Reseller access

If you buy Footer365 through a reseller, such as your IT provider, they can open your Footer365 portal and work in it for you: building a template, setting up a rule, or looking into something that is not working. You decide whether they can, and you can change your mind at any time. If your reseller works through a distributor, the distributor can open your portal in the same way, and this one setting covers both.

If you buy directly from Footer365, you will not see this setting.

Turn reseller access on or off

1. Go to Account > Settings (open it).
2. Find the Reseller access card on the right. It names your reseller and shows On or Off.
3. Use the switch to turn access on or off. The change is saved straight away.

When you turn it on you will see "Your reseller can now work in your portal to help you." When you turn it off you will see "Your reseller can no longer open your portal."

Only a Super Admin can turn reseller access on, because your reseller works in your portal with full access. Anyone who can change settings can turn it off.

When your reseller asks for access

If reseller access is off, your reseller can ask you for it. The Reseller access card then shows who asked and when, with two buttons:

• Approve turns reseller access on.
• Decline leaves it off and clears the request.

Nothing changes unless you approve it. As with the switch, only a Super Admin can approve.

When your reseller asks for temporary access

If reseller access is off and your reseller needs to help with something, they can ask to work in your portal for a few hours instead: 1, 4, 8 or 24 hours. They say why they need it.

Your Super Admins, and anyone whose role lets them manage billing, are emailed a link to the request. If there is nobody like that, the email goes to your account owner. The Reseller access card on Account > Settings also shows a waiting request, with a Review the request link.

1. Open the link in the email, or Review the request on the card. The Temporary access request page shows who asked, when, for how long and why.
2. Select Approve for the hours asked, or Decline.

Only a Super Admin or someone who can manage billing can answer, signed in as themselves. Anyone else in your portal can open the page and see the request, and who can answer it. Your reseller is emailed your answer. A request nobody answers lapses after 24 hours, and nothing changes.

Approved access starts straight away and ends by itself when the hours run out. While it lasts, your reseller can open your portal just as they can with reseller access on, and the Reseller access card shows Temporary access with the time it ends. To end it sooner, select End now on the card and confirm. Anyone who can change settings can end it.

Temporary access is only for working in your portal. It does not let your reseller manage who can sign in to your portal from their own reseller portal; that stays with the reseller access switch.

What your reseller can and cannot do

While reseller access is on, someone at your reseller can open your portal from their own reseller portal. Before they go in, they are asked to confirm, with the message Open this customer's portal?

While they are in your portal:

• a banner at the top of every page says they are working in your portal on your behalf, and names their organisation
• they can do almost everything a Super Admin can
• everything they do is recorded in your audit log under their own name, if your account has one

They cannot:

• turn reseller access on or off, answer a request for it, or end temporary access; that decision is always yours
• give anyone Super Admin access, or switch on automatic access for Exchange Administrators
• become a permanent user in your portal; their visit is not added to your list of portal users

Each visit lasts at most one hour. After that they must open your portal again from their own portal, which checks again that they are still allowed. They can end a visit early with Leave on the banner.

While reseller access is on, your reseller can also choose from their own reseller portal who at your organisation can sign in to your portal: they can give someone access with any role except Super Admin, change a role, and turn off or remove access for anyone who is not a Super Admin. Each change is recorded in your audit log under their name.

Turning it off takes effect straight away

If you turn reseller access off while someone from your reseller is in your portal, their visit ends on their next click. They cannot get back in until you turn access on again. The same happens when temporary access ends, whether it runs out or you end it.

Turning it off also stops your reseller managing who can sign in to your portal from their own reseller portal. They no longer see your directory or your list of portal users there, and cannot add, change, turn off or remove anyone's access. The people who already have access keep it, and you manage them yourself under Access > Users.

Good to know

• Reseller access is on by default for a customer set up through a reseller. Check the card if you are not sure.
• Turning reseller access off does not change who bills you, and does not remove your reseller from your account. See Working with a reseller.
• Your reseller can also read, from its own systems through the Footer365 API, the details of your account that its own customer list shows: your organisation's name, domain and Microsoft tenant ID, your subscription and your seats, with the number of user mailboxes counted in your directory. That does not depend on reseller access, and it gives them nothing from inside your portal: not your people, templates, rules or campaigns. Until you have set Footer365 up, and so accepted the reseller, it gives them nothing at all.
• The Reseller access card cannot be changed from a visit your reseller has opened. If you see a note saying somebody is working in this portal on your behalf, sign in as yourself to change it.

Related articles

• Working with a reseller
• The audit log
• Roles and permissions