Configuring Branded and Unbranded Owners

Owned by Mahnoor Khan (Deactivated)
Last updated: Sept 24, 2021 by Greg Walsh
10 min read

Summary

This article describes owners and their configuration options. Owners offer a way of organizing accounts and defining configuration options between distinct entities. For instance if a company called 'Acme Industries' had two divisions 'Acme East' and 'Acme West', Acme Industries may be setup in EngageIP as an owner capable of configuring its own product catalog, while Acme East and Acme West may be setup as owners that inherit the product catalog and other configuration settings from Acme Industries.

Example EngageIP owner tree / owner hierarchy:

Owners are created from users/accounts in EngageIP, with the exception of the auto-generated owner-user 'Admin' which is created when EngageIP is installed. The Admin owner-user functions in EngageIP like a superuser/root user, initially Admin is configured with all role permissions enabled and also has access to configuration options that other owner-users do not. See the owner definitions below for more information.

Owner Types and Definitions

Owners are described in different ways to indicate their capabilities or position in the owner hierarchy, this owner terminology is described below:

  • Root Owner / Admin Owner - the highest level owner in the tree. This owner is represented by the 'Admin' user. When you are logged in as Admin and have loaded the Admin account you will see all owners in the owner tree and have access to the Configuration page. The Configuration page controls global (system wide/owner wide) configuration settings which no other owner can access. The Root owner is a branded owner

  • Branded Owner - branded owners have access to the Setup page in EngageIP and can configure various aspects of the system (Rating, the Product Catalog, Finance options, Account configuration, Regional Settings, Branding, etc.). The setup options available will depend on which modules the EngageIP license has enabled

  • Unbranded Owner - unbranded owners do not have access to the Setup page, they inherit their settings from the first branded owner listed above them in the owner tree

  • Top Owner - a top owner is the first branded owner found above the account. If the account is under a branded owner then that branded owner is the top owner. If an account is under an unbranded owner then the first branded owner in the owner tree above the unbranded owner is the top owner. Unbranded owners cannot be top owners. Top owners can be configured to be invoiced instead of invoicing the owner the account is under or accounts directly, these owner billing settings are described in the Owner Configuration Options section below

Owner Tree

Owners are listed in a collapsible tree found in the upper left of the AdminPortal Interface.

You can click on an owner in the tree to load the owner-user account. When the owner-user account loads you should see the Setup page if the owner is branded. If there is no Setup page then the owner is unbranded (or the role permission to show the Setup menu has been disabled on the admin role).

Owner Configuration Options

The Owners setup page (accessed by clicking the Setup page / Owners) contains setup and configuration options to help you set up your organization's hierarchy.

The owners screen will show you the owner hierarchy and individual owner configurations for owners that lie under the current owner you are accessing in the AdminPortal:

The Owners screen will provide the following owner information:

  • Level Type - indicates if the owner sees only their users or if they have visibility of all users that reside under owners beneath them in the owner tree. The visibility of accounts under lower level owners will mainly come into play when viewing owner reports

  • Act As Owner - indicates the branded owner that an unbranded owner resides under (where the unbranded owner gets its settings from). This field will be empty if the owner in the list is a branded owner

  • Branded - indicates if the owner is branded or unbranded

  • Owner Parent Account Billing Type - indicates which account/owner is billed (receives an invoice) and which owner or accounts tax configuration is used. The available options are explained in the Adding New Owners section below

Owner/User Impersonation

Clicking on an owners name from in the Owners list will cause you to jump to their overview page (i.e. load the admin-user account for that owner). When you access an owner/account under an owner you will impersonate that owner. For instance any accounts you create will be setup under the owner you have currently loaded, not the owner your EngageIP user lies under. Lists and reports that are loaded will also reflect the currently accessed owners accounts and configuration. The one thing you will not inherit is the user's role permission settings, you will continue to have access based on your role permissions which are determined by who you are logged into the AdminPortal as. The breadcrumb trail in the upper left allows you to see the owner you are currently accessing, as well navigate to other owners in the tree.

Adding New Owners

Important Notes When Adding New Owners

Note: in EngageIP you are able to create unbranded owners out of existing accounts even if the accounts have sub accounts or transactions.

  1. Ensure that you are logged in as Admin

  2. Make sure that you viewing the owner under which the new owner will be added. To determine which owner you are currently viewing, look at the breadcrumb trail on the left hand side of the AdminPortal. The structure is [top owner > owner] > current account

  3. Make sure that the user you would like to set up as an owner is a new user in the system. This means that they do not have any user-packages, contacts or other account specific configuration elements

Once you have followed the instructions above you can then create new owners by completing the steps below.

Note: required fields have red field label names. Validation is also applied to these fields, if the label remains red the value entered is not valid and the form will not be saved. All other fields are optional (black label field names) and may be left blank.

Steps:

  1. Use the breadcrumb trail to access the owner you wish to create the new owner under

  2. Click Setup

  3. Select Owners

  4. Click Add

  5. Enter appropriate information in the fields outlined below:

    • User - select the account from the pick list that you would like to set up as an owner. The owner will be setup under the current owner you have accessed

    • OwnerLevelType - represents the owner's viewing permissions. You can allow the owner to only see their own accounts, or allow the owner to view all accounts below them (accounts setup under other owners that lie directly below them in the owner tree)

    • Branded - if this option is selected the owner will have a Setup menu which permits the owner to configure their product catalog and other billing and rating aspects. If this setting is not selected the owner will be unbranded and will inherit the configuration set on the branded owner that lies above them in the owner tree

    • Owner Parent Account Billing Type - this option allows you to specify how invoices are generated and under which owner. In wholesale structures (unbranded owner configurations) these settings can be used to roll account and parent invoices up to the unbranded owner level

      • Bill Accounts - a typical owner structure where every account receives their own invoice. The invoicer recipient can be overridden (as well as usage and tax invoicer) at an account level by specifying a different invoicer (these settings can be found under Tools / Invoicer). The Account Invoicer configuration is detailed in the Account Invoicer Configuration article

      • Bill Accounts Using Invoicer Taxes - Introduced in EngageIP 8.5.27.1. This setting will use the tax configuration setup on the 'invoicer' account. The invoicer account is specified at the account level (Tools / Invoicer: 'Invoicer' field)

      • Bill Owner Using Account Taxes - rolls up all transactions for all accounts under an unbranded owner and generates a single invoice at the unbranded owner level, taxing based on the tax configuration setup at the account level

      • Bill Owner Using Owner Taxes - rolls up all transactions for all accounts under an unbranded owner and generates a single invoice at the unbranded owner level, taxing based on the tax configuration setup at the owner level

      • Bill Branded Owner Using Account Taxes - rolls up all transactions for all unbranded owners and accounts under the unbranded owners and generates a single invoice at the branded owner (formerly called 'top' owner) level, taxing based on the tax configuration setup at the account level

      • Bill Branded Owner Using Owner Taxes - rolls up all transactions for all unbranded owners and accounts under the unbranded owners and generates a single invoice at the branded owner (formerly called 'top' owner) level, taxing based on the tax configuration setup at the owner level

    • Template Owner (introduced in EngageIP 8.6.0) - if checked the branded owner's settings will be be available (inheritable) when another owner is added. When this option is selected (and the owner is saved) the next owner you setup will be able to select the template owner in the 'Template From Owner' field. The new owner will inherit the template owners settings but will not be updated when new settings are added to the template owner (unless the 'Propagate Owner Data' setting below is also selected). This 'Template Owner' setting and the 'Template From Owner' option cannot be used together (i.e. you cannot inherit your settings from one owner and also share your settings with another owner). Owner settings that a template owner passes on are listed below:[expand title="show shared owner settings"]

      • CountryAddressFormat

      • Currency

      • TaxVendor

      • InvoiceConfiguration

      • CustomInvoiceToken

      • InvoiceTemplateCustomInvoiceTokenConnector

      • InvoiceTemplate

      • BillGroup

      • ServiceType

      • City

      • State

      • Country

      • TaxType

      • GeneralLedger

      • CommissionType

      • CommissionStatementTemplate

      • BillRun

      • BillRunBillGroupConnector

      • CreditCardTokenProcessor

      • ECheckTokenProcessor

      • CardType

      • PaymentType

      • TaxCode

      • Role

      • RoleFilter

      • RoleAttributeProfileQuestion

      • ProfileQuestionListProvider

      • PackageProfileQuestion

      • UserPackageExtendedAttribute

      • UserExtendedAttribute

      • Usage Billing Type

      • UDR Buckets

      • UDRBucketPoolGroup

      • UDR Classes

      • UDR Rate Groups

      • TimePeriod

      • UDR Rates

      • UDRRound

      • UDRLocationGroup

      • UDR Rate Plan

      • UDRRatePlanUDRRateGroup[/expand]

    • Propagate Owner Data (introduced in EngageIP 8.6.0) - this option will propagate newly added settings on the 'Template Owner' to the owners that are setup to use the template owner (see the list of shared owner settings above for details on what owner settings propagate). Only new owner settings will be passed down, modifications to existing settings will not propagate (e.g. adding a new bill group to the template owner will also add that bill group to owners who have as their 'Template From Owner' setting set to the template owner in question, however editing an existing bill group's settings on the template owner will not result in the edits being passed along). The 'Template Owner' option must also be selected for this setting to be applicable to other owners

    • Template From Owner (introduced in EngageIP 8.6.0) - this specifies an owner to inherit settings from (see the 'show shared owner settings' list above for details on what settings are inherited. If the template owner also has 'Propagate Owner Data' enabled then settings will not only be inherited when creating the new owner they will also be added going forward as the template owner adds new settings (new currencies, card types, etc.)

  6. Click the Save button to save the owner's settings

Data Propagated When Adding Branded Owners

Some settings are copied from the branded owner/top owner even when adding a new branded owner, this is because there is some basic information needed for the owner to operate initially. These settings are detailed below:

Included / propagated branded owner settings:

  • Contact Types

  • Account Status Types

  • Payment Types

  • Languages

  • Service Types

  • Audit Log settings - copied as is from branded owner

  • Roles - only admin role is added, not all

  • AR settings

Renaming or Hiding Owners from Owner Tree

If you would like to rename an owner, you can do so on the Setup page by clicking owners link, then click on the link of the owner to rename, adjust and click save. This will reflect and be updated in the owner tree as well.

If you are trying to hide a disabled owner from owner tree - the best method available is to rename it by appending a Z as an example so it floats alphabetically to the bottom of the owner tree list. Rename 'myowner' to 'zmyowner' as an example.

See Also