Has someone got addons working in Hostbill?

[nibb]

Of Hostbill is really bugged or I just are not configuring my addons correctly.

This is how it worked before hostbill, in my previous billing system:

1. Customer orders cPanel account (annual)
2. 5 months later he orders an addon. He is charged right 7 months right away.
3. On renewal he pays this yearly account + addon

How its working in Hostbill:
1. Customers orders cPanel account (annual)
2. 5 months later he orders an addon. He can choose a different billing way, if he chooses, monthly he gets an invoice each month. If he choose yearly, it counts from that date on.
3. Customers ends up never paying for this monthly addon at all. I lose money. Since the addon is completely separated from the account, he actually gets his renewal invoice, annual, but not the addon, which he gets later.

This is a complete mess. The addons should be prorated in this case. At least for some. I understand some others addons being completely different, but in my case, this addons do not work without an account.

It also happens that sometimes I cancel or terminate the hosting account, and keeps receiving invoices for the addons because I forgot they exist.

The result is that nobody is paying his addons, since nothing happens. If they where prorated, they would not have a choice. They would need to pay it and then the charges would be in order with his hosting account, and if he does not pay his hosting account, its suspended. Most of this addons cannot be suspended separately and I don´t want that either.

All I want is that this addons are prorated billing in regards to his account. This is something very basic. And I understand Hostbill has a prorated billing. Is this screwed in Hostbill or do I need to set up something in the configuration regarding this addons?

In the configuration there is a setting Enable ProRata billing   for the addons. Does this do what I mentioned? I ask this because that seems to be general for the addon itself, the prorating should be in relationship to the account.

[ezpnet]

This is a real problem. Half our profits come from addons... have you created a bug in the tracker?

[tallship]

I think I've somewhat addressed our solution HERE

EDIT: Let me re-phrase that. I've addressed the kludge in that post. /EDIT

it's not a problem with managed customers, since we set up everything first in the back end, after a quote has been accepted. That quote doesn't really covert into a service though, so we don't actually convert and issue the invoice - I have done it that way but it's a real pain because then after doing the following, I have to zero out the actual service account and then mark the service as activated once I adjust the start and billing dates, and that kind of messes up the totals in the receivables and projections.

For manually created service accounts with addons, we set everything up, attach addons to the service, then adjust the start date to current and send the invoice so that once it's paid it activates for them upon payment.

for user initiated, self-managed services, we clean up the mess afterwards by having the addons attached after the fact, as in the cross-posted link at the beginning of this post.

I've completely given up posting bug reports, since kbkp seems to lie about fixing a lot of the bugs anyway. I occasionally do go and vote someone elses bug up (Seriously? We need to make a bug popular before that jerk will fix it?) if they post a link to their reported bug. It doesn't seem fair that critical bugs might never be fixed because only a couple of folks are using that feature, when minor bugs will supposedly get attention first because many people are using that other feature - but hey, this is HostBill so we didn't get what we paid for anyway.

I hope that helps, the two threads contain some commonalities, and some differences, so I addressed some of those in both threads.

Kindest regards,

[nibb]

I think I've somewhat addressed our solution HERE

EDIT: Let me re-phrase that. I've addressed the kludge in that post. /EDIT

it's not a problem with managed customers, since we set up everything first in the back end, after a quote has been accepted. That quote doesn't really covert into a service though, so we don't actually convert and issue the invoice - I have done it that way but it's a real pain because then after doing the following, I have to zero out the actual service account and then mark the service as activated once I adjust the start and billing dates, and that kind of messes up the totals in the receivables and projections.

For manually created service accounts with addons, we set everything up, attach addons to the service, then adjust the start date to current and send the invoice so that once it's paid it activates for them upon payment.

for user initiated, self-managed services, we clean up the mess afterwards by having the addons attached after the fact, as in the cross-posted link at the beginning of this post.

I've completely given up posting bug reports, since kbkp seems to lie about fixing a lot of the bugs anyway. I occasionally do go and vote someone elses bug up (Seriously? We need to make a bug popular before that jerk will fix it?) if they post a link to their reported bug. It doesn't seem fair that critical bugs might never be fixed because only a couple of folks are using that feature, when minor bugs will supposedly get attention first because many people are using that other feature - but hey, this is HostBill so we didn't get what we paid for anyway.

I hope that helps, the two threads contain some commonalities, and some differences, so I addressed some of those in both threads.

Kindest regards,

Yes I read that, and what I did for some accounts is similar.

I just manually adjust the date to match the product/service anniversary date.

But this does not address the fact itself that:

1. Some customers can complain on what they are paying full again, if they already did.
2. Or you need to credit the amount prorated back,

Both are a mess.

Im impressed Hostbill does not do this. Really. AWBS which I used before managed this fine.

Actually most people where confused on why they where not paying the full amount for the addon on ordering, but it worked fine.

What exactly is the prorated option in Hostbill? Maybe this is exactly what we are all taking here, and we have just configured addons incorrect?

I hope so, because Hostbill seems to have such option in addons.

Customers should NOT pay the full amount on addons. They should pay a prorated amount. Then on the anniversary date they should pay it fully. It makes no sense to make them pay in full, in particular because maybe he will not even renew his services, and his addon will still get billed long after the service is terminated.

Also, this is a mess regarding billing. Customers orders a hosting account for 1 year, orders extra space on a month basis, orders an IP for 3 months, what a mess !!!!!

He now receives 3 separated invoices for products which do not work separated from each others.

30% or more of my incomes from from addon and I noticed im losing tons of money, because customers are just not paying them. They order it, I provision them manually and then they just don´t pay them after that.

I cannot possible babysit each addons, and suspend it, reactivate it, etc for each and every single customers.

Im actually impressed on how many companies use hostbill and have not figured this out, or maybe we are all completely dumb and are not configuring addons correctly....

I also know WHMCS has this option and it works fine.

[tallship]

I feel your pain lol. Maybe Lawrence or Patrick can shed some light.

Yes it's a mess, and I'm going to set up some dummy accounts and test the prorata settings. I posted earlier that there didn't used to be this feature in Hostbill, except for a third party developer who offered a PayPal proration sync module for free to save people money on having several little transaction fees, and then it became part of hostbill itself, IIRC.

And you would think this would be a primary design feature, since it just makes sense.

[nibb]

I will also test this, maybe this is exactly what we are complaining here, and the feature is already build in. I mean with the lack of documentation it would not wonder me if that is the case, or maybe the prorated featured there has nothing to do with what are referring here.

I will feel really stupid if that is the case, and hostbill actually has this build in.

[nibb]

I have to inform that features Prorate has nothing to do with what we are discussing here.

It takes the whole year as consideration or what ever month you select there, this means it does not relate what so ever the billing cycle of a package. So its completely useless.

I also noticed that addons in case they have annual and monthly can be selected that way on ordering, but once inside an account the option is only monthly.

So not only addons cannot be prorated to the billing cycle, which is the logic and correct way, but hostbill forces al this to monthly regardless of other options.

I knew I could select the option before, but its gone. Now it defaults directly to monthly.

This is seriously broken. There is no way to offer hosting addons like this, not for shared, not for vps, not for severs, not for anything.

Hostbill threats addons as completely separated products, like if they have absolutely nothing to do with the plan to which you are supposed to order this.

Hostbill a product which name is "Host" and "Bill" cannot properly bill for addons on hosting or services.

Prorated works fine if you upgrade from one account to another. This is exactly what it should do on addons as well.

I can only say "OUCH"



AWBS did this fine, and its a what? 175$ software....

I can only say that I don´t even want to calculate anymore the money I lost over this to the point im starting to think to manage addons completely manually.

And Kris keeps adding new fancy modules while the software cannot do very basic math calculations for billing.

[tallship]

Do a chargeback dude. It *boaken*, and you're entitled to it.

[nibb]

Do a chargeback dude. It *boaken*, and you're entitled to it.

We are using it wrong. It works.

Instead of addons you need to create them using the forms inside the product itself. All of the extra fields you create there, will prorate the billing. Its not a perfect solution but it seem Hostbill threats addons as complete separate products, reason why one addon can work with different several products, and this is why they have complete separate billing and renewal dates.

We are just using the addons wrong. If you need an extra service to a product and want it to be prorated, use the order forms.

Here is more:
http://www.hostbillforums.com/index.php/topic,177.0.html