Users and Accounts
(Redirected from Users)
In WHMCS 8.0 and later, the user management system allows a single user to access multiple client accounts in order to separate authentication and authorization from services, billing, and support. It also allows customers to manage their accounts and grant access to it to other users.
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Users and Accounts
This user management system includes two different entities: accounts and users.
- Accounts (or client accounts) own products and services. They represent a billable party, like a business, and associated users can access and manage them.
- Users can access and manage one or more of their associated accounts. Separate controls manage user access to each account.
When a new customer or an admin creates a new account, this also creates a new user based on the account profile. This becomes the account owner, with each account only having a single account owner. Account owners have all of the possible permissions that a user can possess. They are also the only user who can send invitations from the account to new or existing users.
If an authenticated user chooses to create a new account for the items in the cart during checkout, that existing authenticated user would become the account owner.
For example, each of a web designer's customers could represent a distinct account. The web designer could log in as a user and access each of these accounts using a single set of credentials. However, the accounts themselves would not be connected.
Creating and Managing Users and Accounts
Account owners can manage users and their permissions from the User Management section of the Client Area. For more information, see Adding and Managing Users.
When client registration is enabled, new visitors can create an account through the Client Area. Client registration is enabled by default.
Create an Account
Unauthenticated users must either log in with as their user and select an existing account or create a new account in order to log in to the Client Area.
In the Client Area
Anyone can create an account through the Client Area. To do this:
- Click Account in the top-right corner.
- Select Register.
- Fill out the form.
- Click Submit.
This creates an account and an associated user who is the account owner.
During Checkout
Authenticated users can choose to create a new account for the items in the cart during checkout. In this case, the system will assign account ownership for the new account to the logged-in user.
To do this:
- Select Create a New Account under Choose Account during the checkout process.
- Fill out the form that appears.
- Continue with the usual checkout process.
Invitations
Invitations expire after 7 days.
To connect a user to multiple accounts at any time, send invitations from each account to that user or email address. The invitee will receive an email and must click the included link.
- If you send an invitation to an email address for an existing account, they can access the client account using their existing login credentials.
- If the email address does not correspond to an existing account, they can create one.
While invitations go to the specified email address, the recipient can complete the invitation process using this link with any email address they choose. Because of this, accepting an invitation is not equivalent to user email verification, which is a separate feature.
In the Client Area
Account owners can send invitations from the User Management section of the Client Area.
To do this:
- Go to Hello, Name! > User Management.
- Enter an email address under Invite New User.
- Choose All Permissions to grant all available permissions, or choose Choose Permissions and select the desired permissions.
- Click Send Invite.
We recommend this method for inviting users to existing accounts.
In the Admin Area
Admins can send invitations from the Users tab of the client profile in the Admin Area. For more information, see Adding and Managing Users.
Disable Client Area User Management in Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings in the Other tab can disable user management for account owners and prevent them from inviting new users.
Managing Accounts and Users in the Client Area
Account owners can manage users and their permissions from the User Management section of the Client Area. We recommend this method for inviting users to existing accounts.
To do this:
- Go to Hello, Name! > User Management.
- Find the desired user in the list.
- Click Manage Permissions.
- Select the desired permissions.
- Click Save Changes.
Account owners cannot edit their own permissions.
Managing Accounts and Users in the Admin Area
Admins can view information about and manage individual accounts and their associated users, including resetting passwords, in the Users tab of an account's client profile.
Account ownership can only be transferred between users through the Admin Area.
Disable Client Area User Management in Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings in the Other tab can disable user management for account owners and prevent them from inviting new users.
Users and Orders
In WHMCS 8.2 and later, each order is associated with a specific user account.
If the user placed the order through the Client Area, it is associated with the logged-in user that placed the order. If an admin creates the order through the Admin Area, the account owner's user is associated with the order. This determines which user requires verification if you use User Identity Verification.
Deleting Users
User deletion is permanent, and you cannot delete users who are associated with multiple accounts. You also can't delete account owners unless you're also deleting that account.
You can delete users in the WHMCS Admin Area through two methods:
- Go to Clients > Manage Users and click Manage User for the desired user. Then, click Permanently Delete.
- Toggle Delete users who are only associated with this client to YES when you delete a client from the Summary tab of the client profile.
Deleting Users with Inactive Accounts
If you use the Data Retention Pruning setting to delete clients after closure or a period of inactivity, you can also choose to automatically delete the account's associated users.
To do this:
- Go to Configuration () > System Settings > Automation Settings.
- Go to Automatically Delete Inactive Clients.
- Set the toggle to YES.
When you enable this, the system will only delete users that are not associated with any other client accounts.
Logging In
When a user who is only associated with one account logs in, their login session will automatically be associated with that account.
When a user with more than one account logs in, the Choose Account page will display. The user must select an account so that only information relevant to that account displays.
Click on the desired account name to log in to that account. You can change your account at any time by going to Hello, Name!, clicking Switch Account, and clicking an account name again.
In Support Tickets
If they have the View & Open Support Tickets permission, all of the users for an account can view and reply to the account's support tickets.
In the Admin Area, each reply on a ticket includes a badge based on the correspondent's email address, the associated account for the ticket, and the WHMCS system. For example, these badges include Owner for the account owner, Operator, Authorized User, Registered User, and Guest. Sub-account appears when a reply is received from an address that's in the account's list of contacts. For an explanation of each badge's meaning, see Support Tickets.
In the Activity Log
The Activity Log at Configuration () > System Logs in the Admin Area lists information about events in WHMCS, attributing each event to its associated entity.
- Automation events are attributed to System.
- Admin actions that operate on the system are attributed to that admin. All other admin actions are attributed to that admin and list the associated client account.
- The system attributes user actions to the user that performed the action. User actions list information about the user and the associated client account that the user performed the action on.
Upgrading to WHMCS 8.0
In the upgrade to WHMCS 8.0, items like passwords, security questions, and two-factor authentication move from client accounts to the associated users. The primary client account will become a user who is the account owner. Additionally, sub-accounts are automatically converted to users during the WHMCS 8.0 upgrade process. Contacts will remain associated with their respective accounts.
The upgrade will not automatically combine or associate any users or accounts beyond what's discussed in this document. Use invitations, as described above, to associate users with accounts.