Sub-Accounts

Standard account with 2 users capable of message taking  

Same account with 3 sub-accounts. Typically, each of your agents can access the main account and all sub-accounts. You might authorize a client to access their own account (only). Many sub-accounts might not have any client access whatsoever.

 

When you sign up for a trial account, indicate how many total agents there are and the number of sub-accounts you want. The default is no sub-accounts. If you do not request sub-accounts when establishing trial, you can contact us to set it up later.  

You manage sub-accounts from the Admin menu.  

Error message when sub-accounts are not enabled.  

Management screen when managing sub-accounts. By convention, a sub-account name consists of a common prefix and unique part of name. You may define as many unique names as your account is set up for. In bottom panel of screen, you control individual access to main and sub-accounts.  

Account vs. Sub-Account introduction

A Telephone Message Pad account is a shared resource that can be accessed simultaneously by one or more receptionists and admins. The resource contains primarily a message data base and customizable message templates. We have illustrated that at the right.

A sub-account resembles an account in that it is comprised of a separate message data base and a customizable message template for each sub-account. One of the first differences is that a sub-account contains a single message template whereas an account may have up to 10.

A sub-account is always attached to a single account (some times called the main account). A sub-account may not stand alone or be attached to another sub-account.

At any given time, a logged-in user is logged into either the main account or one of the sub-accounts. The resources available are determined by where they are logged in at the moment.

Depending on authorization, the user may freely transition directly between sub-accounts and/or the main account with a single click. They only have to enter a name and password (or a faster alternative discussed below) once.

Importantly, the main account and sub-accounts are treated as a single entity for billing purposes.

Sub-Accounts Audience

The sub-account feature is explicitly designed to meet the unique needs of Call Centers, Telephone Answering Services (TAS), and some corporate needs. Sub-accounts are isolated from each other and access is controlled via explicit permission.

Contrast this with a solo law practice having 1-2 receptionists. While each client's information is mutually confidential, normally none of the clients have access to the records and so there is no need to wall off their call records. A single account with no sub-accounts is indicated. All call records are kept in a single data base. However, if clients had account access (and none of our customers allow this), then a sub-account for each client having access is indicated.

An alternative to Sub-Accounts

The discussion of solo law practice raises a question: why would a TAS want sub-accounts? Couldn't it just keep everything in a single account data base?

With something like 1-3 clients, a single account may be feasible. However, each client is sure to want something custom. The auto repair client wants you to capture the make of the caller's car while the veterinarian wants to know information about the pet's symptoms. One client will call in to get messages while another wants a text message notification. Others will require special billing. For a small number of clients and agents, keeping track of this manually may be possible but in very short order a much more structured approach is required.

Remember that the solo law practice is a single business. It presents a standard telephone greeting to all callers and generally maintains the same hours of operation to all clients. That is not the case for TAS clients.

Using Client Users and Accounts

However, at some point, it is desirable to segment the shared resource. Telephone Message Pad does this by creating "Sub-Accounts" as illustrated at right where the main account has 3 Sub-Accounts. The 2 receptionist previously are now taking messages in the Main account and each Sub-Account. Let's look at use cases where this organization is beneficial.

• Telephone Answering Service (TAS) - The main account is used for business calls for the TAS itself and each client is allocated a sub-account.
• Sales organization - sales people are often competitive and sub-accounts can be given to each sales person to allow them account access to only their own messages.
• Geographically dispersed business - A sub-account can be allocated to each geography. Alternatively, a location identifier or status within a single account can be assigned to distinguish geographies. There is no single right answer here and the extent of overlap in callers between geographies is an important decision factor.

Adding Users and Sub-Accounts

You may change Users and Sub-Accounts at any time. To do so, send us a Help >> HelpDesk request. Each Sub-Account comes with a single built-in User. You may rename the built-in sub-account User and use it for an individual person to allow them to log in and access their sub-account.

During your trial period, you may add Client Units at no cost. Once your paid account is set up, Users and Sub-Accounts may be added at any time at the same Help menu Payment Console just mentioned.

Custom reports

The standard user and closure performance reports operate at the single account level. That means that you would run them within each main account and sub-account in order to get the report for that entity. When this is what you want, these are the reports to use.

In order to get a report spanning all accounts and sub-accounts, see the custom report capability.

The user and closure reports are available to any user of the account. The custom report is available only to admins since it spans multiple accounts.

Email configuration send errors (3-25-2021)

Telephone Message Pad sends any messages you or your staff initiate as coming from the domain on file for each user. Unless your staff is using personal email, the sender domain will be your business domain.

The arrangement where your_business_domain.com is the claimed sender while the telemsgpad.com domain is the actual sender can incur sending errors to some recipients.

We disclaim responsibility for email delivery and reserve the right to restrict access to email sending if your account generates excess (in our sole opinion) send errors. Thus, we strongly request that you provide us with SMTP login credentials to send emails on your behalf to eliminate this source of error.

Telephone Message Pad sends notices on its own behalf (mostly billing notices) using the telemsgpad.com domain as the sender and only to admins. It will not use your SMTP credentials for any purpose other than emails initiated by your staff.

Cost of Sub-Accounts

Each sub-account includes a required user. In one sense, the sub-account is free and you are paying for the total number of users: agents plus sub-account users combined.

Because the number of Users and Sub-Accounts fluctuates month-to-month and even during the month, it is infeasible to pay in advance. Rather, your main account and sub-accounts are on auto-pay. You will be invoiced on 3rd day of month following service and changes applied to your stored credit card on the 13th. You will be billed at the 12 month rate as listed in our pricing table.

Example: you have 2 agents. You start the month with 5 sub-accounts and end with 6. The total number of users is 2 + 6 = 8. The monthly charge for 8 users at 12 month rate is $7.85/user/month. On the 13th, your payment deducted is 8 * 7.85 = $62.80.