Associating purchases with additional accounts

Associating subscription with other CustomersDot users and changing subscription owner.

Sometimes a subscription owner (Sold To contact) may want to associate the subscription with more CustomersDot users, or transfer the subscription ownership.

This process would also apply for requests to send a license to a different email other than the Sold To contact.

Occasionally, Billing Team may forward requests / tickets to our team to vet and then assist with changing Sold To details. The processes below would apply for those tickets as well.

CustomersDot changes can update Zuora Sold To contact

Important note: Any time a CustomersDot user is edited via the Admin, the Zuora account contact associated with the customer is updated. In case there is no Zuora contact with the same email, the Zuora account Sold To address is replaced.

If the workflow requires editing a CustomersDot user (Customer record) via the Admin, click Save on the user with the same email as the original Sold To contact LAST, to ensure they remain the Sold To on their Zuora account. Refer to the workflow Update Zuora Sold To contact using CustomersDot.

Creating a new Billing Account Membership for a user will not update the Zuora Sold To contact.

Add subscription management contact

Provide subscription access to additional CustomersDot user by creating billing account membership.

  1. Verify the requestor’s identity as outlined under ownership verification.
  2. Ensure the requestor has a Customer record in CustomersDot.
  3. Locate the CustomersDot billing account for the provided Zuora account.
  4. Navigate to the Billing account memberships section.
  5. Select the + Add new action.
  6. Select the correct CustomersDot user and CustomersDot billing account for the new subscription management request. The CustomersDot user can be uniquely located by its Email and the billing_account by its zuora_account_id.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Ensure the Login activated checkbox for the CustomersDot user is checked. If it is not, then confirm the CustomersDot account login status.

Note: If a CustomersDot user already has a billing account membership, it is not currently possible to create a second billing account membership for them. Confirm with the existing CustomersDot user if they want to stop managing the existing subscriptions before removing the existing billing account membership.

Change subscription management contact workflow

Use this workflow for requests to change subscription owner, transfer ownership, or regaining access to a subscription that was set up by another person not in the organization anymore.

Self-service option

Consider using the Support::L&R::Change Customers Portal Contact macro so the requestor can self-service. Important: Do not add the existing Sold To contact as a CC. The requester would see the email address, which would be considered a leak of Personal Data.

If the requestor is an existing subscription contact, have access to the Customer Portal account or email address of the previous owner, guide them to:

  1. Issue a password reset to the existing owner’s email.
  2. Claim the account by changing over the personal details.
  3. Link their GitLab account to the Customers Portal account or change the linked account for authentication.
  4. Once the requestor update the account on the Customers Portal, verify that the Sold To contact in the Zuora account matches the Customers Portal account. Follow the Update Zuora Sold To contact using CustomersDot workflow if they do not match.

Error “Email has already been taken” reported

If the requestor follow the self-service option and get the error “Email has already been taken”, this means the new account owner is an existing CustomersDot user. Assist them by following the the Support-assisted option for existing CustomersDot user.

Support-assisted option

This process should be a last resort for all customers (including reseller customers). Only after ruling out the self-service option above will we consider making the requested ownership change.

First, verify the customer’s identity as outlined under ownership verification.

Process for existing CustomersDot user

If the requestor is an existing CustomersDot user when doing an email search:

  1. Follow Add subscription management contact workflow.
  2. Follow Remove a billing account membership workflow to remove association to the subscription of the previous Sold To contact.
  3. Follow Update Zuora Sold To contact using CustomersDot workflow.

Process for non-existing CustomersDot user

If the requestor is not an existing CustomersDot user when doing an email search:

  1. Edit the Name and Email of the current Sold To contact user account to the new contact, check the box Skip email confirmation and click Save.
  2. Check if the CustomersDot user is linked to a GitLab.com account:
  • On the CustomersDot account, navigate to the Show tab and confirm there is a value under Uid. The Uid is the ID of a GitLab account which can be checked via the Users API https://gitlab.com/api/v4/users/<Uid>
  • Unlink GitLab.com Account mechanizer function.
  1. Trigger a password reset to the new email. For SaaS, link their GitLab.com account.
  2. Follow Update Zuora Sold To contact using CustomersDot workflow.

Other notable workflows involving CustomersDot

Ownership verification

Note 1: For any of the options below, do not add the existing Sold To contact as a CC. The requester would see that email address, which would be considered a leak of Personal Data.

Note 2: We do not accept vouches from GitLab Team Members (including Account Owners listed in SFDC) as proof of a customer’s association to a subscription.

We need one of the following in order to verify eligibility for the subscription ownership change:

  1. Approval from the existing contact
    • If the billing account has different Sold To and Bill To contacts, we can only accept approval from the existing Sold To contact.
    • The Bill To contact must provide a recent GitLab invoice.
  2. Prior subscription contract
  3. Recent GitLab invoice (last 12 months)
    • This option is not available for customers who purchased through a reseller. If the license key is unactivated at the time of the request, see Option 5. below, if the license has already been activated, the reseller can either open a ticket with this request or the customer can CC the reseller and also confirm that they would like to authorize the reseller to participate in the ticket. The reseller can then provide the invoice as proof of identity.
  4. Copy of last loaded license (Self-Managed only) in text format only.
    • Screenshots are not valid
    • To obtain the license code:
      • GitLab version 14.2 and newer: Use license usage export.
      • GitLab version 14.1, run the command sudo gitlab-rails runner 'print License.current.data' on the GitLab instance. N.B. this command can take a few minutes to complete.
      • GitLab versions older than 14.1, use Download license from the Admin area > License page.
    • License file can be decoded in customersDot from Licenses -> Validate License (/admin/license/validate_license)
  5. Option for unactivated licenses purchased through a reseller only: Reseller can verify the account ownership change through an ticket request. Support is responsible for confirming the account was purchased through a reseller, and verifying that the email address domain used by the reseller to make the request matches the key Contacts email domain in the subscription details in Zuora. Reseller can either open a ticket with this request or the customer can CC the reseller and also confirm that they would like to authorize the reseller to participate in the ticket.

Update Zuora Sold To contact using CustomersDot

  1. Search for the user in CustomersDot.
  2. Click Edit on the CustomersDot user account.
  3. Click Save.
  4. Verify in Zuora if the Sold To contact is updated to CustomersDot user.

If the Zuora Sold To contact does not get updated, hand the ticket to the Billing team using the Zuora contact change workflow to update that.

Remove a billing account membership

You can remove an existing billing account membership:

  1. Navigate to the Billing account memberships section.
  2. Locate the correct billing account membership by searching for the CustomersDot user’s email.
  3. Open the billing account membership and select x Delete action.
  4. Confirm the correct billing account membership is selected.
  5. Select Yes, I'm sure.
  6. See the Billing account membership successfully deleted success notification.
  7. Refer to Add subscription management contact if you want to add a new billing account membership to the CustomersDot user.

Note: If the deleted billing account membership was the only one associated with the billing account, please ensure that this is the desired state.

Confirm the CustomersDot account login status

If the Login activated checkbox for a CustomersDot account is not checked, then:

  1. Click the History tab and search for login_activated = false. If you find an entry dated any time after the create entry, that indicates that we may have intentionally disabled login for this customer. Do not proceed with enabling login unless you are sure. For help, ask for guidance in the #support_licensing_subscription channel.
  2. To enable the customer’s login:
    1. Click the Edit tab
    2. Check the Login activated checkbox
    3. Click Save
    4. Locate the original Sold To contact in CustomersDot and click Save on the Edit page to ensure this contact remains the Sold To
Last modified August 21, 2023: Fix broken links across the handbook (7877c2be)