IBIS Technology

The IBIS Agent portal is where your agents can book your products in real time. The portal is an extension of our E-Commerce platform; your agents and resellers are provided with login credentials and can book and pay for tours according to the rules you have specified against their account. This is a great solution for agents who are not using one of our Integrated partner platforms. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Enable the agent login portal
• Setup agents/reseller accounts
• Control what is visible through the agent portal
• Setting up the password for the agent portal
• Using the agent portal
• How do agent portal bookings appear in the application? 

Enable the agent login portal

You will require an IBIS E-Commerce website to use the Agent portal. If you are using a custom E-Commerce website, please talk to us as additional configuration will be required. Please submit your request to our helpdesk to enable the Agent portal on your E-Commerce website.

Take a tour of IBIS Agent Portal interface here.

Setup agents/reseller accounts

Follow the steps below or click the link to watch our handy set-up video guide.

1. All agents that book your products require a contact and account to be configured in your system.
2. Ensure that the contact email address is set for each agent. This is required for logging into the portal. 
3. The account sale type is configured in the Accounts screen. Each sale type triggers a unique set of behaviours in the Agent portal as described below:
   
   

   Sale type	Used by	Best for
   Direct	Prepaid agents. This will deduct commission off your retail price and just charge the nett amount. This sale type prompts for credit card payment at the time of sale.	Overseas travel agents where invoicing is difficult
   Agent all	Agents with credit authorisation. No payment from the agent is taken upfront. An invoice is generated after the travel date for the net amount of the reservation.	Your trusted agents operating in the same country.
   Deposit	Agents who collect their commission upfront. When the customer arrives on site, the balance of the booking less commission is paid by the guest directly to your frontline team.	Agents without credit authorisation.
   Referral	Agents who take no payment upfront. When the guest arrives on site, they are charged the full amount of the booking and the commission is posted to the account and can be paid out at a later date.	Weather-dependent operations.

   
   
4. Each account will require the online policy to be set up as either Agent general or Agent trusted. If set to internal or inactive, they cannot book online. Learn more about online policies for reservation products.

Control what is visible through the agent portal

You can control what information is visible to agents using the portal. We are implementing new online settings in the system to allow you to fine-tune who has access. These settings are now in use on the agent portal for price options.

Pricing display on the agent portal

If you have agent-specific pricing set up for your products, this will also show on the agent portal. Be aware that if you are using the direct sale type on the agent account, any commission set on the account will be deducted when payment is taken on the agent portal.

Some agents may have a mix of agent-specific pricing on some products, and commission off standard retail on others. In this case, ensure you set the max commission for any agent-specific price codes to 0.

Setting up the password for the agent portal

To set the password for the first time, agents can use the 'forgot password' link, and then enter their email address. The following must be communicated to the agents before they log in to the portal:

1. Specify the email address the agent is to use for login. It must be the one set up in the Contacts screen. 
2. Send the agent a link directly to the Forgotten password page. E.g. https://youribiswebsite.com/agent/passwordreset
3. Agents can enter their email to receive the password reset email. 

Using the agent portal

1. Agents can go directly to your E-Commerce website and click Agent login to access the portal.
   
   
   
2. Agents can navigate the e-commerce website to find activities and departures to book. 
3. Once the desired product is added to the cart, agents are prompted to enter the customer details.
   Confirmation and/or receipt details are sent directly to the AGENT after the booking is completed. Please ensure agents fill out the Guest's details in the email and phone fields so you can communicate directly with them for operational purposes. 
   
   
   
   
4. The Agent payment field will show under the Cart summary. Agents must enter their voucher reference, and Sales person name/initials.
   
5.  If there is more than one payment option available for the agent, they can select from their preferred option before clicking Check out.
   
   

   Payment method	Behaviour at check out	Email to agent
   Invoice/debtor	Immediately confirms the booking. Triggered by the agent all sale type on the account.	Booking confirmation
   Referral	Immediately confirms the booking. Triggered by the referral sale type on the account.	Booking confirmation
   Customer deposit	Immediately confirms the booking. Triggered by the deposit sale type on the account.	Booking confirmation
   Pay now/direct	Opens the Windcave payment page and confirms the booking if successful payment is taken. Triggered by the direct sale type on the account.	Booking confirmation  & Sales Receipt

   
   

How do agent portal bookings appear in the application? 

The bookings will appear in the IBIS application in much the same way as E-Commerce bookings.

• The booking agent will show as the account
• The agent's voucher reference will appear in the voucher field.
• The salesperson is recorded as the first user who made the booking in the Booking history. 
• Bookings paid by 'direct' sale type will be settled and the transaction tab will display the commission line and payment details. 
• Bookings paid by deposit, referral or agent all sale type methods will show as outstanding. 
  • Agent All - post to invoice from the Booking as usual.
  • Deposit/Referral - click To POS from the Booking screen to take payment. You will be prompted to post the commission to invoice automatically.

How to report on bookings made via the agent portal

The Reservation summary or Booking list reports are the best to use for viewing and analysing sales via the agent portal. There are hidden fields you can use to set up a customised report view to suit your own purpose. 

The Reservation summary is more useful for analysing sales by various channels or segments whereas the Booking list report gives more operational detail about the bookings themselves (pickups, voucher ids, etc).

The most common fields you may wish to add to your agent portal report view:

Reservation summary report example: