The Buying Buddy Developer Portal (the Developer Account Hub) gives our developer partners one place to manage client accounts, track orders and billing, research MLS compatibility, and get help. It is organized into tabs shown across the top of the portal: Overview, Accounts, Users, Provisioning, Billing, and Help desk.
Adding New Clients: To set up a new client account, use the Add Account button, then follow the platform-specific installation steps. See Adding Client Accounts - The Provisioning Lifecycle for complete instructions.
The Developer Hub at a Glance
Each tab handles one part of your work. You can jump straight to any of them from the portal menu:
- Overview: Your home dashboard - where every client stands and anything that needs your attention.
- Accounts: Every client account in one filtered list, with quick login and account actions.
- Users: The users across your client accounts, in one place.
- Provisioning: Orders on their way to going live, and what each one needs next.
- Billing: Your invoices from Buying Buddy and the clients you pay for.
- Help desk: Your tickets and your clients' tickets together.
Note: Affiliate accounts see a smaller set of tabs - the Billing and Users tabs are available to developer accounts only.
Overview
When you log in, you land on the Overview tab. It summarizes your whole client book and surfaces the things only you can move forward:
- Your client book: A status bar and legend showing how many accounts are Live, Pending, Draft, and so on. Click any status to open the Accounts tab filtered to it.
- Needs your attention: Support replies, orders waiting on a client, trials about to end, and payment problems - each with a direct action.
- Tiles: Quick counts for Orders in progress, Help desk, and Billing, each linking to its tab.
- Recent activity: Recent changes across your client accounts, newest first.
- Tools: Shortcuts to Referral links, the Pricing calculator, Widget themes, and MLS research.
Accounts
The Accounts tab lists every client you manage in one place. Use the filters at the top to narrow the list:
- Status chips: Filter by any status group (see below).
- Search: Match by account name, ID, domain, or contact.
- MLS: Show only accounts on a particular MLS.
- Billing: Show Centralized (you pay), Client-billed, or Complimentary accounts.
Every account falls into one status group:
- Live: Approved and running on the client's MLS data feed.
- Pending: Upgraded and waiting on IDX license approval.
- Draft: Free development account running on demonstration listings.
- Free trial: Time-limited evaluation account.
- Payment problem: A card was declined.
- Suspended: The account's widgets and hosted site are turned off.
- Pending cancel: Cancellation requested; the account closes at the end of the month.
- Trial ended: The free trial expired.
- Canceled: The account is closed.
Logging in to a Client Account
- Find the account in the Accounts list.
- Click the login icon on the right side of the account row.
- You are taken into that client's account with full access to setup, customization, and support tasks.
Login is available for active accounts. Suspended, Trial ended, and Canceled accounts cannot be opened this way.
Copying the Activation Key
Each account row shows an Activation Key (also called the Account Authorization Key). This is the key used to connect the Buying Buddy plugin or app to the account. Click the key to copy it to your clipboard.
Account Actions
Click the gear icon on the right side of an account row to open Account Actions. The available actions depend on the account's status:
- Change Account Type (Draft and Free trial only): Switch between Single User, Team, and Office. For other statuses, submit a help ticket to request a change.
- Change Planned MLS (Draft and Free trial only): Set the MLS data feed that will be used when the account is upgraded to Live.
- Cancel Client Account (Live and Pending only): Cancel the account on the client's behalf.
Provisioning
When you upgrade a Draft or Free trial account, its MLS feed is requested and the order appears on the Provisioning tab, where it stays until it goes live. Each order shows:
- A progress bar with five stages: Order placed, Client action, MLS approval, Support review, and Approved and live.
- A plain-language summary of what the order is waiting on and what to do next.
- The messages between your client and Buying Buddy support.
- MLS instructions for the client, and a View Order button to open the work order and reply.
For the full account-to-live workflow, including the IDX approval process, see Adding Client Accounts - The Provisioning Lifecycle.
Billing
The Billing tab (developer accounts only) shows your invoices from Buying Buddy. When you choose to pay for a client's account, that client is billed on your monthly invoice. The tab shows:
- Card on file: The card that pays your monthly invoice, with a link to update it.
- Clients you pay for: The live clients billed on your invoice.
- Past invoices: Your invoice history with status and amounts.
If a payment fails, a banner on the Overview and Billing tabs explains what is affected and what to do next.
Users
The Users tab lists the users across your client accounts so you can review and manage them from one place.
Help Desk
The Help desk tab brings together your own support tickets and tickets on your clients' accounts. Filter by Open, Support replied, Waiting on support, or Recently resolved. Open any ticket to read the conversation; your replies are posted under your name, and support's replies are emailed to the client who opened the ticket.
Creating Support Tickets
There are three ways to request assistance, depending on whose account the request is about:
- From your main account: Use this for general help with your own account.
- From your account, referencing a client: When you need assistance with a client account but don't want the client involved.
- From within a client account: Log in as the client to submit tickets that appear to come directly from them. You can add your email as CC to receive all communications.
To create a ticket from any account, click "Help & Support" in the menu, select "New Help Ticket", and complete the form with relevant details. When a ticket is submitted, our support team can immediately see the account, websites, and leads associated with the request.
MLS Research
Before starting a client project, use MLS Research to confirm compatibility and requirements for your client's MLS. Open it from the Tools card on the Overview tab.
Using MLS Research
- Open the Overview tab.
- In the Tools card, click MLS research.
- Search for or select the specific MLS.
- Review the complete information.
Information Available
MLS Research provides the following details for each MLS:
- IDX Data Feed Status: Verify if Buying Buddy connects to the MLS data feed
- IDX Approval Process: Access licensing instructions and required steps
- MLS Passthrough Fees: Review any additional fees that may apply
- Expected Timelines: Understand typical approval durations
- Special Requirements: Identify any MLS-specific considerations
Quick Access for Existing Accounts
For Draft and Pending accounts, you can also open the MLS instructions directly from the account - use the MLS instructions link on the account's row in the Accounts list, or on its order in Provisioning.
Working in a Client Account
Once logged in to a client account, you have full access to handle customizations, setup, and support tasks.
Note: Your browser can only maintain one active account session at a time. Always access client accounts through your Developer Portal rather than setting yourself up as a Webmaster user within client accounts.
Returning to Your Main Account
When finished working in a client account, you have two options:
- Log off completely: This ends the session and requires you to log in again to your main account
- Switch back to your account: Click "Switch Back To Myself" in the top menu to return directly to your main account without logging out
Demo Websites for Inspiration
These demo websites showcase the various Buying Buddy widget components that are embedded in pages. At the bottom of each page there is a section in yellow that shows the short code used in each case.
- charliesmithrealty.com is a WordPress site built using DIVI and uses the Buying Buddy WordPress plugin.
- charliesmithrealty.net is an HTML website and is using the Buying Buddy JavaScript plugin.
Your Personal Demo Environment
Your Developer Portal includes a complete Buying Buddy demo account that you can use to create your own demonstration website, showcase features to potential clients, test new integrations, practice configurations, and train your team. This demo environment uses the Demo MLS data and includes all features available in production accounts.