My customer can't create an account, sign in or place an order

Most customer problems come down to a handful of causes: the Create Account page allows one new account per computer, a login that's inactive or shares an email, an order held by the order limit, or a missing Make Payments permission. Work down the list; each cause has what the customer sees and the fix. Payment problems in detail are in My customer can't pay or can't place an order.

Applies to: employees helping a customer. Fixing limits and permissions needs Add/edit companies, Manage Financial Settings and Modify permissions; an administrator can do all of it.

In this article

They can't create an account
They can't sign in
"This order would have put you over your order limit"
About the credit limit
They can't pay, or can't submit without paying
The Submit Order button is missing or disabled
Still stuck
Things to know

They can't create an account

A second account from the same computer. A customer is only allowed to create one account from the Create Account page per computer (IP address). That protection layer keeps hackers and bots from creating multiple accounts, and it's uncommon for a company to create several accounts from one computer. To add more companies or more people at a company, sign in yourself as an administrator (or someone with permission) and add them from Add > Company or Add > Company Contacts: Add customers: sign-up, add by hand, or import a list.
"The email is already taken." Another contact, possibly an inactive one or an individual account, already uses that address: "The email is already taken" when adding a contact.
No Individual choice on the form. Disable Individual Account Registration is ticked on Order Settings; the customer must enter a business name, or you untick it.
No Create Account link at all. Sign-up has been turned off for your site. Ask your Customer Success contact or support to turn it back on.
They didn't get the confirmation email. Full inbox, a mistyped address, a junk filter, over-aggressive filtering at their provider, a virus-scan false positive, network congestion or throttling are the usual reasons; the list is in How customers sign up. The account exists either way: they can sign in with the username they chose.

They can't sign in

"Inactive or deleted." The contact or their company is Inactive, or Allow this person to log in is off. Edit the contact (and the company) and turn them back on.
"Invalid username or password." A wrong password, or an email address used by more than one contact (possible on older accounts). They can use Forgot Password on the login page, or sign in with their username instead of their email. More sign-in fixes, including lockouts and repeat sign-in prompts: Someone can't sign in, or keeps being asked to sign in.
Asked to choose a new password after signing in. Expected, once: it happens when the person is moved onto Allmoxy's shared sign-in.
Signed out after declining the terms. Declining the site terms at sign-in signs the person out; they can sign in again and accept.

"This order would have put you over your order limit"

The order limit (also called the build limit) is the amount of product you will build for a customer, but not necessarily ship, before they pay. It isn't just about one order: the total of their unpaid orders counts toward it, so a new order that would take the total over the limit is held as a bid. Customers who pay before processing aren't limited, and employees aren't stopped by it. Fix it one of these ways:

Raise the company's order limit: edit the company and change it in the Financial Settings section (the shop-wide default is on Settings > Admin > Financial and applies to companies without their own).
Take a payment to bring their balance down.
Ask the customer to split the order, so your shop can fulfill it in a timely manner.
Place the order for them.

More on how the figures are worked out: Order limits, credit limits and what your customer owes.

About the credit limit

The credit limit is the amount you allow a customer to owe on shipped orders before it counts as due now; it doesn't stop them placing an order. If a customer's shipped, unpaid balance is over their credit limit, it shows as past due on their company page and on the Delivery report, and the customer can make a payment to reduce their balance. You change it in the same Financial Settings section of the company.

They can't pay, or can't submit without paying

No way to pay. The customer's company (or individual account) needs the Make Payments permission. Edit the company, scroll to Company Permissions and make sure Make Payments is on; that one setting lets every contact at the company pay. Online payment also needs your Stripe connection set up and payments not turned off.
Must pay to submit. Their payment term (Pay Before Processing or Deposit Required) asks for payment to place the order. If they shouldn't be on that term, change it: Create and assign payment terms.
Paid, but the order is still a bid, a declined card, or "Online Payment System is currently disabled": My customer can't pay or can't place an order.

The Submit Order button is missing or disabled

No Submit Order button, only Save. The person lacks Submit Orders; every customer sign-up has it unless someone set Deny on their contact or company: What your customers see and can do (customer permissions).
Both buttons disabled on the public order form. The shop has no payment option set up yet.
Validation errors on the order. Fix any validation error flagged on a product line before submitting.

Still stuck

Send us the customer's company name, what they clicked, the address of the page and a screenshot of the message, through the Report a Bug tab of the Support Center: Report a bug to Allmoxy.

Things to know

One new account per computer from the Create Account page. Add the rest yourself.
The order limit holds orders; the credit limit doesn't. The credit limit only changes what counts as due.
Make Payments is on the company. One tick covers all of its contacts.
Employees aren't stopped by the order limit, so you can always place the order for the customer.