Create an Account

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This article provides instructions for creating an account.

Overview

You can create an account and attach:

Multiple Master Plans: The same Master Plan may be used multiple times to create separate Master Plan Instances (MPIs) that can be assigned to different pay methods, billing groups, dunning groups, and contacts.
Multiple Supplemental Plans: The same Supplemental Plan may be used multiple times to create separate Supplemental Plan Instances (SPIs), that can be assigned and billed under separate Master Plan Instances.

Note: To create accounts with advanced options, such as alternate rate schedules, use the create_acct_complete_m API call. Please see Account Registration Best Practices for more information.

Creating an Account

Getting Here: Click Accounts > Create New Account

To begin creating an account, select the desired account template that you want to use to create the account from the Template drop-down. The available fields that load for creating the new account depend upon the fields that are defined in the selected template.

Note: To define an Account Creation template, navigate to Configuration > Client Settings > Account Creation. You must have Aria privileges to access these tabs via Aria's main navigation panel.

The Create New Account screen contains the following sections:

Account Details
Account Contact
Account Fields
Plans

Account Details

The Account Details section of the Create New Account screen captures information such as the account holder's account number, currency type, legal entity assignment (if enabled for the client), and invoicing options. Refer to the below screenshot and corresponding descriptions to complete the fields in this section.

Note: The available fields in this section are dependent on the template selected from the Template drop-down. If you are using a custom account creation template, then you may see additional fields that are not displayed in the screenshot below.
CreateNewAccount-10.0.png

Client Account ID: A custom identifier that is used to distinguish this account from others.
Account Status:

Active: The account is in good standing.
Registered Pending Activation: The account has been registered but the account contact has not yet responded to the account activation email.
Permanent: The account is marked as permanent and no Plans under the account will be invoiced.

Parent Account Number: A Parent Account Number is required when creating a child account as this creates a link between the accounts.

If you entered a parent account number, when you assign the Master Plan to the new account, you will need to:

specify the billing responsibility level; and
from the displayed list of self pay Master Plan Instances (MPIs), select the MPI that will have payment responsibility for the child account's Master Plan.

For more information, please see the important notes about parent‐child accounts.

User ID: The User ID on the account.
Password: The password on the account.
Security Question: This is used for security purposes and is a unique question provided to the account holder.
Security Answer: This is used for security purposes and is a unique answer that the account holder must provider.
Currency: The currency that is associated with the account for billing purposes. Supported currencies include:

CAD: Canadian Dollar
EUR: Euro
GBP: British Pound
USD: U.S. Dollar

Account Notification Method: The selected notification method is used to notify the account holder of important account related matters.
Rev-rec Profile: This is used to assign the revenue recognition profile to the account.
Locale: You can assign a locale to an account so translated Product Catalog values display in that language for your customers.
Invoicing Options:

Perform full invoicing
Perform prorated invoicing
Use client default configuration setting
None

Alternate Billing Day: A specified date other than the account's anniversary date, on which the account is billed.
Alternate Billing Start Date: A specified date, other than the account's anniversary date, on which charges start applying to the account.
Retroactive Billing Start Date: A specified date in the past from which the account should be billed. This date should be within one billing interval of the assigned Plan. For example, if the current date is August 1, 2015 and the assigned Plan has an annual billing interval, then the retroactive billing date cannot be before August 1, 2014. Note that retroactive start dates cannot be combined with Plan rollovers.
Purchase Order Number: The purchase order number that authorizes billing to the account.
Alternate Message Template: This is the email template assigned to the account.
Account Coupons: Coupons configured to apply at the Account level will be selectable from the drop down list.
Account Surcharges: Surcharges configured to apply at the Account level will be selectable from the drop down list.
Surcharge Rate Schedule: Once the Accounts Surcharge has been selected, this drop-down will populate with the associated rate schedule options.
Functional Account Group: A functional account group allows you to categorize your customers based on some common element such as geography, product, or channel.
Collection Account Group: A collections account group allows you to specify that financial transactions conducted with specific groups of accounts are completed with a particular payment gateway or combination of payment gateway and merchant account.
Legal Entity: A legal entity provides an additional layer of account organization. Clients can assign legal entities to group accounts together based on their business needs.

Account Contact

The Account Contact section of the Create New Account screen contains fields that capture the account holder's basic contact information. Refer to the below screenshot for a basic understanding of how to complete these fields in this section.

Note: If you enter contact address information, but leave the Country field blank, then the country defaults to "United States". If no contact address information is entered, the country remains unspecified when the account is created.

Account Fields

The Account Fields section of the Create New Account screen contains custom fields that are defined in the Configuration module within Aria (Configuration > Client Settings > Account Fields). Because of this, the fields that appear in this section will vary based on your specific configuration.

These fields allow you to capture additional information about your customers based on your business needs and are available in the form of text input fields, radio buttons, and selection drop-downs.

For instance, a company selling subscriptions for the delivery of dog treats and toys may wish to capture information about the subscriber's dog, such as the breed, age, or size. Capturing this information would allow the business to better tailor its offerings.

Based on this information, the company may wish to capture this additional information using a variation of selection drop-downs and text input fields, as shown in the image below:

Note: Refer to the Create Account Fields article for instructions on defining these custom fields.

Plans

The Plans section of the Create New Account screen provides you the ability to:

Assign one or more Master Plan Instances to an account.
Assign one or more Supplemental Plans under each Master Plan.

In addition, you can apply promotions to each assigned Master Plan Instance by selecting an existing promotion from the Promotion Code drop-down.

Note: An account must have at least one Master Plan Instance assigned to it during account creation.

Can an Account be Deleted?

Once an account is created, you cannot delete it. Aria is a transaction-based system. You can change account statuses to a non-active, non-billable status, but an account record cannot be deleted. You can also set accounts to "Archived" or marked as "Test" status, but, due to referential integrity constraints, there is no way to remove accounts.