I just thought I would post a few screen shots of the billing system I am working on. Soon (few weeks) i'll have a demo for you all to check out if anyone is interested.
http://www.stratius.com/~nricciar/

At the moment I dont have a firm date on when it will be released, but I figure it will be done before January is over. Features it will support apon its release will be quite a few, but I have a few other things that I want to add that wont be ready upon its release.

Custom Packages /w addon ability to allow users to build their own packages
Automatic billing supporting (e-xact, echo-inc, and paypal)
Support Ticket system using email, and a web based interface for users
layout can easily be changed
Ability to integrate package information along with compare packages directly into your website
Language support (wont be ready by release)
Accounting to track user payments allows importing of your paypal transactions with paypal IPN support
E-Mail system supporting targeted mailings be it bills, signup letters or whatever.

And im sure i missed a few things seeing as its late and im tired,

How are invoices sent out? Or are the users setup on recurring billing? How "integrated" is it with echo-inc? We have an echo-inc account - but could never get any support for recurring billing...unless we also signed up with Authorize net.

--Tina

Does it have Sfcommerce support?

i havent actualy started work on the echo-inc portion yet, but looking at the code it shouldnt be that hard. The problem is ive herd it actualy may be against their agreement to do it i need to read up on their service and check to make sure of that though. If anyone knows one way or the other on this issue I would like to know

Don't you plan to release it with SFcommerce support?
Could be very interesting for a lot of Host using this Payment gateway, because I didn't see any billing script with support to it yet.

hmmmmm, I dont think it will have it seeing as im already trying to get quite a few things ready. Maybe after I finish the things I have planned already I will work on that. Could you point me to any documentation on the SFcommerce system.

I can email you the all the documentation.. but I can't do it through here :)
So, if you want to send me a PM with your email, I'll send it to you.

PM sent, funny how i hang out in multiple forums all the time, but never once have i used the PM feature :)

very nice, i like the layout .. clean :)

Originally posted by nricciar
i havent actualy started work on the echo-inc portion yet, but looking at the code it shouldnt be that hard. The problem is ive herd it actualy may be against their agreement to do it i need to read up on their service and check to make sure of that though. If anyone knows one way or the other on this issue I would like to know

We also use Echo, and Echo supports recurring billing. We have a billing script which utilizes this feature, so I can assure you that it is not against their agreement. The only thing that Echo does not allow is merchants charging for periods greater than 1 month. So if you wanted to charge a one time yearly fee, that would be against Echo's policy. But if you are charging month to month, then you are fine, and recurring billing is the best method of handling it.

Originally posted by insiderhosting


We also use Echo, and Echo supports recurring billing. We have a billing script which utilizes this feature, so I can assure you that it is not against their agreement. The only thing that Echo does not allow is merchants charging for periods greater than 1 month. So if you wanted to charge a one time yearly fee, that would be against Echo's policy. But if you are charging month to month, then you are fine, and recurring billing is the best method of handling it.

Ahhh...that's right. That was the reason we stopped using them. We were expected to charge our customers monthly. On some of our smaller hosting packages - it would have meant more transaction fees than the monthly hosting payment. :angry:

I can understand some merchant accounts not wanting to allow their hosting company customers to charge annually - but preventing quarterly payments, in my opinion, is just stupid!

--Tina

Just wanted to check on the progress of the system.

Hows it coming along?

--JCA Justin