Allow a Parent Customer to Access Child Customer Portals

This article explains how to allow a Parent Customer to access the Customer Portal for associated Child Customers.

After access is configured, the Parent Customer can switch between the Parent Customer and Child Customer portal contexts to view and manage the billing information available for each account.

Contents

• Overview
  • Invoice visibility when a Child Customer bills to the Parent
• Prerequisites 
• Configure Parent Customer Access to Child Portals
  • Step 1: Add the Parent Customer's email address as a contact
  • Step 2: Enable Customer Portal Access
  • Step 3: Access Child Portals from Parent Login
• Manage Child Customer Billing Information
  • Invoices
  • Invoice visibility when billing to the Parent
• View Payment Methods Across Accounts 
• Access Billing Objects in Customer Portal
• Account Context

Overview

A Parent Customer can access the Customer Portal for its associated Child Customers by adding the Parent Customer's email address as a contact on each Child Customer and enabling Customer Portal access for that contact.

After access is enabled, the Parent Customer can:

• Access the Customer Portal for the associated Child Customers.
• Switch between the Parent Customer and Child Customer portal contexts.
• View and pay open Child Customer invoices.
• Add, view, and delete Child Customer payment methods.
• Use a Child Customer's payment method to pay the Child Customer's invoices.
• View and manage billing information available in the selected account context.

The Parent Customer must have Customer Portal access.

Invoice visibility when a Child Customer bills to the Parent

When a Child Customer is configured to bill to Parent:

• The Child Customer cannot see its invoices in the Customer Portal.
   
• The Parent Customer can see both its own invoices and the Child Customer's invoices.
   

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that:

• The Parent Customer has Customer Portal access.
  
• A Parent–Child Customer hierarchy exists.
• The Parent Customer's email address is available as a contact on each Child Customer that the Parent needs to access.

For example:

• Acme Inc — Parent Customer

  • Acme Cloud — Child Customer
    
  • Acme Services — Child Customer
    
     

Configure Parent Customer Access to Child Portals

Step 1: Add the Parent Customer's email address as a contact

For each Child Customer:

1. Open the Child Customer record.
2. Add the Parent Customer's email address as a contact.
    
3. Save the changes.
4. Repeat these steps for each Child Customer that the Parent Customer needs to access.
   

Step 2: Enable Customer Portal Access 

For each Child Customer:

1. Open each Child Customer record.
2. Locate the contact with the Parent Customer's email address.
3. Enable Customer Portal Access.
4. Save the changes. 
   

5. When Customer Portal access is enabled, a Customer Portal invitation email is sent to the Parent Customer.

Step 3: Access Child Portals from Parent Login

After Customer Portal access has been enabled for the Parent Customer's contact on the Child Customers, the Parent Customer can access the Child Customer portals.

To access a Child Customer portal:

1. Log in to the Customer Portal using the Parent Customer's email address.
2. Switch the portal context from the Parent Customer to the required Child Customer.
3. Select the Child Customer account that you want to access.
   
4. Switch between the available Parent and Child Customer contexts without logging out.

Manage Child Customer Billing Information

When the Parent Customer switches to a Child Customer context, the Parent Customer can view and manage the billing information available for that Child Customer.

Invoices

The Parent Customer can:

• View open invoices for the selected Child Customer.
• Pay open Child Customer invoices.

For example, when the Parent Customer switches to Acme Cloud, the Parent Customer can view and pay Acme Cloud's open invoices.

Invoice visibility when billing to the Parent

If the Child Customer is configured to bill to the Parent:

• The Child Customer cannot see its invoices in the Customer Portal.
• The Parent Customer can see both the Parent Customer's invoices and the Child Customer's invoices.

For example, Acme Inc is the Parent Customer, while Acme Cloud and Acme Services are Child Customers. When a Child Customer is configured to bill to Acme Inc, the Child Customer cannot see its invoices in the Customer Portal, while Acme Inc can see both its own invoices and the Child Customer's invoices.

This behavior applies when the Child Customer's billing is configured to the Parent.

View Payment Methods Across Accounts

Payment methods are displayed based on the selected portal context.

For example:

• When the Parent Customer is viewing the Parent Customer context, the Parent Customer's payment methods are displayed. 
  
• When the Parent Customer switches to Acme Cloud, Acme Cloud's payment methods are displayed.
  
• When the Parent Customer switches to Acme Services, Acme Services' payment methods are displayed.
  

The Parent Customer can:

• Add a payment method.
• View an existing payment method.
• Delete a payment method.
• Use a Child Customer's payment method to pay that Child Customer's invoices.