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How to Sign In to the Customer Portal

The Customer portal is where you see your calls, the engineer visits booked for your site and your account with your service provider. You sign in on the portal's sign-in page, headed Sign in to see your calls, with your email address and your password. Your service provider gives you the portal's address and sets up your sign-in for you.

How do I sign in to the Customer portal?​

Open the Customer portal address your service provider gave you, type your Email address and Password on the page headed Sign in to see your calls, then select Sign in. If your service provider gave you a password, use it, even on your first visit. If nobody has set a password for your sign-in yet, choose your own first with Set your password on the same page.

  1. Open the Customer portal address your service provider gave you. If you are not signed in, you arrive on the sign-in page, headed Sign in to see your calls.
  2. Type the email address your service provider set up for you in Email address.
  3. Type your password in Password. Select Show beside the box to see what you typed, and Hide to cover it again.
  4. Select Sign in, or press Enter. While the portal checks your details, the button reads Signing in….

The sign-in page never shows a list of names or accounts: you always type your own email address. There is no separate username, customer number or account code to type: your email address is your sign-in name. If a page asks you to choose your name from a list, you have reached your service provider's own sign-in for their staff, not the Customer portal: open the Customer portal address they gave you, or ask them for it. If you opened a link or a bookmark to a particular page of the portal, such as your Calls list or one call, you are taken to that page once you have signed in.

Tip: Two other buttons sit under Sign in on the Customer portal sign-in page: Set your password, for a first visit when your service provider has not given you a password, and Forgot password, if you no longer know it. Whatever email address you have typed stays in the box when you move between them.

What happens after I sign in to the Customer portal?​

After you sign in, the Customer portal opens straight on your account's Home page if your sign-in is linked to one customer account. If it is linked to several accounts, for example several sites or branches, you see Choose an account first and pick the one you want to look at. The Customer portal does not remember the account you looked at last, so with several accounts you see Choose an account after every sign-in, unless you opened a bookmark or a link to one account's page.

A short Opening… line appears on the sign-in page while the portal loads.

If the portal then says No customer account is linked to this sign-in; ask the company., your sign-in works but your service provider has not yet linked it to any of your accounts. Contact them and ask them to link your account to your sign-in.

How long do I stay signed in to the Customer portal?​

You stay signed in to the Customer portal in that browser until you select Sign out, so you do not have to type your password every time you visit. If you do not use the portal in that browser for thirty days, you are signed out and asked to sign in again. There is no "Remember me" or "Keep me signed in" box to tick, and no way to choose a shorter time: every sign-in is remembered in that browser.

You may also be asked to sign in again sooner:

  • when your service provider changes or switches off your sign-in;
  • when you, or somebody using your email address, uses Forgot password;
  • when your service provider restarts or updates their system.

On a computer or phone other people use, always select Sign out when you have finished, because closing the browser does not sign you out; or use a private (incognito) browser window, which forgets your sign-in when you close it.

Each browser and each device signs in to the Customer portal separately: signing in on your phone does not sign you out on your computer, and signing out on one leaves the other signed in. If your sign-in ends while you are using the portal, the next page you open shows the sign-in page, and once you have signed in again you are taken back to the page you were on.

What do the messages on the Customer portal sign-in page mean?​

Each message on the Customer portal sign-in page tells you what to do next. Most of them are about how your sign-in is set up, which only your service provider can change.

  • That email and password were not accepted. Check them and try again. — the email address or the password is wrong. The password box is emptied so you can type it again. The same message appears for an email address that has no sign-in, so check the address too, and select Show beside Password to see exactly what you are typing. If it keeps happening, ask your service provider which address they set up for you, and either ask them for a new password or use Forgot password, which switches your sign-in off until they switch it back on. If a password you have always used is suddenly refused, somebody else may have used Forgot password with your address: choose a new password yourself with Forgot password, then ask your service provider to switch your sign-in back on.
  • There is a sign-in for that address but no password yet. Choose Set your password first. — nobody has set a password for your sign-in yet. Use Set your password to choose one.
  • Access has not been granted for that sign-in. The company has to switch it on. — your sign-in is switched off. This is what you see after using Forgot password, until your service provider switches it back on. Contact them; you are not emailed when it is back on, so try again once they tell you.
  • That sign-in cannot be used here. Ask the company to check it. — your sign-in exists but is not set up for the Customer portal. Contact your service provider.
  • Enter your email address. or Enter your ABM password. — a box was left empty. Type your email address or your password.
  • The server is busy signing people in; try again in a moment. — you tried again very quickly after a failed attempt. Wait a few seconds and select Sign in again.

What does it mean when a Customer portal sign-in message names my email address, or says it did not answer?​

These messages on the Customer portal sign-in page, headed Sign in to see your calls (or Set the password for your sign-in when you are setting your first password), come from your service provider's side, not from anything you typed, so typing your email address or password again will not help.

If a message names your email address and ends The office has to set which customer accounts this sign-in reaches., The office has to correct it. or The office has to narrow it., your password was right but the list of accounts your sign-in reaches has a problem on your service provider's side. Contact them and read them the message.

If a message ends did not answer., your service provider's system is not answering at the moment. Wait a few minutes and try again, and tell your service provider if it keeps happening.

When you report a sign-in problem, your service provider may ask which version you are using: the line at the foot of the Customer portal sign-in page names the product and its version number.

Why does the Password box keep emptying itself on the Customer portal sign-in page?​

The Customer portal empties the Password box on purpose, at three moments, so that you type your password afresh and a password is never used somewhere you did not mean it.

  • After a wrong password. When the sign-in page says That email and password were not accepted. Check them and try again., the Password box is emptied so you can type it again. Select Show beside the box to see what you are typing. Any other message, such as Access has not been granted for that sign-in. The company has to switch it on., leaves your password in the box, because typing it again would not help.
  • When you move between the three screens. Selecting Sign in, Set your password or Forgot password under the main button empties every password box but keeps your Email address, so a password typed on one screen is never set or used on another by mistake.
  • After Forgot password. Once you have chosen a new password on Forgot password, the page goes back to Sign in with the password boxes empty and says If that address has a sign-in, its password is changed and the account is now inactive. The company will switch it back on. Your sign-in cannot be used until your service provider switches it back on, so contact them before you try to sign in with the new password.

Your email address is kept in every case, so only the password needs typing again.

Why does the Customer portal make me wait after a wrong password?​

After a wrong password, the Customer portal takes longer to answer each new attempt for that email address, so Sign in stays on Signing in… for a while. The wait starts at one second and doubles with each failed attempt, up to half a minute, and it is forgotten an hour after the last failed attempt. This protects your account from somebody guessing your password. If you try again while the wait is still running, for example in another browser window, you see The server is busy signing people in; try again in a moment.

The same wait applies on the Set your password and Forgot password screens.

Your sign-in is never locked by wrong passwords, however many there are: the wait simply stops growing at half a minute, and your service provider does not have to unlock anything. So if you are still refused after the wait, the message on the sign-in page says why: usually the password or the email address.

Wait a few seconds, check your email address and password carefully, and try again. If you cannot remember your password, use Forgot password on the sign-in page instead of guessing.

Can I sign in to the Customer portal with a Microsoft or Google account, or with a code on my phone?​

No. The Customer portal sign-in page, headed Sign in to see your calls, has only Email address and Password: there is no button to sign in with a Microsoft or Google account, and no two-step verification, so the portal never asks for a code from an app or a text message. Your email address and your password are all you need, on every device.

Because the password is the only key, keep it to yourself: choose one of at least eight characters that you do not use anywhere else, select Sign out when you finish on a computer other people use, and tell your service provider straight away if you think somebody else knows it. They can set a new password, and any browser that was signed in with the old one is signed out.

Does it matter how I type my email address on the Customer portal sign-in page?​

Spaces before or after your email address make no difference on the Customer portal sign-in page: the portal ignores them. Capital letters normally make no difference either, so Name@Example.com and name@example.com usually find the same sign-in. The same goes for Set your password and Forgot password.

What does matter is that it is the address your service provider set your sign-in up with. If you have more than one email address, for example an old one and a new one, or a personal one and a shared office one, only the address your sign-in was created with works. A space in the middle of the address, or a letter missing or swapped, makes it a different address.

When the address is not one with a sign-in, the Customer portal says the same as for a wrong password: That email and password were not accepted. Check them and try again. So if you are sure of your password and it is still refused, check the address letter by letter, then ask your service provider exactly which address your sign-in uses. Only they can change it.

What does it mean when the Customer portal sign-in page says the site's database is being brought up to date?​

A message on the Customer portal sign-in page that begins This site's database is on version means your service provider's system is being brought up to date at that moment, usually because it has just been updated to a newer version. Nothing is wrong with your email address, your password or your sign-in.

  • If the message ends it is being brought up to date now. Try again in a moment., or another process is bringing it up to date. Try again in a moment., wait a minute and select Sign in again. The update normally takes only a short while.
  • If the message ends Try again. after saying it has been going on for some minutes, wait a few more minutes and try again.
  • If the message says it could not be brought up to date, the update has failed on your service provider's side and waiting will not fix it. Contact your service provider and read them the message, or send them a copy of it.

A message that says This site's database is being checked before this build uses it. is the same kind of short pause: try again in a moment. The same messages can appear on Set your password and Forgot password.