There are many scenarios in which an individual can have the need to operate and manage more than one customer account with a web hosting company.

For example when an individual has services related to a business, and also desires to use services from the same company personally, or when an individual manages or works with multiple different businesses. Another common scenario is a web designer or web developer, who needs the ability to access and manage the websites of multiple customers.

All of these scenarios become infinitely easier to accomodate and manage with the new Users functionality that has been introduced in WHMCS 8.0.

A User represents an individual person.

Every person who requires the ability to log in to the client area of a WHMCS powered web host needs a User account, and each User can be associated with and have access and permissions defined for as many different Client Accounts as they need.

A Client Account represents a business or other entity who is the billable party.

For home/personal users, the User and Client Account are typically the same ultimate entity, but introducing the concept of Users provides a lot more power and flexibility for those who need it, and for those that don't, very little changes.

Users simplify access for individuals who use the services of your company:

• Each individual only needs to remember one set of credentials per WHMCS powered hosting provider they work with
• Separating the services you procure for different entities, whether that's different businesses, or business vs personal, becomes simple
• It's faster and easier to switch between any of the Client Accounts to which you have access
• Ideal for web designers, web developers and digital agencies who need access to administer many different hosting accounts

Users replace the Sub-accounts functionality that existed previously.

As part of the upgrade to WHMCS 8.0, all sub-accounts will be migrated to equivalent User accounts with the same login credentials, access rights and permissions as the Sub-Account had before.

One of the major drawbacks of the Sub-Account model, and one of the many benefits of the new User model, is that with Sub-Accounts, a single individual could end up with numerous email address and password credential combinations for all of the different Sub-Accounts they required to access and manage their Client Accounts.

As a result, because the emails were required to be unique, there can be no automated detection of those Sub-Accounts which relate to the same individual person, and so after upgrading to WHMCS 8.0, those with access to multiple Client Accounts will likely want to consolidate those to a single User account. Here's how you would go about doing that:

1. Choose a User account - As part of the upgrade to WHMCS 8.0, a User account will have been created for each Client or Sub-Account login that existed prior to the upgrade. So the first step is to choose the User account that you wish to use moving forward. A user account is identified by the email address.

2. Request Access - Every Client Account has an Owner. This is typically the person who first created the account, and who represents the primary point of contact for it. You will need to ask this user to send you an invite to access and manage their account. They will be able to set the permissions you will have when they do this.
3. Accept the Invite - Once the Client Account Owner has initiated the invite, you will receive an email containing a link that can be used to accept the invite. Follow that link and login using the User account credentials that you wish to use every time you login to WHMCS.
4. Repeat the Process - Repeat the above steps 2 and 3 for each of the Client Accounts you wish to have access to. Once you have completed these steps, you're done. Now each time you login, you'll be presented with a list of Client Accounts from which to select, and can switch account at any time by navigating to Profile > Switch Account.

We're sure your users will find this added convenience useful, and if you have any questions about Users, Client Accounts, or any of the other new functionality in WHMCS 8.0, we invite you to ask them in the comments below.

WHMCS 8.0 is available to download, install and upgrade to today. To learn more, visit https://www.whmcs.com/whats-new/