The Account Generator must be used when large numbers of accounts need to be generated (for example, when issuing prepaid cards), so that individual accounts need not be entered manually.
Account IDs will be generated either sequentially or randomly, as will the web passwords, so as to prevent possible fraudulent activity.
The generation process will run offline, so that recently generated accounts are not visible from the Account Management page until the process is complete.
The customer will then receive an email notification regarding task completion, and then a second email that lists all the accounts in .csv format, including the values “Batch”, “Control Number” (a sequential index in standardized 10-digit length format), “PIN” (account ID), “Web login” (by default identical to the account ID) and “Password” (web password).
The Account Generator interface is very similar to Add Account, with the following exceptions:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Number of Accounts (replacing Account ID) |
The number of accounts to be generated. |
The following tabs can be available depending on the chosen account role:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Type |
The account type may be:
Debit is usually associated with prepaid cards. Credit is an account that will be invoiced for incurred costs. |
Balance Control |
In most cases a customer makes a unified payment for all accounts and controls the credit limit at the customer level. Here you select whether to display the balance of individual accounts on a web interface:
|
Credit Limit |
Only available when the account type is set to Credit and Balance Control to Individual Credit Limit. Defines the credit allowance in the account’s currency. |
Generation method |
|
Inactive |
Select this check box if you’d like to create an inactive account. |
ID prefix |
Specify the leading digits in the account ID (e.g. 12). This way all the accounts generated start with the same digits. To make an account ID totally random, leave this field empty.
An ID prefix is part of an ID length. If you enter 12 for an ID prefix and 10 for its length, the account IDs (PINs) will look like this: 12NNNNNNNN, where N = random digits. |
ID length |
Specify the total ID length (e.g. 10). This is the number of digits, including ID prefix.
To generate random account IDs, make sure that the range of possible numbers, limited by ID Length and Prefix parameters, is greater than the quantity of accounts. Otherwise, the accounts generate in sequential order.
To avoid issues with the prepaid card print-shop, PortaBilling® won’t generate account numbers that lead with a zero. Also, PortaBilling® will only allow batches with feasible parameters. For example, it is impossible to generate a batch of 1,000 accounts with an ID length of 4 and an ID starting with 55. |
Starting ID |
The initial digit set you would like the generated accounts to start with.
Thus, if you enter 5553000, the account IDs (PINs) will look like this: 5553000, 5553001, 5553002 and 555300N, where N = subsequent digit. (This is only available in Sequential generation method, and is always numeric). |
Service Password |
Can be generated automatically, or left empty to allow end users to login using account ID only (typically used for prepaid cards) Auto-generated digits only option allows you to create sufficiently secure passwords (with a specified password length) consisting of digits only, so that they can be entered from a phone’s touchpad. |
Customer Site |
Places this account (phone line) with a specific site so that the site parameters (e.g. number of simultaneous calls) will apply. |
Batch |
Accounts are grouped into batches. If a new batch name is provided in the text field, a new batch will be created when you add the account. Otherwise, an existing batch should be selected from the list. |
Distributor |
This field is only available for the voucher role and defines a distributor associated with the accounts. |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Login |
Can be set as identical to the account ID, or left empty to disable access to the account self-care interface. |
Password |
Can be generated automatically, or left empty to allow end users to login using account ID only. |
The description of other tabs you can find on the Edit Account page.
Choose Random if you want a relatively small amount of unpredictable IDs within a large enough range of possible numbers. Please note that “random” means not only “generated randomly” but also “difficult to guess”; therefore, the ratio between the number of generated PINs and the number of total possible PINs should be sufficiently low.
For instance, PortaBilling® will refuse to generate 5,000 PINs with ID prefix 33333 and ID length 9, because in this case there are 10,000 possible PINs; if we generate 5,000 actual pins, there is a 50% chance of using someone else’s PIN just by entering one wrong digit.
Thus, in the example above, the PIN length should be set at 10 or even 11 digits (with a 5% or 0.5% chance of guessing the PIN, respectively). Note that random account PINs are never generated with leading zeroes, as these zeroes could be truncated when working with PIN data in programs like Microsoft Excel.
Choose Sequential if you want to generate a large number of accounts at once. You can choose the starting ID for the first account to be generated, and the system will generate IDs sequentially by an increment of one. If a given account ID is already used, it will be skipped and the system will continue until it generates the specified number of accounts.
For example, if you requested 100 accounts with the starting ID prefix “1000000”, and there are already three accounts within the defined range (1000010, 1000011, 1000012), the first generated ID will be 1000000, the second 1000001, and the last 1000103. Account ID length is always the same for all generated accounts. So if there is not enough room to generate the specified number of accounts (e.g. you request 1,000 accounts with starting ID 999900), generation will not begin and a warning email will be sent immediately.