Managing licenses for your clients with an agency account
If you build and look after WordPress sites for other people, an agency account lets you buy, assign and hand over GravityKit licenses for them from one place. Your clients get the plugins on their sites. You keep control of the licenses, and nobody has to email license keys around. This article covers what an agency account adds, how to get one, the ideas behind the Agency area, and the settings and client emails you control.
What an agency account adds #
A normal GravityKit account shows your own licenses, downloads and billing. An agency account adds an Agency item to the account menu and an AGENCY ACCOUNT badge next to the logo.
The Agency area has three tabs:
- Clients: the people you manage licenses for, with the licenses filed under each one.
- Licenses: every license you can act on, in one list you can narrow to a single client.
- Settings: your agency’s name, contact address and website, and the wording of the emails your clients receive.
At checkout, an agency account also gets a set of client fields. Fill them in and the purchase is filed under that client the moment you buy it.
How to get an agency account #
There are two ways:
- At checkout. When you are signed in and buying a license, tick I buy licenses for clients on the checkout page. Your account becomes an agency account when the order completes.
- Ask support. If you already own licenses and want to manage them for clients, contact support and we turn it on for you, without changing anything about your existing licenses.
Note: Your agency needs a name before it can email anyone. Set it under Agency, then Settings. Invitations, payment links, card-update links and transfer requests are all refused until the name is there, and a notice on your account pages tells you so.
Owning, assigning and handing over #
Most questions about agency accounts come down to one distinction. Owning a license and having it assigned to a client are two different things.
| Idea | What it means | Who is billed | What changes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| You own it | The license was bought on your account. Renewals, receipts and refunds are yours. | You | Buying a license, or a client handing one to you |
| Assigned to a client | The license is filed under a client’s name in your Agency area, and it appears on their account too. Ownership does not move. | You | Assign to a client on the Licenses tab or Assign a license on a client card |
| Your client sees it | A client with an account sees licenses assigned to them marked Managed by your agency. They see the key, download the plugins and activate their sites; the billing stays with you. | You | Assigning or unassigning |
| Handed over | Ownership moves to the client for good. The license, its order and its site activations become theirs. | The client, from then on | Transfer to client, accepted by the client from an email |
Assigning only files the license under a client’s name, and you can undo it with one click. Handing over is different: once your client accepts, the only way back is for them to hand the license to you again. Read Adding clients and giving them licenses and Moving a license between you and a client.
The Licenses tab #
The Licenses tab lists your own licenses and the ones filed under your clients. The Viewing picker narrows the list to one client, or to My licenses, the ones not assigned to anyone yet. Ask a client to move licenses here opens the page for asking a customer to hand you licenses they bought themselves. Each license card shows who it is assigned to. It offers only the actions that apply to that license:
- Assign to a client, or Change client once it is filed
- Get the client to pay: a payment link for a renewal, so the client pays without seeing your billing
- Get the client to update payment details: a link that lets the client put a new card on a subscription
- Transfer to client: hand the license over for good
A lifetime license has nothing to renew, so it offers no payment link. A license that renews on a subscription cannot take a payment link either, because the subscription already bills, so it offers a card-update link instead. Read Getting a client to pay.
Settings #
The Settings tab is headed How your clients see you. Your clients get emails from GravityKit when you invite them, ask them to pay, or move a license. These three details tell them who the email is from and how to reach you.
- Agency name. The name your clients see on every email and on their account. It is required because without one there is nothing to sign an email with, so invitations, transfer requests, payment links and card-update links are refused until you set it. A name that reads like GravityKit’s own is refused, because your clients must never mistake your emails for ours.
- Contact email. Where clients reply with questions, and where notices for clients you chose not to email are sent instead of to them. Leave it empty and your account’s own address is used.
- Website. Optional, and when set, your agency name in client emails and in your clients’ accounts links to it. It has to be a full address starting with
http://orhttps://.
The emails your clients receive #
GravityKit sends these on your behalf, signed with your agency name. Each one can be reworded:
| When | |
|---|---|
| Invitation to sign in | You add a client without ticking Don’t email this client unless I ask you to, or click Email an invitation |
| Transfer offer | You start a hand-over |
| Renewal payment link | You choose Email the client on a payment link |
| Upgrade payment link | You choose Email the client on an upgrade payment link |
| Card update link | You choose Email the client on a card-update link |
| Transfer completed | The client accepts a hand-over |
| Transfer called off | You call a hand-over off before they accept |
| Transfer failed | A hand-over they accepted could not finish |
| License assigned | You assign a license to a client who has an account |
| License removed | You unassign a license, or move it to another client |
A few more come from GravityKit in its own words and cannot be edited: the transfer request you send a customer, the summary they get after approving one, and the notice that you closed a client’s account.
A client you chose not to email receives none of the routine notices. Those come to your contact address, with a line saying you are their contact. The choice is not fixed: the client’s Edit page carries it, so you can hand their notices back to them later. The client still receives an invitation, a payment or card-update link you choose to email, and the account-closed notice.
Edit the wording
- Go to Agency, then Settings, and click Review your client emails. The page, headed What your clients are told, lists the ten emails with a line on when each is sent.
- Click Edit on the email. Each one has a subject and a message.
- Edit the text and click Save wording, and the list marks reworded emails CUSTOM.
Placeholders in square brackets fill in the details when the email is sent. The editor lists the ones that work for that email, each with an Insert button. Most carry the client’s name, your agency name, your contact email, the store’s name, the link the email carries and the days until it expires; an email about one license offers the product name instead of a link. The greeting is added for you, and a fixed last line always tells the client how to contact your agency.
The link placeholder, [link], has to appear in the message, since the email is useless without it, and it cannot go in the subject. Put the default back restores the original wording in one press, with no save step, and the CUSTOM mark goes away. The button is greyed out while there is nothing to undo.
Good to know #
- Only the agency owner can add clients, ask a customer to become a client, change the settings or edit the email wording. A manager can assign licenses within the clients they were given.
- Reworded emails apply from the next email sent; emails already sent are unchanged.
- GravityKit’s own emails to your clients, such as purchase receipts for orders you place for them, are not affected by these settings.
- If a client did not receive an email, check three things in this order: the agency name, whether you chose not to email that client, and the timing. A second invitation within a few minutes, or a second transfer request to the same address within seven days, is refused, and the page says when you can try again.
