Allow a Parent Customer to Access Child Customer Portals

This article explains how to allow a Parent Customer to access and manage billing information for associated Child Customers from the Customer Portal.

Using this configuration, a Parent Customer can manage invoices, payment methods, payments, subscriptions, usage, credits, and statements for each child account by switching portal context.

Contents

• Overview

• Prerequisites

• Procedure

• What the Parent Can Do in Child Portal Context

• View Payment Methods Across Accounts

• Access Billing Objects in Customer Portal

Overview

When configured:

• A Parent Customer user can access Child Customer portal views.
• The Parent can:
  • View and pay open invoices at the child level.
  • Add, view, or delete child-level payment methods.
  • Use a child’s payment method to pay that child’s invoices.
  • Generate and view statements at both parent and child levels.

Important: The Parent Customer user must already have Customer Portal access

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure:

• The Parent Customer user has Customer Portal access enabled.
  
• The following hierarchy exists:
  • Parent Customer
  • Child 1
  • Child 2
  • Child 3

Procedure

Step 1: Add Parent Email as Contact to Each Child Customer

1. Navigate to Child 1.
2. Add the Parent Customer’s email address as a Contact.
3. Repeat the process for:
   • Child 2
   • Child 3
     
4. The Parent email must exist as a contact on the child account before portal access can be granted.

Step 2: Enable Customer Portal Access for the Parent Contact

1. Open each Child Customer record.
2. Enable Customer Portal Access for the Parent’s email contact.
3. Save the changes. This action triggers a Customer Portal invitation email to the Parent Customer.
   

When access is enabled:

• A Customer Portal invitation email is automatically sent to the Parent Customer.

• The Parent can now access the Child Customer portal.

Result: The Parent Customer receives access to the selected Child Customer portal.

Step 3: Access Child Portals from Parent Login

1. Log in to the Customer Portal using the Parent Customer email.
2. Switch the portal context from:
   • Parent → Child 1
   • Parent → Child 2
   • Parent → Child 3
3. The Parent can switch between accounts without logging out.
   

What the Parent Can Do in Child Portal Context

When the Parent switches to a Child Customer view, they can perform the following actions.

Invoices

• View all open invoices for the selected child.
• Pay open invoices.

Payment Methods

• Add new payment methods.
• View existing payment methods.
• Delete payment methods.
• Use the child’s payment method to pay child's invoices.

Example: If the Parent switches to Child 1, they can use Child 1’s saved payment method to pay Child 1’s open invoices.

View Payment Methods Across Accounts

Payment methods are scoped to the selected portal context.

• Parent Customer - Payment method 
  
• Parent Viewing Child 1 Payment Methods
  
• Parent viewing Child 2’s payment method