Ive been running a hosting biz for the past 4 years (locally), well... in here most people shun away from credit cards so we had to do it the old fashioned way... cash, checks, bank deposits etc...

Lately, our clients are growing to a point its really becoming a pain emailing them the billing statements, calling them up, maintaining the database "due dates" etc... especially with our secretary gone..its really a pain.

I've been eyeing modernbill or clientexec for automated billing systems and notification, that way I dont missout on customers...

What do you guys recommend? Coz I really have a hard time picking since most automated softwares are "embedded" or linked to the control panels like WHM or credit card gateways...

And since I only handle "old fashioned" payments, as well as Windows and Linux CP's... this type of automation wont work....

Thanks in advance....

P.S. ( I even went as far as entertaining the helm control panel, hoping that it would at least automate the windows billing department.... but some say there aint that great....)

Is my request so hard to answer?

Give whoiscart a try. Its $35 for a lifetime license and will do everything you need.

www.whoiscart.net

Lets you automate most things, including account creation.

Originally posted by Philipf
Give whoiscart a try. Its $35 for a lifetime license and will do everything you need.

Lets you automate most things, including account creation.

Is anybody aware of one that allows sub-domain hosting? whoiscart doesn't offer such a solution at this time.

Originally posted by Scout
Ive been running a hosting biz for the past 4 years (locally), well... in here most people shun away from credit cards so we had to do it the old fashioned way... cash, checks, bank deposits etc...

Lately, our clients are growing to a point its really becoming a pain emailing them the billing statements, calling them up, maintaining the database "due dates" etc... especially with our secretary gone..its really a pain.

I've been eyeing modernbill or clientexec for automated billing systems and notification, that way I dont missout on customers...

What do you guys recommend? Coz I really have a hard time picking since most automated softwares are "embedded" or linked to the control panels like WHM or credit card gateways...

And since I only handle "old fashioned" payments, as well as Windows and Linux CP's... this type of automation wont work....

Thanks in advance....

P.S. ( I even went as far as entertaining the helm control panel, hoping that it would at least automate the windows billing department.... but some say there aint that great....)

Well someone else in my boat :)

I have the same issue and depending how you are going to convert your current clients is what should make you choose.

If you are looking to still mail clients bills then good luck.. None of these systems allow for automated printing of clients bills. You would have to email it to them only.

If you are looking for a very simple system that emails the invoices to the customer than www.whoiscart.net is the one, cheap and simple to use and integrates with cpanel or directadmin with ease.

I would love to hear what you choose and why, if you don't mind send me a pm after you decide.

hello all...
so can whoiscart.net be tied to PayPal somehow?
not to rhyme...

like the prior post, i'm in the same boat (jeez it's late. another near rhyme)

i'd like something that will send the client to paypal at sign-up, verify payment, create the account for them. i'm just getting started and have a full time job, so i want to have as much automation as possible on my very shoestring budget. i've got support lined up, but i'm pretty concerned that the automation be in place so my customers have a positive and smooth initial experience.

thanks for any more comments in this vein. the whole topic interests me.
cheers all,
kc

if that is what you need... why dont you go sand signup with hostgator.com? I think they offer WHMautopilot and Paypal connection complete with reseller hosting packages....

And for the other guy asking my decision....

We finally agreed that we will still continue using our desktop database system, but will upgrade it so that it can "synchronize" with our database online. We will then program the online database to send billing statements via email.... This way, we can customize it to our liking as well as maintain a good backup with a lil automation.... there's more actually, but I wont put it here...

Thanks

Yes, it will intregate with paypal, and once it recieves payment it will automatically create the account if you wish to.

ModernBill might be able to do what you need. I understand how you want to do traditional billing for your local clients. Mail them an invoice and wait for the check to come. ModernBill can email invoices to your clients so that they can mail them to you.

There is no provision in ModernBill to mail an invoice through the postal mail, the old fashioned way. You would need to have it mail the invoice to an alias email address that goes to you, then print it and mail it to the client.

Platypus has a lot more options for invoicing - but it is out of the ModernBill/whoiscart league and price range.

Originally posted by kz1231
so can whoiscart.net be tied to PayPal somehow?

i'd like something that will send the client to paypal at sign-up, verify payment, create the account for them. i'm just getting started and have a full time job, so i want to have as much automation as possible on my very shoestring budget. i've got support lined up, but i'm pretty concerned that the automation be in place so my customers have a positive and smooth initial experience.

Whois.cart will do everything auto for you but no integrate with a support system - it is due to have it's own in the next few months.

As we know, support questions are more likely at the start, so this is an important consideration - even if you have outsourced support.

ClientExec (v.2.0) will do everything auto apart from domain registrations and transfers.

Again, this is even higher up in priority for automated features, as without the domain, a client cannot get much started really - so will need to wait patiently for you to do it manually, and hoping it hasn't been snatched in the meantime.

I have both of the above, and the reasons mentioned are what is keeping me from make a final decision between them. It may come down to which of these plugs the gap first, or I lose patience and go for an alternative.

Any suggestions welcome.

V

Originally posted by kz1231
hello all...
so can whoiscart.net be tied to PayPal somehow?
not to rhyme...

like the prior post, i'm in the same boat (jeez it's late. another near rhyme)

i'd like something that will send the client to paypal at sign-up, verify payment, create the account for them. i'm just getting started and have a full time job, so i want to have as much automation as possible on my very shoestring budget. i've got support lined up, but i'm pretty concerned that the automation be in place so my customers have a positive and smooth initial experience.

thanks for any more comments in this vein. the whole topic interests me.
cheers all,
kc

WhoisCart can take care of your signup, send them to paypal, and then create the account on your server depending on which control panel you use.

The only thing is you might not want to automate the entire process because of fraud. If someone signs up with a stolen credit card and you automatically setup the account they will be using it right away before you even find out and could use it for bad things.

Just an FYI

If you are intending to stay with only check/money order/etc.. billing there there is no perfect method for this unless your clients will accept email invoices.

ModernBill will allow you to print invoices and there has been a lot of work on custom hacks to print invoice.

It allows you to select from a variety of payment options including check/invoice and paypal.

You can then enter the payment at anytime you need very easily when it is recieved.

It also integrated with almost every major control panel on the market.

Originally posted by ddihosting
If you are intending to stay with only check/money order/etc.. billing there there is no perfect method for this unless your clients will accept email invoices.

ModernBill will allow you to print invoices and there has been a lot of work on custom hacks to print invoice.

It allows you to select from a variety of payment options including check/invoice and paypal.

You can then enter the payment at anytime you need very easily when it is recieved.

It also integrated with almost every major control panel on the market.

How do you print invoices from MB in a batch type of format? I don't want to go to each customer and print an invoice. A very simple way of solving this is have a check box on the clients profile that is for "Printed Invoice" and then have a search for all clients that have invoices due and print them from there.

I like the other idea before of emailing invoices to the admin instead of the client and then just print and mail...

As per the MB Forums search hacks and tweaks for the sticky post:

Script: Print Invoices From MB (the easy way)

I also have a mix of payments I accept.

I am using the online version of quickbooks

quickbooks dot intuit dot com

(I cannot post url because of my post count)

It is $20.00 a month and will automaticly charge and send out invoices each month.

People who want to pay by check can send in their money and I put a link to my paypal payment option in the email so that those who want to pay by paypal or credit card can just click on the link to pay.

Now that paypal will let your clients use a credit card without requiring them to get a payapl account it works great.