Your resellers sell to their own customers, and you need to control how much they can sell. Each reseller has a billing model:

  • Pay Per Use: the reseller has a balance of credits. Each new client or renewal costs credits.
  • Users: the reseller has a number of slots (active clients) until a date. Renewals are free.

You choose the model when you create the reseller. See Create a Reseller.

Compare the two models

Pay Per Use Users
What the reseller has A credit balance A number of active client slots and an expiration date
New client Costs the package price in credits Uses one slot
Renewal Costs credits, the same as a new client Free
Runs out when The balance reaches 0 All slots are in use, or the subscription date passes
Sub-resellers Also Pay Per Use Also Users. Their clients count against the slots above them
What you manage Top up credits Set the number of slots and extend the date

Pay Per Use (credits)

What costs credits

  • A new client: the Official Credits of the package.
  • A renewal: the same price again. The package duration is added to the current expiration date.
  • A trial client: the Trial Credits of the trial package (often 0).
  • A new sub-reseller: the Subreseller Price of the reseller's group.

Prices are set in each package and group. See Packages and Bouquets and Member Groups.

Top up a reseller (administrator)

  1. Open Resellers Network > Overview and click Edit on the reseller.
  2. In Credits, type the new balance, or click +10, +50, +100 or +500. The text next to the field shows the result.
  3. Click Save Changes.

Give credits to a sub-reseller (reseller)

  1. In Resellers Network > Overview, click Add Credits (the dollar icon) on the sub-reseller. The page Manage: <name> opens on CREDITS & SUBSCRIPTION.
  2. In Credits to Transfer, type the amount. The table shows Total Credits, Purchase Cost and Remaining Credits for your own balance.
  3. If needed, change the sub-reseller's expiration in Subscription Expiration (Never Expires or New Expiration Date). Leave the date empty to keep the current one.
  4. Click Purchase. The credits move from your balance to the sub-reseller.

Take credits back from a sub-reseller

By default, resellers can only add credits. An administrator can allow them to remove credits too, for example to fix a wrong top-up.

  1. Administrator: open Settings > Resellers and turn on Reseller credit debit. It saves at once and applies to all resellers. The option needs engine 2.2.1 or later on your main server.
  2. Reseller: open Add Credits on a direct sub-reseller and type a negative amount in Credits to Transfer, for example -100.
  3. The preview says "You will REMOVE 100 credits from this sub-reseller." and shows Sub-reseller balance and Your balance, before and after.
  4. Click Purchase, then Confirm.

Rules:

  • Only direct sub-resellers (the ones the reseller created).
  • Only credits the sub-reseller has not spent yet. If they do not have enough, the panel says "This sub-reseller does not have enough credits for this debit." and disables Purchase.

Users (slots)

  • Max Active Users is the number of slots. Each active client that is not a trial uses one slot.
  • When a client expires, its slot is free again.
  • Renewals are free.
  • When the subscription date passes, the reseller can no longer create or renew clients and sees "Your subscription has expired".

To change the slots or the date of a reseller:

  • Administrator: edit the reseller and change Max Active Users, Never Expire or Subscription Expires.
  • Reseller with sub-resellers: click Add Credits on the sub-reseller. The page opens on SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT, with Current Usage, Max Active Users, Never Expires and New Expiration Date. Click Save Changes.

By default, the slots a reseller gives to a sub-reseller are held for the sub-reseller and taken from the reseller's own slots.

When a reseller's subscription expires

When a reseller with Users expires, they cannot create or edit anything, but their clients keep working until their own expiration dates. Three options in Settings > Resellers change this. They are off by default, and each one needs the one above it:

  1. Ban lines when a reseller's subscription expires: the reseller's clients are banned when their subscription expires. When you renew the reseller, the clients banned by this option are enabled again. Clients you banned by hand stay banned.
  2. Also expire everything below an expired reseller: the sub-resellers below an expired reseller, and the ones below them, cannot create or edit anything, and all their clients are banned. Everything comes back when you renew that reseller.
  3. Don't hold the slots given to sub-resellers: slots given to a sub-reseller are not taken from the reseller's own slots. Each sub-reseller can get up to the limit of the reseller above, and every client created by a reseller or by anyone below them counts against that reseller's limit.

These options only apply to resellers billed by Users. Resellers with Pay Per Use already paid for each client.

The ban can take up to 5 minutes after the subscription expires. When you turn an option on or off, the panel applies it at once and tells you how many clients were banned or enabled again.

Where to see the movements

  • Logs > Credits lists top-ups and transfers with Added By, Target, Amount, Reason and Date. Administrators open Logs from the Servers menu. Resellers have Logs in their own menu.
  • Logs > Activity lists what resellers did, for example clients created or renewed.

Common problems

  • "You do not have enough credits to purchase this package.": the reseller needs more credits.
  • "You don't have enough credits to complete this purchase!": the reseller tried to give more credits than they have.
  • "You have reached your maximum active users limit": all slots are in use. Add slots or wait for clients to expire.
  • "Debiting sub-resellers is disabled.": turn on Reseller credit debit in Settings > Resellers.
  • "You can only debit your direct sub-resellers.": the sub-reseller was created by someone else below you.
  • The minus sign is not accepted in Credits to Transfer: the debit option is off, the sub-reseller is not direct, or the main server runs an engine older than 2.2.1.