Ticket billing

[DTM]

Hi

Looking for some help with our scenario. We're looking to migrate to WHMCS from a combination of QuickBooks and Kayako.

With respect to client billing, we're a consultancy and we charge for our time.

We log every client request as a ticket and when the ticket is worked on, we log the time used within Kayako.

We also place work items as tickets into the system and use a custom field in a ticket to log an estimate for that work.

In this way, there isn't a distinction between "projects", "project items", and "tickets". They're all tickets. In part because this is how Kayako works.

It is then possible to pull a report which lists tickets for a client with the time used, so that if they have one of our Contract accounts we can see how much time they've used this month and if they have a Pay As You Go account (like a retainer) we can send periodic statements of the amount of time they've used and how much they have left. The actual statements are done with other software but Kayako provides the ability to create an Excel extract which feeds it.

How might we achieve this with WHMCS?

Thanks,

Mark

[yggdrasil]

Yes, WHMCS will work for this. You can add billing to tickets. And also a custom field for a support department on which you create those billing tickets.

The project manager addon also allows you setup projects and then bill per tasks and time. And you can create a project from the ticket section as well which then can be billed.

Exporting data from MySQL to Excel is not a problem, you can use multiple systems to do this or can you also have a developer create a hook if you want to do this automatically from the admin side. That way they can customize exactly what fields you need to export to Excel so you can then import it to your other software/system. I have done something similar to export to QuickBooks, since the online service was a disaster I moved to desktop and this is much cleaner (and privacy compliance) since I just export invoice data directly from the database to the desktop version.

The billing part is straightforward both for tickets and projects/tasks you assign per customer.

I also have an old unlimited Kayako license. I moved out from Kayako years back. While it had many features that WHMCS does not for tickets, it was a train wreck with bugs, and I found several security issues as well. The ticket system on WHMCS is simpler but it works for me as I did not used all the fancy rules on Kayako. And it can be extended with hooks and plugins if you need something more advanced. Its far more integrated into the customer account and billing so I personally think it will be a better fit if you are billing people per project/support than using an external ticket system like Kayako. If billing is your main concern, then you need a ticket system that is integrated directly into the customer and billing platform like WHMCS.

Note, you will need to change a bit your workflow and how you do things, but it can be done.

You will also want the project management addon:

https://www.whmcs.com/project-management/

Edited November 12, 2020 by yggdrasil

[DTM]

I'd expect to have to do some things a bit differently, but then the way we do things now is in part "what used to work with Kayako" and that's not to criticise Kayako in any way, it has worked very well for us, but we don't use the more sophisticated features either, it's much more like looking at an email client with folders and email threads that just happen to accumulate time spent on them and which can be flagged and put in the right order of priority.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write a detailed reply - that's very helpful. It looks like we're on the right path. I shall get the project management add-on.

 

[yggdrasil]

12 hours ago, DTM said:

I'd expect to have to do some things a bit differently, but then the way we do things now is in part "what used to work with Kayako" and that's not to criticise Kayako in any way, it has worked very well for us, but we don't use the more sophisticated features either, it's much more like looking at an email client with folders and email threads that just happen to accumulate time spent on them and which can be flagged and put in the right order of priority.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write a detailed reply - that's very helpful. It looks like we're on the right path. I shall get the project management add-on.

 

 

 

Sure, if you ask a more direct question or several like "Can I have a custom field on a ticket?", then you will slowly get more clear replies. If something cannot be done you can code a hook, or module to automate that event or action.

I would write down everything you do right now step by step in your systems and then come back and ask the specifics I can surely be of more help. WHMCS can be extended or modified.

Look for example at this third-party module which you can purchase if you want:

https://www.modulesgarden.com/products/whmcs/premium-support-tickets

It adds a new method to bill for support with points.

I know WHMCS had Kayako integration for years but its now deprecated:

https://docs.whmcs.com/Kayako

But there are also third party modules that will work, assuming you still want to use Kayako. But in your case, I would suggest using the integrated ticket system because Kayako in the end is an external system. That means you would need to pass the customer information to WHMCS for billing and back to Kayako to bill as opposed to having the tickets integrated right into the customer account and being able to bill them directly. You will find yourselves going from one system to the other constantly as opposed to having all the information unified in a centralized interface.

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by yggdrasil