Admin Area
Login
To login to the admin area, simply append the word "admin" to the URL at which you installed WHMCS. For example if you installed WHMCS @ http://demo.whmcs.com/ then you would access the admin area by typing in http://demo.whmcs.com/admin
If you have followed the recommended further security steps (http://wiki.whmcs.com/Further_Security_Steps) then you may have renamed the admin folder to make it harder for visitors to find and therefore the folder name you need to type in might be different.
An IP Ban is enforced if you make 3 invalid password login attempts to the admin area. By default the ban time is 15 minutes but this can be increased in General Settings > Security. If you get banned, you will need to wait for the ban to expire or lift it via the database, please refer to our FAQs.
Password Resets
Admin password resets can be requested from the link on the admin page login form by following the link "Forgot your password?" There it's simply a case of entering your admin email address to be sent a new password.
If you fail to receive the email, or have disabled the forgot your password option, instructions for resetting the admin password can be found in our FAQs.
Templates
The admin area comes with 2 templates:
- V4 - A web 2.0 styled interface introduced in Version 4.0
- Blend - The default template, designed for use on a range of devices including tablets. Introduced in Version 4.5.
The existing templates can be customised and/or new ones created - see Admin Area Template Files for more info on that.
The template you see when logging in can be set on a per admin level and therefore your staff can choose their preference or you can create different templates tailored to their specific role. The template for an admin can be set in Setup > Administrators
Search
The admin area has 2 main methods of search - Intelligent Search & Advanced Search. Both of these search options are available from any page.
Intelligent search is located at the top right of each template and allows you to enter a search term, press enter and the results are instantly displayed. It will search accross various fields in the Clients, Products, Invoices & Tickets databases to display the most relevant matches to the term entered. However it doesn't search all fields and with large databases because of the amount of data it has to look through can be slower.
The Advanced Search allows you to search more specifically, choosing exactly the field you want to search on. It is available from the top menu bar in the Original template, bottom left sidebar in V4 and bottom right sidebar in Simple. Entering a search term here and submitting will take you to the exact match or list of possible matches.
Widgets
The admin summary page is made up of a number of individual 'widgets'. These can be arranged and maximised/minimized by each individual member of staff and enabled/disabled entirely for different administrator roles. To move a widget, simply click and drag the title bar where the widget name is displayed to the desired location and then release it. Before you let go of the mouse, a dotted outline will appear where the widget will be moved to allowing you to confirm it's as you want.
Further Reading:
Multi-Language
WHMCS supports multiple languages for the admin area making the system truly multi-lingual throughout. Admins can then have a default language set for their profile in the Setup > Administrators or the My Account area when logged in.
The language files for the admin area can be found in the /admin/lang/ folder, from there you can create entirely new additional language translations by translating and saving one of the existing language files with a new name.
The language files use PHP syntax for storing the variables, so you need to take care when editing the file not to remove the quotes or semi-colons from the ends of lines, and also if wanting to use quotes inside a word or phrase translation, you must escape it with a back slash, eg. "This needs to be \"escaped\"."
When it comes to modifying an existing translation an overrides system has been implemented, this has the benefit of when it comes to upgrades you don't have any risk of overwriting and losing your customisations. The steps for creating an admin area language override are the same as the client area but uploaded to /admin/lang/overrides/ instead.
We rely on the dedication and generosity of our users for contributing translations, as we find real life translations are a much higher quality compared with using automated translation systems as some softwares do. So if you have any suggestions for improvements, or a new language file you are willing to contribute, please get in touch.