Implementing WHMCS for an established non-hosting company

[lethalMango]

Hi there,

 

I have used WHMCS for a web hosting company several years ago and found the product to be great.

 

What I am looking at doing is implementing WHMCS to an established website that provides an online marketing subscription service to its users.

 

My main concern is that with WHMCS being heavily aimed at the hosting market, how easy it is to move away from that area and implement it in a new way.

 

My other concern I have is with the website currently setup and running. How easy would it be to integrate WHMCS on top of the current development?

 

An example of the current website at the moment:

 

1) A new user registers providing a large amount of information (most of which is related to their business opposed to themselves)

2) The user pays via PayPal either at a flat rate of £x per month or £y per year.

3) Their account is instantly setup (just to reiterate, this is an online profile opposed to a hosting account) and can access their account using their username and password.

4) Invoices are sent by email to the user who then login to their account on the website and pay via PayPal.

5a) Users that don't pay within 7 days are charged a 25% late fee.

5b) Users that don't pay within 14 days are terminated from the service (they aren't actually deleted from the database - they are only hidden from public view).

 

If using WHMCS is possible, could someone give me a brief run-down on how I would accomplish the above tasks and some documentation links if available.

 

Thank you

[m8internet]

Do these existing customers also require to login with the same details?

If yes, then simply create a new range of products which can then be bought separately

 

If no, then as above or install a second WHMCS in a different folder and on a separate database (or different prefix)

 

To answer the other questions

Monthly or annual, or any other payment frequency, is possible

Instant account setup is possible

Either instant payment or payment from invoice is possible

I am not aware of a % late fee being possible, only a flat fee (in hosting 25% of nothing is nothing)

Edited June 15, 2011 by m8internet

[lethalMango]

Thanks for that m8interent,

 

How would you link between the WHMCS tables and the current user tables? I assume some sort of hook would be required to communicate between the two and then move the billing over to the WHMCS invoicing system rather than the old one?

 

Is there any functionality in WHMCS to mark a user as 'deleted' rather than permanently deleting them? The reasoning behind this is that our clients spend a lot of time and effort with our service, should their account be deleted they have lost all of their previous feedback hence we mark them as deleted allowing them to come back at any time.

 

The % late fee isn't too much of an issue, we can set this manually if need be at a fixed rate. Would the integration of WHMCS and the site require extensive use of the admin hooks and API features that are shown in the documentation?

[newgenservices]

Is there any functionality in WHMCS to mark a user as 'deleted' rather than permanently deleting them?

 

You can close the account from Client Profile without deleting it.The user will then not be able to log in to client area. If you want them to access Client Area, you can set the account status to Inactive.

[m8internet]

You can close the account from Client Profile without deleting it.The user will then not be able to log in to client area. If you want them to access Client Area, you can set the account status to Inactive.

I tend to set the client as Inactive first

If there is no response within 28 days then I reset the client as deleted

[lethalMango]

Ok thanks all.

 

So in terms of signup, and changing a user to inactive then delete is that possible to coincide with our current users table so that changing a users status on WHMCS will also update their status in the other users table?