Backup for Files - How do I create new customers and accounts?

Written By Tami Sutcliffe (Super Administrator)

Updated at March 31st, 2021

Overview

This article will describe how to use the web portal to create new customers, new parent accounts, and new sub-accounts. Please click here for an overview of the web portal.

For each of your customers, you will want to create one parent account and several sub-accounts. (Actually, you will need exactly one parent account per service plan that the customer desires to use -- if the customer wants to have both Select and Basic accounts, then the customer will need to have two parent accounts.)

The parent account is for their first computer that will be backed up, and then you can create sub-accounts to backup additional computers associated with that customer. There is no limit as to the number of sub-accounts that can be created nor is there an additional charge for additional sub-accounts.

Creating a New Customer with New Parent Account

Use these steps when you are signing up a new customer (including customers on a free trial).

  1. Login to the web portal
  2. Accounts menu -> Create
  3. On the Create Account page:
  • Select "New Customer"
  • Fill in contact information
  • Choose a service plan
  • Enter a new user name
  • Optionally change the temporary password to something easy to remember

Creating a Sub-Account for an Existing Customer

Use these steps when you want to backup additional computers for an existing customer.

  1. Login to the web portal
  2. Accounts menu -> Create
  3. On the Create Account page:
  • Select "Existing Customer"
  • Select "Existing Contact" or "New Contact" (Normally you want to use "Existing Contact" because normally the person at your customer's company responsible for their backups is the same person.)
  • Enter a new user name
  • Optionally change the temporary password to something easy

Creating an Additional Parent Account for an Existing Customer

If a customer wants to have both Select and Basic accounts then they will need two parent accounts (one to group the Select accounts and one to group the Basic accounts). These steps tell you how to create the second parent account for the customer.

  1. Login to the web portal
  2. Accounts menu -> Create
  3. On the Create Account page:
  • Select "Existing Customer"
  • Select "Existing Contact" or "New Contact" (Normally you want to use "Existing Contact" because normally the person at your customer's company responsible for their backups is the same person.)
  • Change the "Parent Account ID" to (none).
  • Choose a service plan
  • Enter a new user name
  • Optionally change the temporary password to something easy

Detailed Account Creation Information

This section describes the Accounts -> Create Account web portal page.

This feature will allow you to create:

  • A new customer with a new account
  • A new sub-account for an existing customer / account (possibly with different contact information)
  • A new parent account for an existing customer (use this when the same customer needs accounts with 2 different service plans)

The form will walk you through want you want to do. Just answer the questions, working your way from top to bottom. You can leave the following options blank or default and they will be filled in appropriately:

  • Password: Normally a temporary random password is generated, which will be emailed to the new user when the account is created.. This is the best option. It will force the user to pick a new password.
  • Num of Trial Days: If you leave it blank and use the trial service plan it will default to 30 days.
  • Hard Quota MB: Defaults to infinite (taken from service plan). Trial accounts default to 512MB. The user cannot change this quota.
  • User Quota MB: Typically leave blank (for infinite). The user can customize this quota later. The actual quota is the minimum of the two quotas.

When creating another account for an existing customer you can either re-use the contact record or create a new contact record. If the contact record is re-used it is shared between the new account and the old account. Useful if the person managing the accounts is all the same. Sub-accounts often need to have a different email address, in which case choose to create a new contact record.There are currently two service plans (besides the trial service plan):

  • Basic: no open file backup on server operating systems / no versioning
  • Select: no restrictions on features

Note that the backup software is the same no matter what service plan the customer is using.

Setting up the Backup Software

Please see this article for more information.

Managing Accounts

Please see this article for more information.