Sub-accounts

Sub-accounts are how you organize your workspace. Each customer, project, or site gets its own sub-account. Devices live inside sub-accounts. Users are scoped to one or more sub-accounts. Dashboards and rules can target a single sub-account or the whole workspace. This page covers creating, managing, and decommissioning sub-accounts.

note

Where to find it: Sidebar -> Settings -> Sub-accounts.

What a sub-account is

A sub-account is a tenant inside your partner workspace. The most common pattern is one sub-account per customer, but other groupings work just as well:

• Customer: one sub-account per paying customer of your service.
• Site: one sub-account per physical location (warehouse, building, factory floor).
• Project: one sub-account per deployment project.
• Team / department: one sub-account per internal team using the platform.

Whichever way you slice it, the sub-account is the scope for:

• Devices (each device is assigned to exactly one sub-account at a time)
• Dashboards (can be sub-account-scoped and visible only to that sub-account's users)
• Users (a user's access is scoped to one or more sub-accounts via memberships)
• Rules (can be sub-account-scoped, profile-scoped, or device-scoped)
• Tier features and quotas (each sub-account has a customer tier controlling its feature allowance)

The two special sub-accounts: Inventory and Archive

Every workspace has two built-in sub-accounts that are created automatically and can't be deleted:

Sub-account	Purpose
Inventory	Staging area for devices that are registered but not yet assigned to a customer. Inventory devices don't consume an active-device license.
Archive	Historical home for devices that have been removed from active service. Archive frees up the license seat.

These appear in the sub-accounts list alongside your customer sub-accounts, but with disabled edit/delete actions. The UI filters them out of the main customer view by default; toggle the type filter to see them.

You move devices between sub-accounts (including Inventory and Archive) on the device detail page, or in bulk during sub-account deletion (see Deleting a sub-account).

Creating a sub-account

1. Settings -> Sub-accounts.
2. Click + New sub-account.
3. Fill in:
   • Name (e.g., "Acme Corp", "Warehouse 14", "Pilot project Q4").
   • Customer tier (if your platform allows per-sub tiers). The tier controls feature allowances and quotas for this sub-account.
4. Create.

The new sub-account appears in your list, ready to receive devices and users. ioX-Pulse also provisions a corresponding application on the underlying LoRaWAN network, which devices use for routing.

Permission required: Partner Admin.

Renaming a sub-account

You can rename a sub-account at any time, for example to change a placeholder like "Customer test" into the customer's real name before you hand over access.

1. Settings -> Sub-accounts.
2. Find the sub-account in the list and click Rename.
3. Enter the new name and click Save.

Renaming is safe: devices, dashboards, and rules referenced by ID don't break. The new name appears immediately wherever the sub-account is shown, for everyone with access.

A sub-account admin can rename their own workspace too, but from inside it under Settings -> Workspace (not from this list, which is partner-only). See Your workspace in the end-user guide.

Permission required: Partner Admin.

Switching scope

The sub-account selector at the top of the sidebar controls what you see in the rest of the app. With a sub-account selected:

• Devices: only this sub-account's devices.
• Dashboards: dashboards scoped to this sub-account, plus partner-wide dashboards.
• Rules: rules scoped to this sub-account or its profiles.
• Members: only this sub-account's memberships.

Click the selector to switch sub-accounts. The All sub-accounts option (partner-wide view) shows everything across your workspace, useful for managing platform-level resources or auditing across customers.

tip

Your active scope is sticky. When you sign out and back in, you land in the last sub-account you were scoped into. To start a session at the partner-wide level, switch scope before signing out.

Branding

Sub-accounts strictly inherit the partner workspace's branding (logo, colors, custom domain, workspace name). There is no per-sub-account branding override.

Why: end users of a sub-account see your brand, not ours. A consistent visual experience across all sub-accounts reinforces that "Acme Corp's dashboard" is part of one coherent product. If a customer needs a different visual identity, they need their own partner workspace.

Configure branding once at Administration -> White Label and it applies everywhere.

Setting up sub-account tiers

Before you can assign tiers to your sub-accounts, you define a catalog of them. A sub-account tier is a named bundle of feature allowances and quotas (devices, users, dashboards, widget types, rule features, and so on) that you reuse across sub-accounts.

note

Where to find it: Sidebar -> Settings -> Sub-account Tiers. This page is available depending on your platform tier. Until you create your first tier, new sub-accounts have no tier and inherit your partner-level defaults.

To create a tier:

1. Settings -> Sub-account Tiers -> Create tier.
2. Code -> a short stable identifier (lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens), e.g. standard. The code is immutable after creation.
3. Name -> the label shown when assigning the tier, e.g. Standard.
4. Description (optional) -> a short note, e.g. Entry tier for sub-accounts.
5. Status -> Active makes the tier selectable when creating sub-accounts. Inactive hides it from the picker without affecting sub-accounts already on it.
6. Features -> set each allowance and quota. Values are capped at your own partner-level tier, so a sub-account can never exceed what your partner tier allows. Fields that exceed your ceiling are flagged and block saving until corrected.
7. Create.

Edit a tier any time by clicking it in the list. You can change its name, description, status, and feature values, but not its code. A tier can only be deleted when no sub-accounts are assigned to it; reassign those sub-accounts first, or set the tier to Inactive to retire it without deleting.

Tier features and quotas

Each sub-account is assigned a customer tier that controls its feature allowance:

• Maximum number of devices it can have assigned
• Maximum number of users (memberships)
• Maximum number of dashboards
• Available widget types, rule features, downlink permissions, and so on

Self-service features let a sub-account manage more on its own, instead of you doing it for them. They're off by default; switch them on per tier in the tier's Features:

• Sub-account device claiming lets the sub-account add devices you've marked claimable by entering their DevEUI and serial. See Making devices available to claim.
• Sub-account gateway claiming does the same for non-cellular gateways, with Per-sub gateway limit capping how many a sub-account may claim. See Making gateways available to claim.
• Sub-account device profiles lets the sub-account clone your profiles into their own editable copies, with Per-sub device-profile limit capping how many they may own. See Letting sub-accounts customize profiles.

To change a sub-account's tier:

1. Settings -> Sub-accounts -> click the sub-account.
2. Tier dropdown -> pick a different tier.
3. Save.

The change applies immediately. Downgrades are blocked if they would put the sub-account over a quota (e.g., you can't downgrade to a 10-device tier if there are already 50 devices assigned). The error message tells you exactly what's blocking.

note

Sub-account tiers vs partner tier. Your partner workspace has its own platform tier, and each sub-account has its own customer tier. Features resolve to the more restrictive of the two. A sub-account on a feature-rich customer tier still can't exceed what your partner tier allows.

Members at the sub-account level

Each sub-account has its own member list. To manage:

1. Switch into the sub-account.
2. Members in the left nav.
3. Invite, suspend, or remove members exactly as documented in Users and Roles.

Sub-account members are scoped: a Sub-account Admin in sub-account A has no visibility into sub-account B. Partner Admins (whose membership is partner-wide) see all sub-accounts and can administer them all.

MFA mandate at the sub-account level

In addition to any partner-wide MFA requirement, individual sub-accounts can mandate MFA independently. Use this when a specific customer has stricter security requirements than your default.

1. Switch into the sub-account.
2. Members -> Settings tab -> Require MFA.
3. Set a grace period if you want existing members time to enroll.

The stricter of the two policies wins. If either the partner OR the sub-account requires MFA, users in scope must enroll. See Users and Roles -> MFA for the user-side flow.

Suspending a sub-account

Suspension temporarily disables access without changing data. Use it for billing pauses, customer disputes, or while you investigate an issue.

1. Settings -> Sub-accounts -> click the sub-account.
2. Suspend in the actions menu.

When suspended:

• Members can't sign in to the sub-account (a partner-wide membership for the same user is unaffected).
• Devices keep receiving and storing uplinks (telemetry is preserved).
• Rules continue to evaluate.
• Active dashboards continue to display.

Reactivate from the same menu when you're ready.

Deleting a sub-account

Deletion is soft-delete only: the sub-account is marked deleted but the row stays in the database for audit. The data isn't physically erased.

If the sub-account has no assigned devices, deletion is a single confirmation:

1. Settings -> Sub-accounts -> click the sub-account.
2. Delete in the actions menu.
3. Type the sub-account name to confirm.

If the sub-account has assigned devices, ioX-Pulse forces you to choose a destination for them first:

Disposition option	What happens
Move to Inventory	Devices return to your Inventory. They remain registered, no longer consume a license seat, and all of their data is permanently deleted. If this would take you over your inventory limit, the move is refused until you make room. Use when devices may be redeployed later.
Transfer to another sub-account	Pick a target sub-account. Devices move there directly. The target sub-account's device quota is checked first.
Delete all devices	Devices are permanently removed from the platform, including from the underlying LoRaWAN network. Cannot be undone.

Whichever option you choose, the account's gateways return to your Inventory, and their data is permanently deleted as described in Unassigning a gateway. If they would take you over your gateway inventory limit, deletion is blocked until you delete or move some of them first.

After disposition, the sub-account itself is soft-deleted. Its dashboards, rules, and historical data become inaccessible to normal users but remain in the database for audit and possible future restore.

Permission required: Partner Admin.

caution

Active devices need explicit handling before sub-account deletion. ioX-Pulse won't silently orphan devices. The disposition modal exists specifically to make this decision explicit.

Closure requests (customer-initiated)

A Sub-account Admin can request that their own sub-account be closed (e.g., a customer ending their contract). This isn't an automatic close; it's a flag for you, the Partner Admin, to act on.

How it appears:

• The sub-account shows a "Closure requested" banner on the Sub-accounts list.
• The requester, reason, and timestamp are visible to Partner Admins.

You can then:

• Proceed with deletion following the deletion flow above.
• Clear the closure request from the actions menu if the customer changed their mind or the request was made in error.

Sub-account dashboards

Dashboards have a scope. Sub-account-scope dashboards are only visible to users with access to that sub-account:

1. From within the target sub-account, Dashboards -> + New Dashboard.
2. Scope: Sub-account.
3. The dashboard is automatically bound to the current sub-account.

Partner-wide dashboards (scope = partner or fleet) are visible to all sub-account users in addition to partner-level members. They're useful for cross-cutting views like "all our customers' device counts" or platform-level KPIs.

See Dashboards for the full dashboard system.

License accounting

How sub-accounts consume your platform's device license:

• Devices in Inventory: free. Stage as many as you have shipped without exceeding your license.
• Devices assigned to a customer sub-account: consume a license seat against the sub-account's tier and the partner's overall device cap.
• Devices in Archive: free. Archiving frees the seat back to your pool.

To check current consumption:

• Settings -> Plan shows total seats used across the workspace and per-sub-account breakdown.
• Each sub-account's tier shows its individual quota and current usage.

When you hit a quota:

• Assigning a new device fails with a clear error.
• Existing devices keep working; quotas only block new growth.
• Resolve by archiving unused devices, upgrading the tier, or transferring devices between sub-accounts.

Frequently asked

Can a device belong to multiple sub-accounts?

No. A device is assigned to exactly one sub-account at a time (which can be Inventory or Archive). To move a device between sub-accounts, use the Assign action on the device.

Can I rename a sub-account?

Yes, at any time, with the Rename action on the Sub-accounts list. See Renaming a sub-account.

A sub-account doesn't appear in my switcher.

Either it's been deleted (soft-deleted; visible only in the deleted filter on the Sub-accounts list), or you're not a member of it. Partner Admins see all non-deleted sub-accounts; sub-account-scoped users only see the ones they're a member of.

Can I undelete a sub-account?

Not through the UI today. Soft-deleted rows persist in the database, so it's technically possible. Contact ioX-Connect support if you've deleted a sub-account in error.

What happens to rules and dashboards when I delete a sub-account?

Sub-account-scoped rules stop evaluating. Sub-account-scoped dashboards become invisible. Both still exist in the database (orphaned by the soft-delete) and can be recovered manually if needed. Devices moved to Inventory remain registered and ready to reassign, but all of their data is permanently deleted; if they were targeted by sub-account-scoped rules, those rules no longer apply.