A Customer in Atera is the base entity, and all other functionalities rely on the correct initial creation of the customer(s). Once you've created a customer, you can add associated contacts and devices, install Atera agents, and monitor your customers' devices.

Create a customer

A Customer in Atera refers to a customer account. All of the contacts and devices you support are grouped within the appropriate customer(s) for optimal management, organization, and efficiency. This section describes how to manually create a customer in Atera. You can also import customers via CSV file

To create a customer:

1. From Customers, click New customer.

The New customer wizard appears.

2. Enter a Customer Name (and any other details by clicking Show more). Then click Next.

It's time to create a contract for the customer. A contract spells out the how, when, and how much your customer will be billed. It’s optional but recommended, so you can fully use all of Atera’s professional services automation (PSA) features, such as seeing which support tickets need attention, as well as reporting on your response/resolution times.

3. Fill out the contract details for the customer:

• Contract name: Enter a name for the contract.
• Contract type: Select the contract type. Learn more
  • Note: Subsequent fields may vary depending on the selected contract type.
• Quantity: Enter the number of units included in the contract.
• Billing period: Select the billing frequency: Weekly, Bi-monthly, Monthly, Quarterly, Twice a year, or Yearly.
• Rate: Select an existing rate. Learn more
• Start and end dates: Select the contract start and end dates from the calendar.
• Taxable: Enable this option to apply tax to labor only (support hours provided).
• Notes: Enter any relevant notes for the contract.

4. Click Next.

5. Select the SLA and threshold profile.

Note: 

• You can click Add SLA to create a new SLA profile. Learn more
• The Default threshold profile is applied to all customers by default. You can select a preset custom profile or any custom profile you’ve previously created. Learn more

6. Click Next.

Contacts refer to the people at your customer organizations who receive support from you. There are a number of ways you can add contacts to Atera. You can add them manually, import them via CSV file, or import them from your Microsoft Entra ID database. This section describes how to add contacts manually.

7. Enter the contact details:

Contract types

• Retainer/Flat fee: This is the most popular contract type. It's used to charge customers a flat periodic rate that includes a predefined set of support services. Learn more
• Hourly: This contract is used to charge a customer for work-hours based on a specific hourly rate. This is a standard Break/Fix model. Learn more
• Block hours: This contract is used to bill a customer for a block of working hours at a specified price per hour. During the billing period, of the number of hours consumed is deduced from the purchased "Block." There are options to both roll-over hours not used, or charge an overage rate for excessive consumption. Learn more
• Block money: This contract is used when you want to charge a customer in advance. The customer pays for a block related to a specified hourly rate. As hours are used, money is deducted from the block based on the hourly rate. Learn more
• Remote monitoring: This contract is used to charge a customer based on the number of monitored devices, multiplied by a selected rate. Learn more
• Online Backup: This contract is used for billing a customer for the usage of Atera's integrated Online Backup. The contract automatically calculates the usage. Learn more
• Project: One-time fee: This contract is used to bill a customer an inclusive flat fee for a project, and the price is agreed upon prior to starting the project. Learn more
• Project: Hourly rate: This contract is used to charge a customer a set hourly rate for work on a specific project. Learn more

Add contacts

To add a contact:

1. From the customer > Contacts page, click Manage contacts > New contact.

The New Contact form appears.

2. Fill in the form:

• Customer, Name, and Email are mandatory fields. 
  • Additional email addresses can be assigned to the contact later. Learn more
• Department - You can assign the contact to a department. Learn more
• Agent - This field enables you to match the contact with their computer, which you can select from the dropdown list. 
  • Additional agents can be assigned to the contact later. Learn more
• Checkbox (Main customer contact) - This enables you to designate the contact as the main customer contact for the customer.
• Checkbox (Disable automatic ticket creation...) - By default, Atera automatically creates tickets when contacts send emails to the support address. Check the box if you wish to disable this feature for the particular contact.
• Optional Fields:
  • Rank: For internal purposes. The customer Rank has NO IMPACT within the Atera system, and all customers are processed/handled/viewed in exactly the same way, regardless of the rank you choose for them.
  • Domains: Automatically associate incoming support email with the customer and assign them as company contacts (list domains without the ‘@’ symbol).
  • Business ID Number: Add a business ID number for tax identification purposes.
  • Phone, Fax, Address, City, Country, State, Zip Code

3. Click Create.

The new contact is added.

To create an SLA (optional):

It's time to create a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and threshold profile for the customer. The SLA sets customer expectations by setting the initial response time and expected close time for a ticket. Learn more about SLAs

8. Select the SLA from the dropdown or add a new SLA

9. Select the alert threshold profile. This profile determines the alerts you receive about your customer’s devices. Learn more about alert threshold profiles

Note: SLAs and threshold profiles can be added or modified later.

10. Click Next.

To add a contact (optional):

It's time to add a contact. A contact is required to use some basic features, like opening a ticket. 

11. Add the first name, last name, and email address. Click Show more to view and fill in the optional fields.

Your new customer has been created, and now appears in the Customers page.

Import Customers in Bulk

You can also import your customers, contacts, and assets in bulk to streamline the process of incorporating your existing business data into Atera. To learn more about how to import customers in bulk, see Import data to Atera

Manage your Customer

Once you've created the customer, it's time to manage certain customer permission and security settings.

Manage the main contact

To set the main contact for the customer:

1. From Customers (on the side panel), click the customer where you'd like to add a new contact.

The Customer page appears. 

2. From the Contacts tab, select the contact. 

4. Under Permissions, toggle Set as Main Contact.

To set tickets to be created by the main contact only:

1. From Customers (on the side panel), select a customer.

The Customer page appears. 

3. From the Overview tab, select Only main contacts can create tickets. 

Note:

• This applies only to tickets raised via email. It will not affect ticket creation via the Customer Portal.
• Main contacts can view tickets belonging to other contacts within the same customer. This access is facilitated through the Customer Portal, where tickets from the same customer can be viewed.