Sub-reseller management

OpenSRS allows you to operate your network of domain name resellers. Sub-resellers work like any other OpenSRS reseller; however, you are considered the parent reseller for your sub-resellers. You set their pricing plans, provide direct support and earn commissions from their domain sales.

• Overview
• User management
  • Create a sub-reseller
  • View and edit sub-resellers
• Price plans
  • Create and edit price plans
  • Delete price plans
  • View sub-resellers assigned to the same price plan
  • Manage price plans
    • Assign a price plan to multiple sub-resellers
    • Change the price plan set to a sub-reseller
• Transfer funds
• Branding
  • Logo
  • RSS/what's new page
  • Custom control panel URL
  • Transfer confirmation page
  • Data quality and ICANN registrant verification hostname and URL
  • ICANN registrant verification page
  • Data quality (UK full address) page
  • Claims notification hostname and URLs

Overview

Sub-reseller contracts are with Tucows; however, the parent reseller is responsible for the actions of their sub-resellers. Sub-resellers can manage their business, including viewing and selling domain names through OpenSRS, the API, and Storefront. 

Sub-resellers cannot sell email or trust services, only domains.

Through RWI, you can do the following for sub-resellers :

• Create, modify, and suspend accounts
• Set the services available to end-users
• Create various price plans
• Assign price plans
• Authenticate as and change names 

User management

Create a sub-reseller

1. Click View/edit sub-resellers in the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Optionally, to search for a sub-reseller or limit the users displayed, start typing any portion of the name in the field. Only accounts whose usernames match the search criteria are displayed.
   Note: Click on the arrows in each column to sort the information by column, ascending or descending.
   
   
3. Click the account's name whose information you want to view or change.
   
4. Make the required changes, and then click Submit at the bottom of the form.
   

The following actions are available under the view/edit sub reseller section.

1. Click View/edit pricing plans in the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Click Add new plan on the view pricing plans window to start a new one or select a plan name from the existing list.
   
   
3. Enter a name for the plan.
   
4. Select the default commission value for each TLD for the plan. Changing this figure reflects immediately on the respective TLD below. 
   
5. Describe the plan.
   
6. Optionally, check the Set as default checkbox to make this your default price plan. 
   
7. Optionally, providing a value in the target price field and hitting the adjust link will set the price for all TLDs with a price lower than the target value. New commission values update in the override commissions column.
   Note: You cannot set the target price below the TLD cost price (excluding commission).
   
   
8. Optionally, modifying the override commissions column in the domain names or personal names sections sets a commission other than the default values for the specific TLDs.
   Note: The override commissions column does not support negative values.
   
9. Click Update to save the pricing plan.
   

Delete sub-reseller price plans

Price plans do not delete while assigned to a reseller. When the price plan to be deleted is currently set, the deletion of pricing plan page appears. Clicking the link of Return to the edit page cancels the deletion. Alternatively, choose another price plan from the Reassign to drop-down, click Re-assign and delete to assign a different price plan to all listed sub-resellers.

To delete a pricing plan:

1. Click View/edit pricing plans in the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Select the name of the plan from the name column.
   
3. Click Delete and then confirm the deletion by selecting Ok.
   

View sub-resellers assigned to the same price plan

1. Click View/edit pricing plans in the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Locate the plan you want to view, and click the corresponding number in the # of assignees column. The view sub-resellers page appears with a list of all the sub-resellers assigned to the selected price plan. 
   Note: This number indicates the number of sub-resellers assigned to the respective plan.
   
   
   

Once you have created your price plans, assign them to your sub-resellers. When a price plan is not given, the system applies the default pricing.

Assigning sub-reseller price plans

1. Click View/edit sub-resellers from the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Click the sub-reseller to assign a price plan from the username column.
   
3. Choose a price plan from the pricing plan drop-down list in the financial settings section. Click Submit.
   

Assigning a price plan to multiple Sub-Resellers

1. Click View/edit pricing plans from the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Click Bulk assign plan from below of the list. 
   
3. Use the fields to search for the sub-resellers to assign the price plan. Leave the search blank to return all sub-resellers. Click Search.
   
   
4. Select the pricing plan from the New pricing plan drop-down list.
   
5. Verify that you want to assign that price plan to each displayed sub-resellers. Checkmarks indicate which users are to be assigned.  Uncheck any resellers returned from the search results that you do not wish to update their pricing plan. Click Assign.
   
   

Change the price plan assigned to a sub-reseller

1. Click View/edit sub-resellers from the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Click the sub-reseller to assign a price plan from the username column.
   
3. Choose a price plan from the pricing plan drop-down list in the financial settings section. Click Submit.
   

OpenSRS logs the commission you earn through sub-resellers in a commissions account. You need to transfer them to your OpenSRS account to access these funds.
Note: This feature is currently only available through the RWI. 

To transfer funds from your commission account to your OpenSRS account.

1. Click Transfer commission funds from the sub-resellers management section of the RWI.
   
2. Enter the amount you want to transfer from your commission account to your OpenSRS account in the Amount field. This value must be a positive number.
   
3. Click Transfer. 
   
4. Click Confirm transfer to complete the operation.
   

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Branding can be modified to change what sub-resellers see in their control panel. The following customizations are available: sub-reseller logo, what's new/RSS, control panel URL and the transfer confirmation page.

Logo

To modify the logo:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. In the logo section, click Choose file. Browse to the image you want to upload and select it.
   Note: The maximum logo size is 50K.
   
   
3. Click Upload image now.
   

RSS/what's new page

To modify the RSS/What's new page:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. In the what's new RSS/Atom feed URL field, enter the feed to display news items for the sub-reseller.
   
3. Click Submit.

Custom control panel URL

To modify the custom control panel URL:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. Scroll to the custom control panel URL section.
3. You can use an OpenSRS subdomain such as username.r.opensrs.com, or a subdomain based on the generic resellerco.com domain name. If you prefer to use a custom URL, contact help@opensrs.com. In the custom control panel URL section, specify the URL used to access the sub-reseller control panel, and click Submit.
   Note: There is a fee to have a custom URL installed, which includes a GeoTrust digital certificate. The certificate ensures your control panel will be entirely secure.
   
   

Transfer confirmation page

Registrants use these pages to confirm transfers to your account.

To customize the transfer confirmation page:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. Scroll down to the customize transfer confirmation page section.
3. Enter the text in the custom text section.
   Note: The system strips all HTML tags from the text. URLs may be prefixed with 'url:' (Example: url:http://resellers.tucows.com[text:Link Name])
   

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Data quality and ICANN registrant verification hostname and URL

After the customer verifies their data, this is where the customer is sent. Please enter the complete URL including HTTP:// or HTTPS://.

To customize the UK data quality and ICANN registrant verification hostname and URL:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. Scroll down to the customize data quality and ICANN registrant verification hostname and URL section. 
3. In the URL field, enter the page to direct the registrant to after verification.
   Note: The following parameters are appended to the URL when available: first, last and email, as confirmed on the source page.
   

ICANN registrant verification page

Registrants use these pages to verify their contact information.

To customize the ICANN registrant verification page:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. Scroll down to the customize ICANN registrant verification page section.
3. Add or update and text in the section - header or section - footer sections.
   Note: The system strips all HTML tags from the text. However, you may prefix data with `url:`or `mailto:`.
   

Data quality (UK full address) page

Registrants use these pages to verify their data.

To customize the data quality (UK) page:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. Scroll down to the customize data quality (UK full address) page section. 
3. Add or update the required text in the section - header and section - footer sections.
   

Claims notification hostname and URLs

After accepting a claims notification for a domain order, the system directs the customer to the accepted URL. After rejecting a claims notification, the system directs the customer to the rejected URL. Please enter the complete URL, including HTTP:// or HTTPS://, as needed.

If you set up a CNAME record to point to approve.domainadmin.com, enter the hostname in the hostname field. You will not be able to save this record until the CNAME record is active. The hostname should be of the form subdomain.resellerdomain.com.

To customize the claims notification hostname and URLs:

1. Click Branding in the sub-reseller management section of the RWI.
   
2. Scroll down to the customize claims notification hostname and URLs section. 
3. Modify the accepted URL and rejected URL fields.
   
4. Modify the verification hostname field, and add the hostname value in the format  subdomain.resellerdomain.com. Click Save
   Note: The system only provides access to this verification hostname through the generated email link.
   

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