A company wants to buy seats for its team.
LearnDash can do it, but its default tools can show a company people it shouldn’t see.
Danica LouweUpdated 5 min readUse one LearnDash group per company, with one group leader, and keep auto-enrol off unless you mean it. Keep leaders out of user management in the WordPress back end, and give them an add-on’s own form to add people instead. Then test as a leader, not as an admin.
LearnDash has the parts. The defaults aren’t built for this.
A LearnDash group holds courses and people, and its leader can see their progress. That sounds like a company account, and it nearly is. The trouble starts when you give the leader the tools to manage their own people.
A leader can see too many people
LearnDash’s Basic setting limits leaders to their own groups, and Advanced adds tools for users across the site. When we tested the default back end in 2022, leaders could see people outside their company, and most of our clients weren’t comfortable with that. We tried hiding the list with code, and it still felt risky to them.
Auto-enrol gives away courses
A group setting can add someone to the group when they enrol in one of its courses, and then they get every other course in it. We made this mistake on a setup ourselves, and members got courses they shouldn’t have had.
The group can overrule the course
A group has its own access settings. When we set this up, LearnDash warned that group settings override course settings for anyone in the group, so a price or access rule on the course may not apply.
Nobody can join without you
If only an admin can add people, every new hire becomes a support request.
Log in as the company, not as yourself.
Admin accounts see everything, so we set up a test company with a leader and test members from another company, then look through their eyes.
- Can the leader see, search or edit anyone outside their company?
- Are leader permissions for groups, courses and users set on purpose?
- Is any group auto-enrol setting on, and does anyone know why?
- Do the group’s access settings match what the courses should do?
- How does a new employee get in, and who has to do something?
- Can the leader get a progress report without help?
- What happens when the company’s subscription or contract ends?
One group per company, and a safer way to add people.
We keep LearnDash groups doing the access work, and give the company a separate, limited way to manage its team. From your side it looks like this.
- 1
Decide how you sell it
Self-serve seats at checkout, or an invoice and a code? Can they add seats, and what happens when someone leaves? That choice decides which add-on fits.
- 2
Create one group per company
Each group holds that company’s courses and people, with one person as leader. We keep to one leader per group so it’s clear who’s responsible.
- 3
Lock down the leader
Leave user management off in the WordPress back end, and hide the dashboard widgets they don’t need, so they mostly see their team’s progress.
- 4
Give them their own way to manage seats
An add-on gives the leader a separate form for adding people, away from your full member list. We choose it based on how you sell and what you already run.
- 5
Test both companies
Log in as each leader and each employee. Company A shouldn’t be able to find anyone from Company B, anywhere.
The technical version, for your developer
Group leader capabilities are global in LearnDash: individual groups can’t have their own. Settings are under LearnDash LMS, Groups, Settings. Check these on your current version, because this area has changed over time.
- Capabilities. Manage Groups, Manage Courses and Manage Users each have Basic and Advanced levels. LearnDash says Advanced user management adds list_users, create_users and delete_users, so we keep that off for company leaders.
- Leader enrolment. The auto-enrol setting for group leaders gives them access to every course in their groups. Turn it on only if leaders should take the courses themselves.
- Group courses auto-enrol. Leave “Enable automatic group enrollment” off unless the group is deliberately a bundle. It adds anyone enrolled in a linked course to the group, and that opens the group’s other courses.
- Add-ons. Uncanny Groups, WisdmLabs Group Registration, MemberPress Corporate Accounts and Memberium’s group accounts each offer a separate way to manage seats. Uncanny Groups’ leader tools apply only to groups it created or upgraded. WisdmLabs’ group codes must be enabled, and need a registration page with its shortcode plus WordPress’s “Anyone can register”. Confirm how MemberPress Corporate Accounts connects to LearnDash reporting before relying on it.
- Dashboard. We used the Widget Disable plugin to remove dashboard widgets, leaving ProPanel’s group reporting for leaders.
Watch it done
The full walk through LearnDash groups: what a group leader can do at each setting, the auto-enrol option that caught us out, and why we use an add-on for company seats.
Questions owners ask
Can the company see their team’s progress?
Yes. A group leader can see the progress of people in their group, and LearnDash can export it as a spreadsheet showing steps and courses completed. Add-ons offer more reporting if you need it.
Can the company add more seats later?
With an add-on, yes. Uncanny Groups lets a group leader buy more seats themselves, for groups that were created or upgraded through it. Check this before you choose, because it’s an easy thing to promise a customer.
Can they remove someone who left the company?
It depends on the add-on. On Uncanny Groups, leaders can’t remove people who have started course activity by default, though an admin can allow it. Decide your policy, because the company will ask about getting that seat back.
We invoice companies directly. Do we need a checkout?
No. A group code works well here: you invoice them, create a code tied to their group with dates and a limit, and staff register using it. We built this for a client running cohorts, using the WisdmLabs Group Registration add-on.
Does a code make open registration safe?
It helps. WordPress’s “Anyone can register” setting has to be on, but with a required code the signup form refused anyone without a valid one when we tested it.
Do I need BuddyBoss for this?
No. LearnDash groups and an add-on are enough. BuddyBoss is useful if each company should also get its own discussion space, since it can create a linked group for that.
