Would anyone recommend phpmanager? I am jsut starting up, would it be a good choice? Also, does it auto setup the hosting accounts?

It depends on your needs, if it's just keeping records of clients, auto create new accounts in WHM, support ticket and the basic stuff, then it's good to use phpManager to manage it.

If you are looking for something more advanced such as auto billing, I believe modernbill may be the right software to look at.

I am using phpManager and it served my basic needs, I have no experience with modernbill but I have heard good things about it from users in this forum.

phpManager is great. It is perfect for start up hosts, since it has many features and is reasonably priced. Highly recommended.

I would recommend it :)

The standard and full versions come with WHM support, so you can auto create accounts.

Also you can try the nixt:
http://nixt.org
It is free and really good.
Christos