I have just ordered a VPS from Dediwebspace and I was just wondering if there are any good Billing and Support packages out there? I'm not a cheap skate I just can't afford anything expensive out there at the moment, but hopefully I will soon. Is there any billing/support programs that also link in with LXAdmin? I hopefully will upgrade to cPanel/WHM soon as well :)

Please Move to Hosting Software and Control Panels forum

You can use cerberus help desk for free for up to 3 users (if I remember correctly). It takes a bit to get setup, but once you're going then its all good.

As for billing, modernbill, WHMCS, Clientexec can all be had for around $15 per month.

I have just ordered a VPS from Dediwebspace and I was just wondering if there are any good Billing and Support packages out there? I'm not a cheap skate I just can't afford anything expensive out there at the moment, but hopefully I will soon. Is there any billing/support programs that also link in with LXAdmin? I hopefully will upgrade to cPanel/WHM soon as well :)
It really depends how big you plan on being. For Customer Service I use Help Center Live which has an integrated web-based ticket system as well as a a live help feature. For billing clients it really depends how much you want to spend. I'd recommend WHMCS or WHMAutoPilot. If you want something free, check out Solid-State: http://solid-state.org/

Have you heard of Freshbooks? They have a basic ticketing system - it's all online based but I've just implemented it, it feels very powerful but very streamlined. You can create clients, add invoices, email invoices, and collect payments through their system. It can be a bit strange to learn all the quirks but it's definitely a quick, basic package.

I'm honestly incredibly impressed with it - I trialled about six programs but didn't find something simple. You can brand everything your client sees. They even let you give out a branded link to signup your users.. obviously relying on customer loyalty ;)

https://hostweb.freshbooks.com/signup/

You can alter the colours and include an image at the top(I just added some text in the image for now)

The login for your users(and yourself) looks like:

https://hostweb.freshbooks.com/

Well I'm starting small with only 15gig on a VPS, I'm hoping to upgrade to a lot bigger and preferably a Dedi Server, they offer cPanel for $10 so I will also upgrade to that.

I will check out the links, thanks guys

The cost for Freshbooks becomes expensive if you develop a number of clients.

Jeff

I'm quite interested in the Solid-State option, it seems very good :)

Looking at their pricing, you can add 1000 clients for $40/month, which IMO, if you've got 1000 clients... you can spend $40 ;)

EDIT: Had a look at the SolidState option.. that also looks awesome. Will have to give it a try sometime. Has anyone used it? How easy is it to implement/use?

I know a support desk system, that will most certainly satisfy your needs:

http://www.accord5.com/trellis

As for sign up systems, I do not know!

If you are good at PHP, installing and trouble shooting programs, solid state is fine, but still I think it is not mature enough for live use.

For help desk I can recommend eTicket (http://eticket.sourceforge.net/)

You can also look at the Wiki here
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Billing_and_automation_software
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Category:List_of_support_and_live_help_software_for_web_hosts

Moreover instead of going with the free one I will recommend get whoiscart (http://www.whoiscart.net) for $35 one time, but yes before buying check with them if it works with LxAdmin.

I've had a play around with Solid-State. Version 0.4.1 isn't all that great, little annoying things here and there.

The new version (I think its v0.5) when released will be quite good, but its been in its current state for around 6 months, so who knows when a stable release will find its way onto the internet.

The main thing with solid-state is you have to double create everything, nothing is interlinked or automated.

Well I've just asked my VPS provider about the cPanel upgrade, if this is going to be setup I properly will go with WHMCS because everything is interlinked and with automated hosting setup. Most people prefer to use cPanel over lxadmin IMO. I have had no experience with lxadmin and it's really hard to find things you want inside the panel, I've had a lot of experience with cPanel and WHM so I think I'm making the right choice. Do you agree?

Yes I think you made the right choice.

First of all I can't quite afford the WHMCS but I should once I start bringing in some money. Just to let you know here are the specifications of the server

Disk Space : 35GB
Bandwidth : 450GB
Guaranteed RAM : 384MB
Burst RAM : 1536MB
VPS Control Panel : HyperVM
Host Panel : cPanel/WHM/Fantastico

You have http://www.whoiscart.net to play with, its only $35 one time.

Does it automatically setup the Hosting package as well?

I won't be able to answer that as I have not used it.

BTW They have demo that you can try, and forum to ask questions.

Yes it does, it uses a plug-in called HAPI/API for cPanel, I've downloaded it but it doesn't come with instructions, I will have to ask Support to install it for me, then I will think about ordering Whoiscart

Those HAPI/API I think are installed within WhoisCart not in cPanel.

BTW have you checked the Demo?

You Should consider WHMCS it also comes with a Free domain reseller account which you could resell domain names.

Only $15 per month but its worth save you big time and earn more revenue

I've got the WHMCS, Most of the domain resellers you have to pay for, I think planetdomains.com is free though