Domains - Bill client at renewal, but don't send renewal instruction

[thisismatt]

Trying to word a title succinctly isn't always an easy thing!

Scenario is this: my client's domain is due for renewal very shortly. Before they renew it I'm going to move it to another registrar, which will automatically extend the registration by 1 year, so I don't want to then further renew it on this occasion - but I still need to bill the client for the extra year (i.e. so that they don't see any material change - their domain is (to their eyes) renewed and they've paid for it.

How on earth do I achieve this?!

[brian!]

17 minutes ago, thisismatt said:

Scenario is this: my client's domain is due for renewal very shortly.

do you know for sure that they want to renew it ?

11 minutes ago, thisismatt said:

Before they renew it I'm going to move it to another registrar

won't the registrant get sent an email with the option to reject the transfer (approval occurs after 5 days automatically)? I suppose you could suppress/redirect that email if you host the domain of the registrants email....

30 minutes ago, thisismatt said:

How on earth do I achieve this?!

how close to expiry is the domain ?

if you have weeks to go, then invoicing the client early might be an option - a) to ensure they want to renew, and b) to get the payment in.... then it depends on their payment method and if domains are set to renew on payment... if they are, changing the registrar assigned to the domain in their admin area profile to another registrar (or even none) would prevent WHMCS telling the current registrar to add an extra year and should generate a to do list item for you to do it manually later (which you won't need to do if your transferring it outside of WHMCS) - you should just need to change the expiry date (if you're not syncing) and the registrar value to the new registrar.

[thisismatt]

1 minute ago, brian! said:

do you know for sure that they want to renew it ?

I asked 🙂

2 minutes ago, brian! said:

won't the registrant get sent an email with the option to reject the transfer

Yes, I pre-empted that with an explanation. I always find being honest helps understanding!

2 minutes ago, brian! said:

changing the registrar assigned to the domain in their admin area profile to another registrar (or even none) would prevent WHMCS telling the current registrar to add an extra year and should generate a to do list item for you to do it manually later (which you won't need to do if your transferring it outside of WHMCS) - you should just need to change the expiry date (if you're not syncing) and the registrar value to the new registrar.

Bingo, thanks Brian; didn't think of that - changing the registrar! If WHMCS doesn't know where it's registered, then it can't do anything!

So yes, manual payment, 'disable' registrar functionality for a short time during the transfer, then re-enable once transfer is complete and then allow domain sync to update WHMCS once all the background stuff has completed.

You, as ever, are brilliant. Thank you.