prevent domain renewal upon payment

[splaquet]

I've looked around and I can't seem to find a topic on this... so I'll start a new thread.

 

Essentially, I felt as though I was up against a huge learning curve when I first started using WHMCS. I ported over hundreds of clients and hundreds of domains... but unfortunately, I did not do this correctly.

 

All of the domains were ported over into my account while none of them were invoiced to the individual customer. By the time I realized the mistake I was making, much of the damage had already been done.

 

What I end up with are clients who see domain invoices for the following year, skipping a year on them. They accurate to what they have to pay, technically, but I need them to pay for the current year as well. I was able to simply update the invoices for clients who I know personally and hold their hands, letting them know what happened and having them pay for 2 years on the invoice.

 

I know that there's a setting to disable auto-renew upon payment, but I'm really trying to avoid doing that for each domain. I mean, I literally have well over a hundred that I have this issue on. 100+ domains @ $10ea = much money that I'd like to recoup.

 

thoughts or suggestions?

[splaquet]

anyone have any insight on this? any answers somewhere else that i'm missing?

[RadWebHosting]

Well, if you're clients have not paid for the domain name, you should hold the domain in your account and create a billable item for the missed year.

 

Once your clients pay the invoice, then move the domain into their account. Not a perfectly clean and easy solution, but it does make sense for your clients to pay for the domains, if they were intent on using the domains.

[splaquet]

It's not that my client's won't pay, it's only that they now have an additionally paid year through mistakes made. (on my behalf, unfortunately)

 

For example: I'll have a client call me up or email me, asking for me to order a domain on their behalf. If I order it within their account, it'll order (paying for the order) and then generate a payment due invoice. When they pay their invoice, it'll add an additional year to the domain.

 

I tried to create additionally billed items invoice for the additional years, to offset things, but I just found that it again renewed the domains for another year. I can't seem to win!

 

I wish there was a simple checkbox & number field for "do not renew domain upon payment for X years." I realize that's an unrealistic request, but I cannot figure out how to get ahead of the payments. The only way that I can think of would be to go through with the renewal and then follow up with the registrar to have them cancel the order. Either way seems nonsensical. I just have to believe that I'm the only person who must be using WHMCS like this. I support 90% of my clients through WHMCS, rather than using quickbooks. I just can't seem to figure out a way to skip renewing for a year, so I can't catch up on past due debts.

[splaquet]

It's not that my client's won't pay, it's only that they now have an additionally paid year through mistakes made. (on my behalf, unfortunately)

 

As per the WHMCS knowledge base, I tried this with no luck... as in, it renewed the domains for another year at the registrar (namesilo):

 

1. Locate the invoice for the domain (click the View Invoices link on the domain page to jump straight to a list of invoices for just that domain)

2. Copy the line item and amount for the domain from the existing line to a new invoice line item and save

3. Then delete the original line item from the invoice and by doing that you are removing the actual link to the domain when paid so no further renewal will occur

 

For example: I'll have a client call me up or email me, asking for me to order a domain on their behalf. If I order it within their account, it'll order the domain (paying for the order through my account) and then generate a payment due invoice for the client. When they pay their invoice, it'll add an additional year to the domain upon payment as expected.

 

I tried to create additionally billed items invoice for the additional years, to offset things, but I just found that it again renewed the domains for another year. I can't seem to win!

 

I wish there was a simple checkbox & number field for "do not renew domain upon payment for X years." I realize that I'm probably a minority and that this is most likely an unrealistic request, but I cannot figure out how to get ahead of the payments.

 

Another thought would be to prevent/request confirmation for auto-renewals on domain payments made within X days (with a variable allowing the adjustment) after previous renewal.

 

The only solution that I can think of would be to go through with the renewal and then follow up with the registrar/Namesilo, having them cancel the order. I'd obviously rather not take that route, as I'm sure that wouldn't as well.

 

I'm now in a position where I have numerous clients' domains expiring in 2019 (or the second half of 2018), and I'm not sure how to resolve that. Any suggestions?

 

I will very often order domains on their behalf, and most do not have a stored card on file. I just can't seem to figure out a way to skip renewing for a year, so I can't catch up on past due debts.

 

I just have to believe that I'm the only person who must be using WHMCS like this. I support 90% of my clients through WHMCS, rather than using quickbooks. The automation is clutch, versus multi-purposed accounting software.

 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[brian!]

that's sounds wrong - are you ordering the domain on the admin side or logging in as the client and ordering it? either way, you shouldn't be getting a double whammy when ordering.

[splaquet]

I just noticed that I made a mistake. Upon creating the new invoice for the additional years, it DID NOT automatically renew at the registrar. I was confused because I saw 2019 and expected 2018, but it did actually already say 2019... so that part worked and is correct.

 

The unfortunate reality for me though is still present. I have dozens of domains that have an additional year attached to them. To manually go through them all and search out incorrect renewals would take forever... and certainly isn't worth the few bucks that I make off each one. On the other hand, correcting the mistake to earn back the entire billed amount paid on my behalf is worth it. It's really finding the time to correct all of these errors. hah... oh, whoa is me

 

So if I correctly put this all together... every time that I personally acquire a domain for a client and secure the domain at the time of their request (which is obviously the only way to do it to ensure purchase), I'll need to:

 

1) create a new billable invoice with copied info from the actual purchase invoice, immediately after purchase

2) cancel/delete the automatically generated invoice produced by the system

 

This leaves the question of the additional invoice that's sent to the client. Wouldn't this mean that the client would receive the invoice that I manually processed and also a second for the manually created invoice?

 

ugh... this is going to be A LOT of extra work in the future, with the only obvious answer being that I'll be able to not lose out on money. hah, that's always nice, but it again comes down to the amount made off of each domain. Guess that adding some padding to phone orders would be the only answer moving forward.

[brian!]

I just noticed that I made a mistake. Upon creating the new invoice for the additional years, it DID NOT automatically renew at the registrar. I was confused because I saw 2019 and expected 2018, but it did actually already say 2019... so that part worked and is correct.

 

The unfortunate reality for me though is still present. I have dozens of domains that have an additional year attached to them. To manually go through them all and search out incorrect renewals would take forever... and certainly isn't worth the few bucks that I make off each one. On the other hand, correcting the mistake to earn back the entire billed amount paid on my behalf is worth it. It's really finding the time to correct all of these errors. hah... oh, whoa is me

 

So if I correctly put this all together... every time that I personally acquire a domain for a client and secure the domain at the time of their request (which is obviously the only way to do it to ensure purchase), I'll need to:

what I would suggest is that you take a look at the documentation on this - http://docs.whmcs.com/Domains_Management#Handling_New_Domain_Registrations_.26_Transfers

 

o perform a new domain registration or initiate a transfer, first an order must be placed for it. A customer can do that from the client area or you can create one using the admin side order process. Once you have the order, the domain registration can then be processed in a number of ways.

1. Firstly if you have automatic registration on payment enabled, then you can simply navigate to the invoice for the domain registration order and mark it paid, either by manually applying a payment, or by running a capture from a customers selected payment method, and as soon as the invoice is successfully marked as paid, the domain order will get submitted to the domain registrar.
   
2. Alternatively, if automatic registration is not enabled, then you have the option to attempt the registration when accepting the pending order by ticking the Send to Registrar checkbox and choosing the registrar to use in the Registrar dropdown menu in the order accept options
   
3. Or finally, if automatic registration is not enabled and the order has already been accepted, you can navigate to the domains record within the clients profile area, and from there select a domain registrar to use in the Registrar dropdown menu, and then save, before clicking on either the Register or Transfer buttons in the Registrar Commands options that appear as required. These buttons allow you to initiate the remote API calls manually (this is the same process as is used for re-attempting a failed registration or transfer described in more detail below)
   

and if you ever needed to manually add a domain to WHMCS for your client - http://docs.whmcs.com/Importing_Data#Manual_Domain_Only_Entry

 

This leaves the question of the additional invoice that's sent to the client. Wouldn't this mean that the client would receive the invoice that I manually processed and also a second for the manually created invoice?

ugh... this is going to be A LOT of extra work in the future, with the only obvious answer being that I'll be able to not lose out on money. hah, that's always nice, but it again comes down to the amount made off of each domain. Guess that adding some padding to phone orders would be the only answer moving forward.

once you get your records straight, then you shouldn't need this multiple invoicing scenario - just one invoice per order!