Customers Overview


Customers are logical elements in the system usually representing termination partners, resellers, or virtual customers you create for such purposes as keeping track of pre-paid cards. A Customer can have several Accounts associated with it. The Accounts associated with a Customer may represent individual users of a product, such as a pre-paid cards, or may identify different SIP UAs (e.g. phones or individual ports in multi-port devices).

Customers are organized hierarchically so that one customer may “own” one or more sub-customers.

There are two basic types of customers: Root Customer and all other customers. The two types of Customer differ by the fact that a Root Customer doesn't have any upper-level Customer who “owns” him, for that reason, a Root Customer either directly or indirectly (via their sub-customers), bills other Customers in the system. The Root Customer usually represents the owner of the switch. Unlike any other Customer in the system, the Root Customer is not billed through the software for the calls his Accounts or sub-Customers make. Also, by default only the Root Customer has the right to view and/or modify system-wide parameters, such as routing configuration. The Root Customer can delegate some rights to sub-Customers via Permissions.

A Customer could be, a company with an Account for each employee. The company can be invoiced for all calls its Accounts make and in turn, the company can invoice each Account for their particular calls. Alternatively, the company can allow each Account to be managed through credit vouchers.

The following figure illustrates this concept:



Here you can see a system with 5 Customers, and 3 hierarchy levels.  Note that the system doesn’t allow a Customer to see any other Customers above it.  There is no way for Customer D (for example) to tell that there are other Customers above Customer A.


Adding, Updating, and Deleting a Customer.

On the Customer page (shown below), you can add, update or delete Customers.



Add New Customer


To add a new Customer, go to the Add Customer section and click on the Add button.  Note that you cannot add new Customers without allocating a tariff to them; so, you will need to make sure that you have a tariff that will apply to their calls.    



The Add New Customer window is shown below.




To Add a New Customer, enter your Customer's details.  In the example below, the Customer's name is "Sample Customer".





Select the Tariff that you will be assigning to your Customer from the drop down box.  Tariffs can be created and adjusted through the Tariffs tab under Tariffs and Currencies on your root Customer Menu.





Next, select a Time Zone for the location of your Customer.  A list of Time Zones can be found in the Time Zone link on your Sippy Helpdesk.





Set Web Login and Web Password details for your Customer.  Each Customer will have access to his own Web Interface, to view Call Record details, create Customers, Accounts, and setup his own rates.  Once your Customer begins to create Customers, he becomes a level 1 Customer.  To his Customers, your Customer is the "Root Customer" as described in the 'Customers Overview illustration' above.




Select a Language from the drop down box for your Customer. Setting the language of the Customer will set most of the Customer's web interface Menu options, and reporting to their desired Language. 




Enter Balance and Credit Limit details for your Customer.




When you are done, select Save & Close.


 Once you add a new Customer he will be listed in the Customers page as shown below:



Note that by default, the Balance and Credit limit are displayed in USD, and are calculated according to the Exchange Rates available at the time.  Exchange Rates can be adjusted and added under the Exchange Rates tab found under the Tariffs and Currencies heading on your Customer Menu.



Updating an Existing Customer


To update an existing Customer, locate the Customer you wish to update inside the table of Customers.



Update details as required and Save and Close.  Adjust Customer window is shown below.




Note that the Customer's Balance cannot be adjusted from this screen. The Balance can be adjusted through the Maintenance option at the bottom of the Customer screen as shown below.



The Maintenance option allows you to Debit, Credit or Add Funds to your Customer's account.  Select the Action drop down box and select the desired Action.



Enter the Amount and associated transaction Notes you wish to apply to your Customer's account.



A choice of Currency for the transaction is shown in the drop down box and is available for you to select. 



To complete the transaction on your Customer's Account you must click the Save or Save and Close button.




Deleting an Existing Customer


To Delete an existing Customer, locate the Customer you wish to delete inside the table of Customers.  Click on the red cross in the row where the Customer is listed; the Customer will be deleted.