Import existing accounts from WHM to WHMCS - THEN WHAT?

[Steve907]

So, this has to be a common issue, but I have yet to find the answer anywhere. I hope you can help.

I have 30 clients on WHM. I have connected WHM to WHMCS. I have products. It is all set up. I even imported a clients cpanel. Yea.

But that is where the confusion begins.

What is the best way to import existing accounts from WHM to WHMCS, assign them to clients and set up payment?

The client I imported was assigned to a product based on their WHM package. So that went OK. 

But how do I set them up for payment? Right now, this client has no payment and is set up for FREE billing cycle (though the product is definitely set up for monthly).

So, I need to have the client, the account, the cPanel and payment all set up. HOW????!

IDEA ONE

Import all the WHM accounts into WHMCS. This will basically give me 30 domains, but no client info and no payment info. So then the questions is what next? How do clients get login info for their accounts? And how do they set up payment?

IDEA TWO

Tell my clients to go to WHMCS and sign up for a new hosting plan. Have them enter all their info, including payment (and make sure WHMCS does not set up a module). But again... then what. How do I connect their WHM account to them? 

IDEA THREE

Help?? What is the right way to do this?

Feeling lost and frustrated. Hope you can help. Thanks.

[WHMCS ChrisD]

Hi @Steve907

Welcome to the Community and Congratulations for importing your clients from WHM!  As you've probably seen the information cPanel stores is very limited, for example it doesn't hold the clients name, the amount they pay or their next due date. So importing does require some manual work too but what can be imported (domain, username, server & package) does mean that all the cPanel account management functions are possible from WHMCS, for example Suspend/Unsuspend/Terminate/Upgrades/Downgrades & Password Resets.

Accounts created by the import process have their domains & usernames retrieved automatically from the server, as well as being assigned to the appropriate package and server within WHMCS. But due to no billing details being stored in cpanel, initially all accounts will be set to free and you will then need to go through and update the imported domains with the appropriate pricing, billing cycles, next due dates and client information.

Once you have popped all the details into the client profile such as their name, email, address ect pop into their product, set the Next Due Date, cost of the product in the Recurring amount and click save, you could also tick Auto-Recalculate on Save if you'd prefer the price to be pulled from the product.  From here head back to the Profile Tab and click Reset and Send Password to send your client their client area login.

When you next invoice generates for the client they will receive this via email and they will then be able to pop their credit card details in which will be saved for future invoices, or they can login now and update their credit card under the Manage Credit Card Link

Quite often you may find you need to move the domains around and group more than one domain to certain clients. To do this, see the Moving a Product/Service to another Client article in the Products Management section. or Merging Clients in the Client Management section.

You can find the documentation for the module at https://docs.whmcs.com/CPanel/WHM_Import

[Steve907]

 

 

1

On 6/9/2019 at 9:11 PM, WHMCS ChrisD said:

Once you have popped all the details into the client profile such as their name, email, address ect pop into their product, set the Next Due Date, cost of the product in the Recurring amount and click save, you could also tick Auto-Recalculate on Save if you'd prefer the price to be pulled from the product.  From here head back to the Profile Tab and click Reset and Send Password to send your client their client area login.

The "Next Due Date" is N/A. Why?

Also, is there a way to just send them an invoice, have it automate each month and store their CC info without them ever logging in?

Thanks.

[Steve907]

Also, nothing saved. When I updated the amount and changed it to monthly recurring and save it didn't work. Frustrating.

[brian!]

1 hour ago, Steve907 said:

The "Next Due Date" is N/A. Why?

is it a one-time product ?

1 hour ago, Steve907 said:

Also, is there a way to just send them an invoice, have it automate each month and store their CC info without them ever logging in?

if the products are setup in the clients account correctly, and the cron is running, then the invoices should be sent automatically.. with regards to entering cc details...

https://docs.whmcs.com/Clients:Summary_Tab

1 hour ago, Steve907 said:

Also, nothing saved. When I updated the amount and changed it to monthly recurring and save it didn't work. Frustrating.

is the product setup to be monthly recurring, or just one-time ?

[Steve907]

The product is monthly. I have no one-time products. I went and did it three more times. It finally worked. 

But why do I have to set up a next due date? Isn't that set up already in the product? I set a prorated date for the 1st. This is terribly complicated :(

Also, can I send an invoice for a onetime payment and have the client pay with CC WITHOUT them having to create an account?
I offer a lot of one-time services that only require one payment and then I never hear from the client again. I don't want to burden them with having to create an account/login to have to pay with CC.

[WHMCS ChrisD]

@steve907 cPanel does not store any billing information it doesn't hold the clients name, the amount they pay or their next due date which is why you'll the next due date was set to N/A you need to update the product term to Monthly or which ever term you require.  Invoices do need to be attached to a client.

[brian!]

18 hours ago, Steve907 said:

But why do I have to set up a next due date? Isn't that set up already in the product? I set a prorated date for the 1st. This is terribly complicated 😞

back in 2013, it took me three goes at installing before I got it right when I first installed WHMCS.... back then, the installation instructions were contradictory (maybe they still are, I haven't looked at them in ages) - but it gets easier with time.

18 hours ago, Steve907 said:

Also, can I send an invoice for a onetime payment and have the client pay with CC WITHOUT them having to create an account?

by definition, when you create the invoice, you'll already be creating an account for the client yourself - so they won't have to do it... whether they can pay without logging in may depend upon your payment gateway.

18 hours ago, Steve907 said:

I offer a lot of one-time services that only require one payment and then I never hear from the client again. I don't want to burden them with having to create an account/login to have to pay with CC.

the burden will be on you to create the account - as Chris says, invoices need to be attached to a client - you can't invoice someone who isn't a client.

[Steve907]

16 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

@steve907 cPanel does not store any billing information it doesn't hold the clients name, the amount they pay or their next due date which is why you'll the next due date was set to N/A you need to update the product term to Monthly or which ever term you require.  Invoices do need to be attached to a client.

Ok. Let me explain again. The product that I created in WHMCS is a monthly product. I created that first. I then imported a client from cPanel and assigned them a monthly hosting product. 

When I look at the new client, I see the service/product is indeed a hosting package. This package has a set monthly fee. So why do I have to set up the payment amount? The product already has that set up. If I have to reset in the client > product/service area, then why did i set up the price in the product? This really doesn't make sense. Sorry :(

[Steve907]

4 hours ago, brian! said:

by definition, when you create the invoice, you'll already be creating an account for the client yourself - so they won't have to do it... whether they can pay without logging in may depend upon your payment gateway.

I use Stripe and have seamless accounting software that makes it super easy for clients to pay. They just click "pay now" in the invoice and it sends them to an online CC form. No need to sign in. The gateway (Stripe) has nothing to do with this. The accounting software does. What I am experiencing in WHMCS is that this is not possible. All the test invoices I have tried always want me to login to pay. This has nothing to do with Stripe. It appears the WHMCS does not allow someone to pay unless they login. If this is not true the please, please - tell me how/where the answer is. 

[WHMCS ChrisD]

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Steve907 said:

Ok. Let me explain again. The product that I created in WHMCS is a monthly product. I created that first. I then imported a client from cPanel and assigned them a monthly hosting product. 

I understand that, however, when you import your accounts from cPanel WHMCS does not set the term or amounts, we state this in the documentation for the Import under Entering Client & Billing Data https://docs.whmcs.com/CPanel/WHM_Import#Entering_Client_.26_Billing_Data I also indicated in my initial response to your question that the products are set to free and you need to go in and set the details

 

 

1

On 10/06/2019 at 5:11 PM, WHMCS ChrisD said:

Accounts created by the import process have their domains & usernames retrieved automatically from the server, as well as being assigned to the appropriate package and server within WHMCS. But due to no billing details being stored in cpanel, initially all accounts will be set to free and you will then need to go through and update the imported domains with the appropriate pricing, billing cycles, next due dates and client information.

In regards to 

 

 

 

2

10 hours ago, Steve907 said:

When I look at the new client, I see the service/product is indeed a hosting package. This package has a set monthly fee. So why do I have to set up the payment amount? The product already has that set up. If I have to reset in the client > product/service area, then why did i set up the price in the product? This really doesn't make sense. Sorry 😞

The reason for this is the tool was designed as an importer, you may have clients that you have set different terms for such as pricing or renewal dates, because of this the tool was always designed to bring the basic account information in and then allow a client to enter in the term, renewal dates and amount you charge the client, its a similar concept to as if you where moving from pen & paper invoicing, we don't have a record of what you are charging that specific client and it could be different to what you have setup the product as, therefore to avoid any issues we only bring in the core information and require you to provide the rest on a client by client basis

10 hours ago, Steve907 said:

I use Stripe and have seamless accounting software that makes it super easy for clients to pay. They just click "pay now" in the invoice and it sends them to an online CC form. No need to sign in. The gateway (Stripe) has nothing to do with this. The accounting software does. What I am experiencing in WHMCS is that this is not possible. All the test invoices I have tried always want me to login to pay. This has nothing to do with Stripe. It appears the WHMCS does not allow someone to pay unless they login. If this is not true the please, please - tell me how/where the answer is. 

WHMCS does not provide the ability for you to raise an invoice for a client that does not have an account, you would neeed a client to have an account and login to make a payment for an invoice.

[Steve907]

27 minutes ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

WHMCS does not provide the ability for you to raise an invoice for a client that does not have an account, you would neeed a client to have an account and login to make a payment for an invoice

Sorry, I really am just not making myself clear here. Let's put it this way. Let's assume I HAVE a client IN WHMCS. And I send them an invoice. They have never given me CC info. When they click the paynow button, can they pay with a CC WITHOUT having to login?

The question is - does a client HAVE to login to pay with a CC? 

[WHMCS ChrisD]

@Steve907 I'm sorry you are not finding my answers clear.  Yes, the client MUST login to pay an invoice