Sub-Accounts
For WHMCS 7.10 and earlier
We removed the Sub-Accounts feature and associated functionality in WHMCS 8.0.
Sub-Accounts are an extension of the Contacts feature. They allow clients to create sub-users under their main accounts, which then allow that contact to log in and perform various actions that the main account holder has permitted.
The primary account is the master account owner, and any users they create under their account are sub-accounts.
Contents
Why would a client use them?
Each section of the Client Area has its own permission setting. The master account holder (and any sub-accounts with the right permissions) can fine-tune the access rights to create different logins for different purposes.
For example:
- Billing Department — Corporate users may have a dedicated billing department that needs access to pay invoices and place new orders, while the web or technical staff would only need access to view current products and services and submit support requests.
- Web Developers — One of your customers may be employing a web developer to build and maintain their website, so they might want to give that developer access to create tickets and correspond on their behalf without being able to access any billing information or change account details.
You can use email preferences for contacts and sub-accounts so that the system sends invoice-related emails to additional email addresses.
How do Support Tickets work with them?
If a sub-account user opens a support ticket, the system will CC them (and the master account holder) for any replies relating to that ticket. Contacts can also open tickets by email if you have enabled piping. The system automatically collects these emails and assigns them to the master client account.
One contact user will not receive email updates about the tickets that another contact submits, but they can still view all the tickets belonging to the master account holder when logging in.
If the master account holder submits a ticket, all support contacts will receive a copy of email notifications pertaining to the ticket.
Creating/Modifying a Sub-Account
To create a sub-account:
- Create a new contact or locate an existing contacts record. You can do this in the Client Area at Client Area > My Details or Manage Contacts, or in the Admin Area in the Contacts tab in the client's profile.
- Check the Sub-Account checkbox.
- Enter a password.
- Check the various options for which you want to grant the sub-account permission to access. For example:
- Change Password — All sub-accounts can access this page. It allows them to change their own login passwords.
- View & Manage Contacts — This allows access to view and edit all contact users belonging to the master account.
- Manage Domain Settings — This allows sub-accounts to view and change, for example, nameservers, locking status, or WHOIS information.
- View & Pay Invoices — This allows sub-accounts to view and pay invoices and to access the following sections of the Client Area: My Invoices, Add Funds, Mass Pay, and Pay Methods.
- Allow Single Signon — This allows the client to log in to a hosting account's control panel via Single Sign-On (for example, logging in to cPanel).
It is important to note that multiple contacts can have the same email address when for email notifications, but, if they are sub-accounts, the email address must be unique since it is part of the user's login.
What does the Sub-Account user see?
When the sub-account user logs in, they see exactly the same client area that the master account owner would see. However, they can't view areas that they don't have permission to access.
The screenshot below shows the error page that displays if a sub-account user tries to access an area that they don't have permission for. Rather than simply dead-ending them with an access denied error, it gives them an explanation of what areas they can access and what to do if they think this is incorrect.
