How to Turn Off or Delete a Customer Sign-in
To stop a customer using the Customer portal, untick Access granted on their sign-in; to remove the sign-in completely, use Delete. Both are on the form you get by opening the sign-in on the Customer sign-ins screen (menu, then Administration). Switching off is usually the better choice: it can be undone, and it works for every sign-in.
How do I stop a customer signing in to the portal?
Open the customer's sign-in on the Customer sign-ins screen, untick Access granted, and press Save. The customer can no longer sign in to the Customer portal, and a browser they are signed in on stops working.
- Open the menu and choose Customer sign-ins under Administration.
- Search for the customer in Search by name or email and press Open on their line.
- Untick Access granted.
- Press Save at the foot of the Customer sign-ins form.
The note under the box says what happens: "Untick it and they cannot sign in — and any browser they are signed in on now stops working within a minute. Their calls and their account keep everything they have." On their next click on the portal, the customer is sent back to the sign-in page, and if they try to sign in with their password they are told "Access has not been granted for that sign-in. The company has to switch it on."
Their line on the People tab is drawn faded and reads Access is switched off, or Inactive — password was reset on a date if their password has ever been reset, or still Not registered if they never set a password. Nothing else changes: their accounts, permissions, password and the calls they logged all stay, so ticking Access granted again and pressing Save restores everything as it was.
Each sign-in is switched off on its own. There is no switch that closes the Customer portal for everybody at once, and no way to tick several sign-ins on the People tab and switch them off together.
Can I sign a customer out without switching off their access?
Yes. There is no separate sign-out button on the Customer sign-ins screen, but saving a sign-in signs that customer out of every browser (within a minute when you save from the ABM Service desktop app): open their sign-in from the People tab and press Save, even with nothing changed. Setting a new password with Set the password does the same. Either way they can sign straight back in, with the same password or the new one, so to keep them out, untick Access granted as well.
Otherwise a customer stays signed in to the Customer portal in a browser until they sign out there, or until they have not used the Customer portal in that browser for thirty days. Save the defaults on the Defaults tab signs every customer out, within a minute at most, and a restart of your ABM Service server signs them all out too.
How do I delete a customer's sign-in?
Open the sign-in on the Customer sign-ins screen, press Delete at the foot of the form, and confirm with Delete it. The screen goes back to the list and says the address "can no longer sign in."
- Open the sign-in from the People tab of the Customer sign-ins screen.
- Press Delete.
- Read the question that appears in its place: "They lose the sign-in. Calls they logged keep their name."
- Press Delete it to go ahead, or Keep it to leave the sign-in as it is.
A browser the customer is signed in on stops working at once, or within a minute when the sign-in is deleted from the ABM Service desktop app. A deleted sign-in cannot be brought back. If the same person needs access again, create a new sign-in for them with Add someone; they will have to set a new password.
Warning: Deleting cannot be undone. If you might want to give the customer access again, untick Access granted instead.
Why can't I delete a customer's sign-in?
ABM Service will not delete a customer sign-in that has logged calls through the Customer portal, because each of those calls records who asked for it. The Customer sign-ins form shows: "This sign-in has logged calls, so it cannot be deleted — the call's record of who asked for it would be left naming nobody. Untick Access granted instead: they can no longer sign in, and the calls keep their author."
Untick Access granted and press Save. The customer is stopped just as surely, and the calls keep their name. The sign-in stays on the People tab, drawn faded, usually with the line Access is switched off, so anybody looking later can see that the person once had access and that it was ended on purpose.
A sign-in that has never logged a call, such as one created by mistake or one for a customer who never used the portal, can be deleted.
If the form says "There is no such sign-in. Somebody else may have deleted it.", the sign-in was already removed, perhaps from another computer. Press Cancel to go back to the list.
How do I change the email address a customer signs in with?
Open the customer's sign-in on the Customer sign-ins screen, change Email, and press Save. The customer signs in with the new address from then on, with the same password. Saving signs them out of the Customer portal, so tell them the new address first. Once signed in, a customer cannot change their own address or name in the Customer portal; that is always done here.
Two sign-ins cannot share an address. If the new address is already in use, the form says the address "already has a sign-in. Two sign-ins cannot share an address." Search for that address on the People tab to see which sign-in has it.
You can change Name the same way. The name is what the office sees and what is recorded against calls the customer logs from then on; calls they logged earlier keep the name they had at the time.
When a person leaves a customer's company and somebody else takes over, it is usually better to switch off the old sign-in and create a new one for the new person with Add someone, rather than changing the address on the old one. That way each person has their own password, and the calls each of them logged stay under their own name.