Parallels Plesk Automation Billing 11.5

Transcription

1 Parallels Plesk Automation Billing 11.5 Provider's Guide Revision Copyright Parallels IP Holdings GmbH and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

2 Parallels IP Holdings GmbH. Vordergasse 59 CH8200 Schaffhausen Switzerland Tel: Fax: Copyright Parallels IP Holdings GmbH and its affiliates. All rights reserved. This product is protected by United States and international copyright laws. The product s underlying technology, patents, and trademarks are listed at Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, Windows NT, Windows Vista, and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Mac is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

3 Contents Preface Documentation Conventions Typographical Conventions Feedback Introduction to Hosting Business With Parallels Plesk Automation Billing What is Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Orders AR Documents Daily Billing Process Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Interface Description Navigation Through Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Working with Lists of Objects Search Sorting Exporting List into MS Excel Table Changing Displayed Columns Set Changing Number of Displayed Items Changing Columns Order Refresh PPAB Configuration Quick Setup Importing Parallels Plesk Automation Accounts and Subscriptions that are not in the Billing System Configuring Account Settings Configuring Your Account Configuring Settings Creating User Role Adding Account User Configuring Access Control List for Users Configuring Login Settings... 34

4 Contents Configuring Finance Settings Configuring Taxation Settings Creating Credit Terms Creating Service Terms Managing Terms and Conditions Creating Statement Cycle Configuring Country Specific Settings Configuring Document Numbering Configuring Operations and Products Settings Creating Customer Class Creating Attributes Configuring Custom Data Types Configuring Fraud Screening Configuring Services Settings Configuring Parallels Operations Automation Setting Default DNS Plan Configuring Internationalization Settings Configuring Encoding Charset Configuring Languages Managing Service Plans System Prior Configuration Creating Plan Category Adding Sales Category Creating Unique Group Managing Resources Managing Service Templates

5 Contents Adding Service Plan Attaching Usage Statistics Allowing to Subscribe for the Service Plan Adding Subscription Period to Service Plan Forming Service Plan Up-sales List Assigning Credit Terms to Customer Adding Service Plan to Sales Category Assigning Service Terms to Service Plan Assigning Unique Group to Service Plan Adding Service Plan Resource Rates Configuring Service Plan Resource Rates Adding Attribute to Service Plan Attaching Custom Terms and Conditions to Services Configuring Service Plan Allowed Upgrades/Downgrades Adding Allowed Upgrade/Downgrade Configuring Switch Parameters Checking Service Plan Publication Status Cloning Service Plan Deleting Service Plan Billing Models Basic Billing Models Country Specific Billing Model Billing Models Calculations Resources Downgrade Notes Subscription Cancellation Refund Policy Managing Domain Processing Prior Configuration Configuring Domain Registrars Adjusting Technical Settings Per Domain Registrar Adjusting Contacts Replacement Settings Per Domain Registrar Configuring Whois Plug-In Configuring Zones Per Registrar Selecting Registrar and Checker for Zone Managing Processed s Received From Registrars

6 Contents Using Custom Domain Owner and Administrator Contacts Configuring Domains Rejection Rules Configuring both ASCII and non ASCII Input Fields for Contacts Configuring Domain Service Plans Preparing Domain Service Template Creating Domain Service Plan Selling WHOIS Privacy as Complementary Service to Domain Registration Configuring Subscription Period for Free Domain Transfer Creating Domain Service Plan for Registering Domains in Vendor Zone Managing Domains Managing Domain Subscription Managing Domain Name Servers Managing Domain Contact Information Switching Domain Parent Subscription Turning On or Off Domain Automatic Renewal Viewing Domain Additional Information Handling Domain Activity History Resolving Domain Conflicts Domains Registration and Transfer Monitoring Possible Domain Registration and Transfer Failure Causes Resubmitting Domain Registration Resubmitting Domain Transfer Marking Domain as Failed Managing Payment Processing Getting Started With Payment Processing Configuring Payment Systems Adding Payment System in PPAB Configuring Parameters of Universal Payment System Assigning Mask to Payment System and Configuring Validation Managing Restricted Countries Configuring Payment Gateways Configuring Payment Methods Setting Payment Methods for Actual Payment Processing Editing Payment Method Details

7 Contents Assigning Universal Payment Method per Customer Allowing Reseller to Use Provider's Merchant Account Configuring Payments Processing Additional Settings Configuring Encryption Keys Generating Key Pair Loading Private Key Configuring Number of Credit Card Charge Attempts Removing E-transaction Lock Importing Payments from CSV File Managing Certificates Configuring Certificate Plug-ins Creating Certificate Service Plan Managing Certificates Provisioning Managing Order Processing Paying Order Archiving Order Managing Fraud Screening Managing Order Provisioning Manual Order Processing Monitoring Service Status History Resolving Credit Card Capture Transaction Failure Managing Order Queues Adding Order Queue Adding Detail to Order Queue Viewing Orders in Queue Managing Provisioning Queues Adding Provisioning Queue Adding Detail to Provisioning Queue Accounting Managing Invoices Managing Payments Adding Payment Applying Payment Reversing Payment Application

8 Contents Voiding Payment Refunding Payment Monitoring E-Transactions Processing Managing Expired Credit Cards Managing Credit and Debit Memos Managing Refunds Processing Refunds Manually Enabling Automatic Refunds Creation for Downgrade or Cancellation Orders Processing Refunds by Payment Methods Managing Void Checks Mass Printing of Documents Forming Documents into Queue for Mass Printing Processing Mass Print Queue Downloading Printed Documents Adjusting Customer Account Balance Managing Subscriptions Creating Subscription Creating Customer Account Managing Customer Payment Methods Subscribing Customer to Service Plan Configuring Subscription Setting Subscription Expire Soon Period Configuring Subscription Auto Renewal Handling Subscriptions Subscription Service Provisioning Putting Subscription on Hold Activating Subscription Restoring Terminated Subscription Updating Dummy Resource Usage Reassigning Service Terms Synchronizing Subscriptions Upgrading and Downgrading Subscription Renewing Subscription Canceling Subscriptions

9 Contents Destroying Cancelled Subscriptions Managing Notifications Adjusting Notification Settings Managing Message Categories Creating Notification Template Creating Notification Templates for Other Locales Cloning Notification Template Configuring Cloned Notification Template Managing Account Notification Creating Distribution List Adding Optional Criteria to Distribution List Adding Account in Delivery Adding Service Plan Criterion Configuring Outstanding Balance Notification Sending Account Notification Managing Order Notification Sending Order Notification Managing Subscription Notification Creating Notification Schedule Configuring Notification Schedule Assigning Notification Schedule to Service Plan Deleting Notification Schedule Sending Subscription Notification Managing Credit Card Expiration Notification Managing Limit Notification Creating Limit Notification Configuring Limit Notification Configuring Limit Notification for Resource Managing User Notification Manually Sending Notification Messages Notifications Application Scenarios Notifying Customer on Subscription Expiration Notifying Customer on Subscription Automatical Renewal Notifying Customer on Domain Registration

10 Contents Notifying Fully Registered Customers Only Managing Marketing Tools Managing Promotions Creating Promotion Promoting Service Plan Promoting Resource Promoting Up-sale Service Plan Editing Several Promotions at One Time Managing Discounts Adding Discount Making Discount Applicable to Resource Making Discount Applicable to Service Plan Making Discount Applicable to Subscription Period Giving Discount to Customer Giving Discount to Customers of Customer Class Giving Discount to New Customers Discount and Promotions Application Scenarios Managing Campaigns Creating Banner Campaign Deleting Banner Campaign Viewing Campaigns Report Privileges List Domain Statuses Periods Calculation Algorithm Unit Price Calculation Precision Calculating Resource Usage Amount Index

11 C HAPTER 1 Preface This section contains introductory notes and important information about typographical conventions used in this document. In This Chapter Documentation Conventions Typographical Conventions Feedback Documentation Conventions Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation conventions used in it. Typographical Conventions Formatting convention Type of Information Example Special Bold Items you must select, such as menu options, command buttons, or items in a list. Titles of chapters, sections, and subsections. Go to the Resources tab. Refer to the Managing Your Account chapter.

12 Preface Italics Monospace Used to emphasize the importance of a point, to introduce a term or to designate a command line placeholder, which is to be replaced with a real name or value. The names of commands, files, and directories. Type a placeholder into the From field, ontact_ @ payflow.verisign.com CAPITALS Names of keys on the keyboard. SHIFT, CTRL, ALT KEY+KEY Key combinations for which the user must press and hold down one key and then press another. CTRL+P, ALT+F4 Feedback Parallels welcomes your feedback on how to make our documentation more helpful. You can submit feedback using the Documentation Feedback form on our website: Additionally, if you or your colleagues or customers have any feedback on the usability of Parallels Automation, please send it to pa-feedback@parallels.com. Please note that we do not respond to general questions and support requests submitted as feedback. If you submit a technical issue, it will be not responded. To receive customer support, please contact the Parallels support team: 12

13 C HAPTER 2 Introduction to Hosting Business With Parallels Plesk Automation Billing This chapter describes the basic Parallels Plesk Automation Billing concepts such as ordering, external system integration, payment services, service plans, resources, subscriptions, and workflow. After reading this chapter, you will understand the Parallels Plesk Automation Billing components interaction, which will help you manage and automate your business. With this background, you will be able to begin the process of customizing and configuring services by referring to the remaining chapters of this guide. In This Chapter What is Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Orders AR Documents Daily Billing Process... 16

14 Introduction to Hosting Business With Parallels Plesk Automation Billing What is Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Parallels Plesk Automation Billing (hereinafter, PPAB) is a comprehensive yet simple application that allows service providers and their resellers to automate and simplify daily work associated with sales and settlements. PPAB provides web-based management tools that allow using a complex business without a detailed understanding of the underlying systems. Orders Order is used to initiate service provisioning process. In PPAB, there are orders of the following types: Sales order is created when customer orders services from online store, his CP, or when vendor orders services on behalf of customer. Renewal order is created when subscription is renewed. Billing order is created regularly as a result of customer billing. Change order is created when customer purchases additional resources, changes subscription period to a longer one, or changes subscription service plan to a more expensive one. Another case for creating a change order is when customer decides not to use some resources further, changes subscription period to a shorter one, or changes subscription service plan to a cheaper one. Change Order can have both positive (in case of a downgrade) and negative (in case of an upgrade) amount. Payment order is used as supplementary order for payment processing. This type of order is visible only by the Payment Order ID link within a respective payment details. Cancellation order is created when a subscription is canceled and in case provider owes money to customer. Cancellation Charge Order is created when a subscription is canceled and in case customer owes money to provider. Resource order is created in case a subscription was synchronized with the plan it is based on, and there are some resources that require additional provisioning in external system (for example, if included amount in plan has changed comparably to that when subscription was provisioned). Customer is not billed, the order has zero amount and is required only for provisioning and monitoring. 14

15 Introduction to Hosting Business With Parallels Plesk Automation Billing AR Documents All financial activities of vendor and customer result in Accounts Receivable documents (here and further - AR Documents). These documents serve for various purposes, such making financial statements, adjusting customer balance, and ageing. PPAB uses the following types of AR documents: Invoice - this is the main billing document. Invoices are always created as a result of order processing. Generally, vendor requires order to be paid before the requested services provisioning starts. When customer pays for services in advance, the payment is created for order sum. Upon successful services provisioning, the invoice is generated the payment is applied to it. Order flow, however, can be configured to allow partial or no order payment. Invoice in this case is also created upon services are provisioned, yet leads to outstanding customer balance. Customer has outstanding balance until the invoice is and a payment should be received for it. Payment - this is the only AR document type representing the money received from customers. Money can be paid by different means - cash, credit card, wire transfer and so on. In PPAB, this is reflected by different payment methods. Besides classification, payment methods can be processed differently, for instance, credit cards can be processed online through special payment gateways while cash is always handled manually. Payment can be created during order processing when invoice does not exist yet. When order processing is complete, the payment gets assigned to the invoice, keeping its link to the order. Payment can also be created independently of any order. Such payment decreases the customer balance and remains open until it is applied to an invoice. Although payment application does not change customer balance, this procedure is very important as it has direct effect on customer balance ageing and customer statements. Credit Memo - this document is used to credit a customer or reseller account. In this case, an account balance is shown with different signs in Provider Control Panel and Customer (or Reseller) Control Panel. From Provider Control Panel an account balance is decreased by a credit amount. From Customer (or Reseller) Control Panel an account balance is shown as increased by a credit amount. Such adjustment can be necessary due to incorrect invoice pricing, promotion campaign, bonus pay-offs and so forth. Credit Memo can be generated by cancellation and downgrade order, when customer has pre-paid for services that are being cancelled or downgraded. Similar to payments, credit memos should be applied to invoices to ensure proper ageing. Debit Memo - this document is used to debit a customer or a reseller account. From Provider Control Panel, a debit memo increases an account balance. From Customer (or Reseller) Control Panel, a debit memo decreases an account balance. Such adjustments are usually needed due to incorrect invoice pricing or to offset incorrect payment or credit memo. Debit memos should be closed off by application of payments or credit memos. 15

16 Introduction to Hosting Business With Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Void Check - this is a special type of transaction, applicable only to credit card payments processed online. Payment confirmed by payment gateway is treated as processed in Billing Management. However, payment gateway does not settle the confirmed payment immediately. If during this time the payment is voided, PPAB generates a Void Check document, unapplies payment from the order or invoice and applies it (the payment) to the void check. Void request sent before confirmed capture does not generate Void Check as the payment at this moment is not yet processed. Void request sent after the payment gateway settles the transaction with banking network, is rejected by the payment gateway and no Void Check document is created. Void Check document cannot be created manually by the operator. Refund - this document is similar to Void Check. After payment gateway settles the payment, the payment can no longer be voided as money is already transferred from credit card to merchant account. Such payment can only be refunded. Upon receiving confirmation of successful refund, PPAB generates a Refund document, unapplies payment from the order or invoice and applies it (the payment) to the refund. Refund of earlier processed payment cannot be entered manually by the operator, it is always created automatically upon success response for refund request. PPAB also allows creating a refund manually as credit to customer credit card rather than as a reversal of earlier online payment. Such refund behaves similar to invoice or debit memo: it increases customer balance and should be applied to a payment or to a credit memo. Daily Billing Process PBA uses tasks to automate certain processes. The most important is the Daily Billing Process. This is a scheduled task that wakes up once a day and generates recurring billing for subscriptions, renewing subscriptions, changing subscription state, sending notifications. Daily Billing Process processes each subscription of each account. If even one subscription processing is failed, all account subscriptions are considered unprocessed and no events will be generated. Daily Billing Process will try to process the failed account on the next run. Daily Billing Process performs the following operations: 1 Composes the list of all active accounts, that was not processed more than a day. 2 For each account checks its credit terms parameters (Due Period, Grace Period, Hold Period). If one of periods ends, Daily Billing Process generates respective events. For example, in the end of account Hold Period, Daily Billing Process generates events. Events processing results in putting account on hold. In this case, subscriptions of suspended account will not be processed. 3 For each subscription of account Daily Billing Process performs the following operations: Requests resources usage statistics from external system over a day. 16

17 Introduction to Hosting Business With Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Updates resources usage parameters value in accordance with request result and checks if overuse has been occurred. If overusage occurred, Daily Billing process generates events according to subscription settings. Checks the following parameters: Next Billing Date. If the billing date comes, process generates events. Events processing results in creating billing order. Renew Point. Parameter defines the number of days before expiration date when the subscription should be renewed automatically. The setting is ignored if Renew Automatically option is No. If the date comes and Renew Automatically option is Yes, process generates events. Events processing results in creating renewal order on the subscription renewal fee sum. Expiration Date. Parameter defines the date when the subscription expires. If the expiration date comes, process generates respective events according subscription settings. Grace Period. Parameter defines a period of time (in days) when customer is still able to renew his subscription. This period starts from the subscription expiration date, expired subscription remains active for all this time. If the grace period end date comes, process generates respective events according to subscription settings. Hold Period. Parameter defines a period of time (in days) when customer's subscription remains in the On Hold state. Subscription is put on hold if it was not renewed in time (until the grace period ends). Services provisioning is suspended for this period. If the renewal order remains unprocessed at the end of the hold period, the subscription is stopped (with possible recovery). If the hold period end date comes, process generates respective events according to subscription settings. Checks subscription notification schedule. If schedule contains notifications to be sent, process generates events. Events processing results in sending notifications. Note: it is recommended to regularly check Last Billing Date parameter of account to make sure none of its subscriptions has failed check during Daily Billing Process. 17

18 C HAPTER 3 Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Interface Description This chapter helps you to get acquainted with Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Control Panel (hereinafter - CP). In This Chapter Navigation Through Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Working with Lists of Objects Refresh... 22

19 Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Interface Description Navigation Through Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Navigation Tree Navigation tree is the major navigation tool. Using it you can easily access any feature of PPAB. Navigation tree has either a tree-like or a standard menu structure. Entire PPAB functionality is subdivided into several vast sections. Each section can be expanded by clicking "+" next to section name. Each section or subsection will be referred as level. For example, the screen that you see after logging in to PPAB will be referred to as top-level screen. Navigation Path Navigation path is a secondary navigation tool. Once you logged in to PPAB Control Panel, the path (chain of links) appears at the top of the screen. These links reflect the steps that have lead you to your current location within PPAB. The Top link always directs you to the PPAB top-level screen. By clicking on other links, you can be one or more (depending on your location) levels up. Search Menu and Favourites If you want to find a particular PPAB screen you can lookup for it using the Search field at the top of the Navigation Tree. Start entering the screen name and then select it from the floating list of matching names. After the click you will be taken to that screen. To get instant access to a screen which you use quite often, you can add it to your Favorites menu by clicking the icon. The items you added will be accessible from the upper node of Navigation tree. Working with Lists of Objects You may have considerable number of objects within PPAB. To facilitate working with the different lists of objects (for example, lists of subscriptions and orders), there are special tools available for you: searching and filtering. PPAB allows exporting most of the tables into the MS Excel format. Search Search bar is located at the top of each list. Search is performed by columns of the list displayed, therefore, search bar fields differ depending on the list contents. To search particular item within a list, type an ID or a keyword into Search fields or select a needed search sample from list (if such available) and click the Search button. 19

20 Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Interface Description Note: A so-called sticky search is implemented in PPAB. This means that PPAB saves your last search settings and when you get back to the list where you have used search recently, the list keeps being filtered. To drop the saved search settings, click Reset Results. Some additional search options are available in PPAB: Specify a range of parameters. Use regular expressions in search fields. To use the additional search options, follow the rules: Specifying Range of Search Parameters It is possible to specify the range for the following types of parameters: Integer. For example, document ID. Do not mix document ID with document number. The latter may contain letters and cannot be used as search parameter in this way. Double. A number with comma separator. Date. Date format depends on the locale currently used in PPAB. For example, In this case, enter date without clicking a calendar icon, but type it manually. Currency. A double number with currency sign appended, for example, 25,78$. This is applicable to prices. To specify a range between two values, use the format START..END, where START is a starting value, two dots is separator, and END is ending value. Use minimum two dots as separator, three or more dots are also accepted. For example, if you want to search for documents with IDs equal or no lower than 75 and equal and no bigger than 100, then enter into Document ID field at a search bar. To specify a range below or above some value, use the format..value or VALUE.. respectively. For example, for document ID, search sample..50 will filter the list of documents to the ones with ID equal or less than 50. The search sample 30.. will filter the list of documents to the ones with ID equal or greater than 30. Using Regular Expressions Regular expressions are applicable to string values. For example, names of subscriptions. The regular expression format supported in PPAB is POSIX Basic and POSIX Extended ( Search panel Search panel available on the starting screen allows to perform a quick search for a document or object by specifying its type with the help of respective option. Search for a particular document or object is available by the following criteria: Object (Document) ID, Object (Document) Name; 20

21 Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Interface Description Account ID, Account Name, for which the object (document) was created; Object (Document) Status, Object (Document) Type - allows selecting the values needed from the drop-down list. Created From, Created To - the dates between (or starting from, or no later then) which the document or object was likely to be created. Filling in the fields allows narrowing search results. To start the search click Find. Note: It is possible to narrow start search quickly by applying the filters (e.g. quick setup for the dates to search by selecting the 'New Documents (last 24 hours)' filter. Sorting To sort the list by a criterion, click on respective column header. Repeating click on the same column header changes sorting order from ascending to descending (and conversely). To sort by several columns, hold SHIFT and click on the second header, third, and so on. List entries will be sorted sequentially by first column selected, then, if there are any identical elements in it - by second and, finally, by third. Numbers that appear next to each header reflect sorting order. On the figure below you may see an example of list sorted by ID. Figure 1: List of objects 21

22 Parallels Plesk Automation Billing Interface Description Exporting List into MS Excel Table To export the list into the MS Excel format, click the Export to Excel link located to the right above or below the list. Changing Displayed Columns Set To limit the set of columns displayed to necessary ones, click Select Columns link located at the right above and below the list. Select columns to hide from the list that expands. To make a hidden column visible, repeat the operation. Changing Number of Displayed Items It is possible to set the listing to 25, 50, or 100 items per page. Appropriate links are located above/beneath the upper-right/lower-right corner of the list respectively. Special links for viewing pages (pages numbers, next, last) are also provided; you can find them both above and below the list. Changing Columns Order If there are columns that you use often and those that you use rarely, it makes sense to bring forward those you use often and bring back others. To change the columns order, drag the column that you want to change position of to the right or to the left in relation to its current position and drop it. Depending on the distance which you drag a column, it is moved one or more positions in respective direction. Refresh In order to immediately bring the screen in correspondence with actual state of affairs, click the icon located at the upper right corner of the screen. 22

23 C HAPTER 4 PPAB Configuration The initial and basic PPAB settings are described in this chapter. In This Chapter Quick Setup Importing Parallels Plesk Automation Accounts and Subscriptions that are not in the Billing System Configuring Account Settings Configuring Finance Settings Configuring Operations and Products Settings Configuring Services Settings Configuring Internationalization Settings... 85

24 PPAB Configuration Quick Setup Quick Setup is the place to start with PPAB configuration, and the place to know about the current configuration status. To access the Quick Setup, click the top item of the left menu, where the name of your vendor account is displayed. The Quick Setup dashboard is displayed: All the basic billing components are listed there. The status of the component is shown: - needs configuration. Click the link next to this icon to get the corresponding settings displayed. - configured. Click the link next to this icon to adjust the configuration. 24

25 PPAB Configuration Importing Parallels Plesk Automation Accounts and Subscriptions that are not in the Billing System If by the moment you start using the Billing system, you have had some subscriptions or accounts in PPA, and you would like to continue managing them in PPAB, then you may use the Conflict Resolver, to import all the needed data from PPA to PPAB. The Conflict Resolver shows, is there are any accounts and subscriptions in PPA that do not exist in PPAB. To view and resolve such data conflicts, go to System > Conflict Resolver. Important: To import the subscriptions, you need to create in PPAB the service plan on the same service template the imported PPA subscriptions are based on. Subscription periods and resources in this service plan should also match. The conflicting accounts and subscriptions are shown under the tabs: Customers. Conflicting customer accounts. Subscriptions. Conflicting subscriptions. The conflicts resolution logs are shown under the tabs: Conflict Resolver Logs for Customers. Conflict Resolver Logs for Subscriptions. Note: If you have many accounts and subscriptions for import, you may do this from the csv file. The template for your csv can be downloaded on the first step of the import wizard To resolve the customer accounts: 1 Click the Customers tab and click the link to ger the list of the conflicting customer accounts. 2 Put a tick in the check box next to the account name, to select it for import. 3 Click Import Customers. The import wizard starts: Select Filling Method. To enter the data manually, select Specified Manually. To import from the scv file, select Taken from file; to download the template csv, click Here you can download the template file. When ready, click Next. If you import customer accounts from the file, then click Browse and locate the file. If you import manually, then review the default values assigned to the account being imported. Click Next. Review and if needed, adjust the resulting imported values.to confirm the import, click Finish. 25

26 PPAB Configuration Configuring Account Settings When customer purchases service plan in online store, he is prompted to select whether he is a person or represents a company. In any case he is offered to input his personal data, preferable payment method data and billing address. If customer represents an organization, he is prompted to input its physical address in addition. This data is used in a variety of PPAB processes, such as: vendor-customer communication (customer personal and billing information), ordering services and regular billing (payment method), and the like. In this section we will consider managing your account. Under account management the following activities are implied: Maintaining account personal, billing and technical information. Creating roles and users. Assigning roles to users. 26

27 PPAB Configuration Configuring Your Account As PBA installation is finished, it is time to configure the administrator account. If account information has been put in POA, you can synchronize POA and PBA data from POA side. Configuring Contact Information Although your account information is usually filled in by CRM, it is recommended that you verify it after PBA is pre-configured. Your account information is used in notifications. Contact information in PBA is subdivided into: Account Information - account details, company information, administrative, billing and technical contacts. Additional Information - can be used to assign a special parameter to your account. This parameter can be used as additional information in notifications. Personal Information - personal information of currently logged in user. Modifying Account Information Modifying your account information may be required if it was changed or you have found an inconsistency. To update your account information: 1 Open System > Users. The list of users is displayed. 2 Find the user for which you want to change account data. Click on its name. 3 Click Edit. The editing account information dialog window is displayed. 4 Change contact information as required. 5 Click Save to confirm changes. 27

28 PPAB Configuration Adding Attribute By default, additional information contains no attributes. Additional information may be required if you plan to send notifications with information not presented in account general information. Such information can be set in additional attribute, the attribute then has to be assigned to your account. To create additional attribute: 1 Open System > Settings > Attributes. The list of customer attributes (if any) appears on the screen. 2 Click Add New Attribute. The adding new attribute dialog window is displayed. Fill out the form: 3 Type attribute ID in the ID field. 4 Type attribute name in the Name field. 5 Type attribute description in the Description field. 6 Type attribute type in the Type field. 7 Select whether the attribute is Optional or Required from the Status group. 8 Leave After Field parameter as is. 9 Select the Accounts value from the Applicable to group. 10 Check the Locale Dependent if you want the attribute value to be translated in accordance with customer account language. 11 Enter the attribute sorting number into the Sort Number field. 12 Select the Show in Storefront check box to display the attribute in online store. 13 Click Save to add attribute. For more information refer to the Creating Attributes (on page 58) section. Specifying Values of Attributes Assigned to Account When you create the account attributes, those attributes that are marked with the COMP tag are automatically assigned to the Additional Information details of your provider account. You only need to specify the values of these attributes. Important: All the necessary attributes must be already configured and marked with the COMP tag. For the details, see the Creating Attributes section (see page 58). To assign the values to your account attributes: 1 Open System > Users. The list of users is displayed. 2 Find the user for which you want to change account data. Click on its name. 3 Switch to the Additional Information tab. The list of additional attributes (empty by default) is displayed. 28

29 PPAB Configuration 4 Click Edit. The Edit Additional Information form, which contains the fields for entering values of all the COMP account attributes that you created earlier, opens. 5 Type the values of the attributes in the respective fields and click Save. Your changes are applied, the Additional Information screen shows the specified attributes values. 29

30 PPAB Configuration Configuring Settings settings allows configuring automated address confirmation for PBA account users. This allows preventing problems with bad or non functional addresses. confirmation requirement does not block an account or user activity, only confirmation status starts being shown for accounts and accounts' users. PBA account users are asked to confirm their addresses by means of confirmation URL. If e- mail confirmation is needed, a notification that contains a confirmation link is sent to an address specified. To confirm an address, a user is asked to click confirmation link. After this, a pre-configured confirmation web page opens, and a user can see a message about confirmation status (successful or not). In case address confirmation is required, the following fields are added to account settings: Confirmed field is added to accounts general settings (General tab within account properties). This field shows how many users registered for an account have confirmed their addresses. The confirmation status is added to the field at account user general settings (Users tab within account settings, select a user, switch to the General tab). Note: a special template is used for confirmation notification. Go to System > Settings > Notifications screen and select the 'Confirmation ' as Confirmation Template. To configure settings: 1 Open System > Settings > Security > Settings submenu of the Navigation tree. The current settings appear on the screen. 2 Click Edit. settings appear for editing. Change the settings: To require addresses confirmation, select the Confirmation Required check box. Enter the PPAB application server URL into the Return Host field. Enter the URL as you use in browser when connecting to PPAB control panel. For example, The needed URI will be automatically appended to the entered URL, to form the confirmation URL. Click next to the Ok Template field. From the window that opens, select the 'Successful confirmation screen' template to be used for confirmation screen content in case of successful confirmation. Click next to the Error Template field. From the window that opens, select the 'Failed e- mail confirmation screen' template to be used for confirmation screen content in case confirmation failed. 3 Click Save to confirm changes. 30

31 PPAB Configuration Creating User Role PPAB is a multifunctional system and thus it is reasonable to share the amount of work between your staff members. For this purpose PPAB allows creating account users. Besides actual sharing of the total work content, it is reasonable to divide created users by their duties and grant access to the respective PPAB functionality to them, at the same time forbidding access to the rest of it. For example, your marketing manager needs not to configure PPAB, but needs to analyze sales and set market policies: plans, prices and promotions, whereas your accountant needs to manage AR documents and view sales reports, but needs not to manage sales; configuration engineer needs full access rights to be able to configure and maintain PPAB, etc. PPAB offers you a convenient mechanism for dividing your staff members by duty: assigning a role to an account user, which gives him a set of privileges, determining the set of actions the user is able to perform in PPAB. Below you may see the list of roles suggested for creation: Note: upon PPAB installation there is one role already presented in your system - the Administrator Full Access role, which grants full control over PPAB. Configuration Engineer - a person responsible for PPAB initial configuring and further maintenance. Sales Manager - a person responsible for sales. Accountant - a person responsible for managing accounts, their balances, money collection and balance adjustments. Support Engineer - a person responsible for solving problems that your customers may experience in PPAB. Others you consider necessary. To create a role: 1 Open System > Settings > Security > Roles submenu of the Navigation tree. The list of roles available in the system appears on the screen. 2 Click Add New Role. The adding new role wizard starts. 3 Fill the forms: Type in a role name into the Name field. We suggest using a descriptive enough name, e.g. "Marketing Manager" as it will make easier further manipulations with the role. Type in a free-form description of the role into the Description field if necessary. 4 Proceed to the next wizard step by clicking Next >> or click Cancel to leave the adding new role wizard. 5 Select a privilege or a number of them by checking boxes next to the privilege(s) name(s). Note: to view the list of available privileges with descriptions, please, refer to the Available Privileges List appendix in the end of this guide. 6 Click Finish to finish adding new role. 31

32 PPAB Configuration Adding Account User User contact information is used for domain registration. As registrars require information in ASCII format, do not use national characters in user contact information. To add a user: 1 Open the System > Users submenu of the Navigation tree. The list of users already created in your account appears on the screen. 2 Click Add New User. As the adding new user wizard starts, fill the forms: Type in a login name and a password the user will use when logging in to PPAB into the Login Name and Password fields respectively. Retype the password into the Confirm Password field. Type in user contact information into the Contact Information box. Note: Fields, marked with the red "*" sign, are obligatory for filling. 3 Proceed to the next wizard step by clicking Next >> or click Cancel to leave the wizard. 4 Select a role or a number of roles to be assigned to the user by checking boxes next to the role(s) name(s). Depending on your staff member duties, you may combine roles into a set, unique for each user. 5 Click Finish to finish adding the user. Note: User can not be deleted if under his login any actions were performed. Configuring Access Control List for Users It is possible to restrict access to Provider control panel by specifying IP addresses logging in to PPAB CC is allowed from. The list of trusted IP addresses and/or IP ranges is configured per user. To configure assess control list for a user: 1 Open System > Users. The list of users already created in your account appears on the screen. 2 Select a user by clicking on respective link in the User ID or Login Name column. User settings appear on the screen. 3 Switch to the Access Control List tab. The list of trusted IP addresses (if configured) appears on the screen. To edit an IP address description, click on respective link in the IP address/range column. To remove an IP address/range, select the checkbox next to IP address and click Delete. 4 To add a new IP address or IP range, click Add New ACL Rule. Fill the form that appears: 32 Enter the trusted IP address or IP range (in the form IP/mask) into the IP Address/Range field.

33 PPAB Configuration Type a short free-form description of a trusted IP into the Description field. 5 Click Save. 33

34 PPAB Configuration Configuring Login Settings Login settings define login and password parameters that are checked when customer registers a new account. In addition, both re-login and password expiration policies can be set. Note: for fresh PPAB installation, password quality level is set to High by default. How to show password quality requirements in online store: The current password quality level can be shown in online store in case customers enter a weaker password. The description should be entered (and updated if needed) manually, using the online store Dictionary. The parameter is one for all password quality levels. Thus, if you change the password quality level, you need to go to store dictionary and manually update the description. To enter or update the password quality requirements description: Open the Products > Online Store > Languages submenu of the Navigation tree. The list of languages available for online store interface appears on the screen. Select the language you want to enter the password quality description by clicking on respective link in Language ID or Language Name column. The selected localization language general settings are displayed. Switch to the Dictionary tab. The list of store keywords is displayed. Search for the PASSWORD_REQUIREMENTS keyword. Select this keyword by clicking on its name. The keyword details are displayed. Cick Edit. The keyword details are displayed for editing. Type the password quality requirements into the Translation field. To get the text displayed in a list or in paragraphs, HTML formatting can be used. Click Save to save the changes. To edit login settings: 1 Go to System > Settings > Security > Login Settings. Current login settings appear on the screen. 2 Click Edit. Login settings configuration dialog window is displayed. Fill out the form: Specify the minimal length of the login (symbols) in the Min Login Length field. Specify the maximal length of the login (symbols) in the Max Login Length field. Select the Numbers Allowed check box if you want digits to be allowed in login. Select the Special Characters Allowed check box if you want special characters to be allowed in login (refer to Password Checklist (on page 36) for information on special characters). 34

35 PPAB Configuration Input the message that you want to appear when customer tries to submit an incorrect login into the Incorrect Login Alert field. Specify a regular expression to set a mask to cut disallowed characters from login in the Additional Login Mask Filter field. Note: supported regular expression standard is POSIX Basic and POSIX Extended. Description of these standards is available over the internet, for example, here ( Select the required password strength from the Password Quality Level group of options. Description of each level is shown on the screen below each of the options. The password quality level is applied to all users of all account types. For more details refer to Password Checklist (on page 36). Important: If PPAB is integrated with POA, the same password quality level as in POA must be used. In the Max Relogin Attempts field, specify how many times a user can repeat the failed attempts to log in to PPAB. In the Lock Period field, specify how long (in minutes) a user must wait after failed re-login attempts, before it will be allowed to try to log in again. Specify password expiration policy (how frequently users will be forced to change their passwords). Password expiration policy is enabled and expiration period is set separately for Provider (PPAB installation owner) account users, Resellers' accounts users, and customer accounts' users. To enable password expiration for Provider, Reseller, or Customer accounts, select the Policy Enabled check box and enter password expiration period in days. 3 Click Save to confirm changes. 35

36 PPAB Configuration Password Checklist The password quality mechanism distinguishes four types of character classes that are used to create a password: Uppercase letter - the letter entered in the upper case. For example, 'A', 'V'. Lowercase letter - the letter entered in the lower case. For example, 'a', 'v'. Numerics - the digit character.they are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 0. Special character - any non-alphanumeric character. For example, '#', '&', '!'. The mechanism includes an English vocabulary. It checks against commonly used words and impose the limitations on using them in passwords. Basically, passwords must be at least 7 characters long and include different types of characters. Shorter passwords must contain more types of characters. Only uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters are allowed. Avoid using dictionary words, personal information, and keyboard sequences. The table below comprises the requirements for a MINIMUM password length depending on the number of character classes used in it: 4 character classes 3 character classes 2 character classes 1 character class Pass phrase Minimum required password length 7 symbols 8 symbols 24 symbols not allowed 11 symbols Additional requirements for a password 1 Only printable ASCII characters are allowed within a password; using UNICODE is unacceptable. 2 Generally, basing a password on a login name is not allowed, but if the rest part of the password is still strong enough then the whole password will be accepted. 3 When calculating the number of character types, upper-case letters used as the first character and digits used as the last character of a password are not counted. For example, the password 'Atu157!' will not work, because it starts with the upper-case 'A', but password 'atu157!' will pass the quality check. 4 The password length contributes more to the password strength than a number of character classes used in it. Examples Weak passwords are listed below together with the messages displayed by PPAB: 36