and the company's full legal name.
6. Check that the company name and the Business Center name match.
7. Check the time zone and currency, then click Create.
8. Turn on 2-step verification. It is optional, but worth doing.

If you already have a TikTok for Business account, log in at business.tiktok.com, choose the business type, fill in the company and Business Center details, accept the terms and click Confirm. Each user can create up to 30 Business Centers; at that limit you have to deactivate one before creating another.

The step to be most careful with is the business information. TikTok warns that once a Business Center is created, you may not be able to change the business information later, so the company name, time zone and currency should be right the first time. One easy mistake: a staff member enters the brand or shop nickname instead of the legal entity name, and the account then runs into trouble at business verification because the name does not match the documents.

Member roles in Business Center: Admin, Standard and finance roles

Every member of a Business Center needs one of two basic roles:

• Admin has access to every system function. Admins can add and remove members and partners, create, request, transfer and assign ad accounts, manage Business Center verification, and turn 2-step verification on or off.
• Standard works only on the accounts and assets assigned to them. Standard members can view and filter reporting data, but cannot add or remove members or create ad accounts.

Finance roles can be added on top. Finance Analyst is view and download only, covering transaction logs, billing groups, invoices and rebates. Finance Manager can view and manage Business Center and ad account balances, create and edit billing groups, and pay invoices. The help center notes that even Admins need one of these finance roles to view or manage finances.

To add a member: in Business Center, open the Users tab in the left menu, click Add Members, enter the email address, confirm the email and name, pick a basic role (Admin or Standard) and a finance role (Finance manager, Financial analyst or None), and click Next. You can grant access to accounts or assets right away in the Grant access section, then click Save. An invitation goes out by email; if it does not arrive, click the member's email in the Users tab and choose Resend request. A Business Center can have up to 4,000 members.

When you assign a TikTok account to a member, you choose between "Only show as ads", which lets them use posts in ads but not publish to the profile, and "Show on TikTok profile and as ads", which also allows profile posting. This is useful when a freelancer or agency runs ads and the brand does not want anything appearing on its profile without approval.

Ad account permissions: Admin, Operator and Analyst

Member roles decide what someone can do in Business Center. Ad account permissions decide what they can do inside each ad account. The two layers stack, so one Standard member can be an Operator on account A and only an Analyst on account B.

The simple rule is to grant the least access the job needs. Someone who builds reports for management needs Analyst. Someone running campaigns day to day needs Operator. Account-level Admin should be kept for people inside the company who are actually responsible for the account.

Adding ad accounts, pixels and catalogs to Business Center

Ad accounts

A Business Center Admin can create a new ad account directly under the Business Center or request access to an existing one (covered in a later section). Accounts created inside Business Center from the start are owned by the organisation automatically.

Pixels

Before a pixel can be shared in Business Center, it has to be transferred into Business Center, which needs Admin access. The Admin then goes to Assets in the sidebar, clicks Pixel, selects the pixel, opens Linked Accounts to see the ad accounts the Business Center can reach, and selects the accounts that should use it. Be aware that unsharing has side effects: the ad account can no longer use that pixel for new ads, and existing ads using the shared pixel are paused. Do not unshare while campaigns are live.

Catalogs

Product catalogs are created under Assets, then Catalogs, then Add catalog. Only Business Center Admins can create, remove and assign permissions for catalogs. The help center says catalog management in Business Center is available only for selected accounts and markets; if you cannot see the option, ask your TikTok sales representative.

Sharing access with an agency or team

There are two main ways to let outside people work in your accounts. The first is to add the person as a Standard member of your Business Center and assign ad accounts with Operator or Analyst access, which suits freelancers or individual staff. The second is to add the agency as a partner: the Admin goes to Partners, clicks Add Partner, enters the partner's Business Center ID and clicks Confirm, then shares assets with the partner. The agency then assigns its own staff from inside its Business Center.

The partner route is better for agency work. You do not have to add or remove agency employees one by one, and when the engagement ends, removing the partner once removes access for the whole agency team.

Requesting access to a client's ad account

For an agency that needs access to an ad account the client owns, TikTok's help center gives these steps:

1. Log in to Business Center at business.tiktok.com.
2. Click Accounts in the left menu, then Advertiser accounts under All accounts.
3. Click Add advertiser account, choose Request Access and click Next.
4. Enter the client's ad account ID.
5. Choose the permission you need: Admin, Operator or Analyst.
6. If you are an agency requesting Admin or Operator, the system asks whether you are the account's primary media agency. If you answer Yes and the request is approved, a Media agency partnership label appears next to the account name.

The requester must be a Business Center Admin, and you cannot request access to a disapproved ad account. The account owner receives an approval email. If the account was created in a Business Center, an admin of that ad account approves it; if it was created by an individual who is not in any Business Center, the creator approves it. They do this in TikTok Ads Manager by clicking the notifications icon in the top right and opening the Business Center tab.

The usual cause of delay is that the client does not know where the request is waiting, or the person who got the email is not an admin of the account. Tell the client in advance that a request is coming, and point them to the notifications menu in Ads Manager rather than waiting for the email.

Business verification

Business verification can start in two places. In TikTok Ads Manager, hover over Tools at the top, click Account setting and open the Business Verification section in the My accounts tab. In Business Center, a Business Center Admin clicks Verification in the left-hand menu, then Verify now. Either way, you choose the account type, enter the business name and, optionally, the company website, and upload an acceptable document with its certificate number.

• Accepted file types are JPEG, PNG, JPG and PDF, up to 10MB.
• Documents must show all four corners, be within their validity period and not expire within 30 days of upload, and be clearly readable; copies of copies and documents with third-party watermarks are not accepted.

If approved, the account shows as Verified; if rejected, it shows as Unverified, and you can resubmit or request a review through Account setup. The help center also says that once ad spend reaches a market-specific threshold, you receive a notification with a deadline to verify, and verifying by that deadline keeps ads running. The safer path is to verify at the start rather than being forced to mid-campaign.

Business Center for businesses in Thailand

For Thai businesses, the decision to make on day one is time zone and currency. If the market is mainly Thailand, setting Thai time (UTC+7) and baht keeps daily reports in line with the real working day and avoids currency conversion in reports. If the parent company is abroad but the Thai team runs its own ads, agree first whether to use one Business Center or separate ones, because business information may not be editable later.

For the name, use the legal entity name from the registration documents and spell it exactly as it appears on the document you will use for verification. If that document is in Thai, the name entered should match it. Businesses that hire an agency should bring the agency in as a partner of a Business Center the company owns, rather than letting the agency create ad accounts under its own name, so the accounts, pixels and measurement data stay with the business when the agency changes.

TikTok Business Center FAQ

If I already have TikTok Ads Manager, do I still need Business Center?

It is not required for a single account run by one person. With several accounts, several people or an agency involved, Business Center lets you manage and remove access from one place, and it is where pixels and catalogs are shared between accounts.

What is the difference between Admin and Standard?

Admin has access to every function and can manage members, while Standard can only work on the accounts and assets assigned to them and cannot add members or create ad accounts.

Can an agency get access without my password?

Yes, and that is how it should be done. The agency requests access through Business Center with your ad account ID, or you add the agency as a partner using its Business Center ID. Nobody needs to share a password.

Can I change the company name or time zone later?

Possibly not. TikTok warns that after a Business Center is created you may not be able to change the business information, so check every field before confirming.

Get the setup right before spending

Setting up Business Center correctly from the start keeps accounts, pixels and team permissions in order before budget goes out. For help structuring and running campaigns, see TikTok ads management or the wider social media advertising service. Agencies looking for a behind-the-scenes partner can see the white label services for agencies page.