Users and Accounts

WHMCS 8.0 and later introduced a new user management system. It allows a single user access to multiple client accounts. It clearly separates authentication and authorization from services, billing, and support. It's also a simple, powerful, flexible way for customers to manage their accounts and grant access to it to other users. In WHMCS 8.1, we added several additional improvements to these features.

Several changes occur when you upgrade to WHMCS 8.0 and this new system. For more information, see Upgrading to WHMCS 8.0 below.

Accounts and Users

What Is An Account?

Accounts (formerly "clients") own products and services. They represent a billable party, like a business.

What Is A User?

Users have one or more associated accounts that they can access and manage. When a new account is created, a new user is created based on the account profile. This new user then becomes the account owner (see below). Separate controls manage users' access to each account.

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.

What Is An Account Owner?

Each account is associated with 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.

During checkout, users can choose to create a new account for the items in the cart. In this case, the system will assign account ownership for the new account to that user.

Creating and Managing Users and Accounts

Creating Accounts and Users in the Client Area

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.

Creating an account during checkout.

When client registration is enabled (as it is by default), new visitors can create an account through the Client Area.

Anyone can create an account through the Client Area. To do this:

1. Click Account in the top-right corner.
2. Select Register.
3. Fill out the form.
4. Click Submit.

This creates an account and an associated user who is the account owner.

Unauthenticated users will need to either log in with as their user and select an existing account or create a new account, either as described above or as part of the order completion process.

Logged-in 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 and then continue with the usual checkout process.

Invitations

Invitations

Note
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.

Note
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.

Inviting New Users

To do this:

1. Go to Hello, Name! > User Management.
2. Enter an email address under Invite New User.
3. Choose All Permissions to grant all available permissions, or choose Choose Permissions and select the desired permissions.
4. 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.

Disabling 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.

To do this:

1. Go to the Users tab in the account's client profile.
2. Click Associate User.
3. Choose an account from Select User or enter an email address.
4. Check the boxes for the desired Permissions, or click Check All to select all of them.
5. Toggle Send Invite to Yes to send an invitation email.
6. Click Invite User.

After you send an invitation, the invitee will display in Users in the client's profile. Click Resend Invite to resend the invitation email, or click Cancel Invite to cancel the invitation.

For more information, see Adding and Managing 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.

Managing Users in the Client Area

To do this:

1. Go to Hello, Name! > User Management.
2. Find the desired user in the list.
3. Click Manage Permissions.
4. Select the desired permissions.
5. Click Save Changes.

Note
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 in the Users tab of an account's client profile.

Note
Account ownership can only be transferred between users through the Admin Area.

Managing Users in the Admin Area

To manage a user from the Admin Area:

1. Go to the Users tab in the account's client profile.
2. Click Manage User for the desired user.
3. Make the desired updates to the user's information and permissions.
4. If you want to change ownership of the account, check Make Owner.
5. Click Save.

To trigger a password reset for a user:

1. Go to the Users tab in the account's client profile.
2. Click the down arrow for that user and select Password Reset.
3. Click OK.

Disabling 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.

Deleting Users

Admins Only
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 Data Retention Pruning 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, and set the toggle to YES.

Inactive Users
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 an Account When Logging In

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, Authorized User, External User, and Guest. Sub-account appears when a reply is received from an address that's in the account's list of contacts.

In the Activity Log

Entries For The Same User in the System Activity Log

The Activity Log 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.
• User actions are attributed to that user and list information about the associated client account.

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.