Create a Friend Account for Guest Access to U-M Computing Resources

This document describes how to create a U-M guest access account—called a Friend account. The most frequent use of Friend accounts is to allow parents or others access to pay student bills. Incoming students may need one to check their financial aid notice. Friend accounts are used for other situations as well, such as by participants in some research projects.

Environment

UMICH Login

Issue

You would like to access U-M computing resources but do not have a uniqname.

Resolution

You can create a U-M guest access account—called a Friend account. The most frequent use of Friend accounts is to allow parents or others access to pay student bills; the student must authorize access before the account holder can log in.

What is a Friend Account?

A Friend account is a U-M guest account. It allows people without U-M uniqnames and UMICH (Level-1) passwords to log in to U-M websites or services. It does not, however, authorize people to use any services. Friend accounts must be verified or authorized, depending on the site you want to access, before they can be used.

• Incoming students must verify their Friend account in Wolverine Access before they can check their financial aid. See instructions at Incoming Students: Create a Friend Account to Check Your Financial Aid Notice.
• Parents or others who want to access their student's university billing statements and financial aid data on Wolverine Access and make payments must set up a Friend account (or use their U-M uniqname if they have one) and be authorized by their student to access the relevant data.
• To use any other Friend-enabled service, you need authorization from the provider of that service.

Note: U-M standard computing services cannot be authorized for Friend account access. Those who need access to U-M computing services for university purposes but who are not faculty, staff, or students can be sponsored by their department or unit for affiliate access.

Creating Your Friend Account

You will need a non-university email address (one that does not end in "umich.edu") to set up a Friend account. You will receive email at that address as part of the account creation setup. This is done to verify that you own that email address.

1. Go to Request a Friend Account.
2. Enter your non-university email address, then click Request.
3. You will see a Message Sent screen letting you know that a message has been sent to the email address you provided with further instructions.
4. Open your email and look for a message from friend-noreply@umich.edu. If you don't see the message, check your spam or junk mail folder.
5. In that message, click the Create Friend Account link.
6. Clicking the link will take you to the Create a Friend Account webpage.
   • Enter your email address, the same one you used in Step 2 above.
   • Enter and re-enter the password you want to use for your Friend account.
   • Click Set Password.
7. A confirmation screen lets you know that your Friend account has been created.
8. You will also receive an email message confirming the creation of your Friend account and providing you with information about it. If you don't see the message, check your spam or junk mail folder.

Getting a Friend Account Authorized or Verified to Use a Service

Contact the U-M office or representative that asked you to get a Friend account to get your account authorized to use the service for which it is needed. Here is information about Friend account authorization/verification for two widely-used services:

• Incoming students checking financial aid. need to verify their Friend account in Wolverine Access before they can use it to check their financial aid notice. See the Verify Your Friend Account section of Incoming Students: Create a Friend Account to Check Your Financial Aid Notice.
• Student eBilling. UM-Ann Arbor students can log in to Wolverine Access to authorize access to their eBills, account data and financial aid data for up to four email addresses. Students can also authorize others to receive informational emails from U-M about student accounts, financial aid and housing, as well as alerts about emergencies.  See instructions at Finance: Parents and Family Authorization.

Using Your Friend Account

• You can use your Friend account login name and password to log in to U-M Web-based computing resources that you have been authorized to use.
• Your login name is your full email address, the one you used when creating your Friend account.

Individuals who have either a Friend account or a U-M uniqname and UMICH password—and who have been authorized by a student to access that student's information—can do so by going to Wolverine Access, clicking the Parents & Family tab, then clicking My Student's Information. They will be prompted to log in using their Friend account (email address and Friend password).

If You Forget Your Password

If you forget your Friend password, you can reset it at Reset Friend Password.

Additional Information

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.