IBIS Technology

The IBIS Agent portal is where your agents can book your products online in real time. The portal is an extension of your E-Commerce platform; agents and resellers granted the appropriate online permissions can log in to your portal and book and pay for your reservation products. 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? 
• How to report on bookings made via the agent portal
• Considerations when moving from Agent login to Agent portal
• FAQ's

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. Get in touch with 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	Who's it for?	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.  This option does NOT work with agent-specific price groups.	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.

   
   

   You may have more than one account associated with a contact. If both of these accounts have online permissions enabled, then the agent can select their preferred account sale type when booking.  

   
   
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 maximum commission rates on other products. The agent portal always shows the max commission based on the account commission, so it may not be correct in some instances.

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, much like your customers booking with you directly. 
3. Once the desired product is added to the cart, agents are prompted to enter the customer details.
   Confirmation emails and/or receipts are sent directly to the AGENT after the booking is completed. Ensure agents fill out the Guest's details in the email and phone fields. 
   
   
   
   
   
4. The Agent payment field will show under the Cart summary. Agents must enter their voucher reference, and Sales person name/initials.  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. Their intials will have an underscore appended to them on reports so you can always differentiate an 'online' user from an 'internal' one.
• Bookings paid by 'direct' sale type will be settled. The transaction tab on the Booking screen will display the commission line and payment details. 
• Bookings paid by deposit, referral or agent all sale type methods will show as outstanding. They need to be managed as follows:  
  • 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:

Considerations when moving from Agent login to Agent portal

Here are some considerations for a smooth transition to agent portal:

• Go through your list of agents that are using Agent login. Check the online password field - any agents that have a password beginning with 'fit' should have their sale type changed to 'direct' to prompt for credit card payment in the Agent portal.
• Consider your email correspondence - the booking confirmation will be sent directly to the agent and not the customer. Ensure the agent's email address in the Contacts screen is set up and correct.
• The agent will receive your booking confirmation, NOT the customer. If your emails contain important details like risk disclosures or check-in links, then you may wish to remove any pricing details from the confirmations to make it easy for the agent to forward these on to the customer. 
• Notify your agents about the new URL to access your portal. The URL is your standard E-Commerce address with /agent/login appended to the end. E.g. https://demo.ibisnz.com/agent/login
• Agents will now control their own passwords. They must use the password reset function to set their new password initially for the Agent portal so it's good to instruct them to do this when you email them advising about the new portal URL. The agents' login email address is the contact email specified in your Contacts screen. We do have some details on this in our Knowledgebase.
• Any promotions that were used in Agent login should be configured in the Promotions screen with appropriate Online permissions so they can be used in Agent portal.

FAQ's

Why can't I see my gift vouchers, retail or admission products on the portal? 

The portal only facilitates the booking of reservation products. If you wish to sell your admission products through the portal, talk to our support team about configuring reservation products for this purpose.