Domain name auto renewal and payment automation?

[TheHackRepairGuy]

Sounds easy, right?

Having read through the docs in regard to how auto renewal of domains works, I'm not finding the answer to my question.

Question.
I have a client who has set his domains to auto-renew.

The auto renewal invoice is generated 2 weeks ahead per my settings.

The problem.
Client does not understand why his PayPal account is not auto paying the open domain name invoice the day after its generated, to renew his domain name in his absence.

Is there a setting to ensure that "auto renewal of a domain name" actually "auto renews" using the client's pay source on file?,

 

[RadWebHosting]

Which PayPal gateway are you using? Some offer support for billing agreements if configured.

[TheHackRepairGuy]

PayPal is what I use and running version 8.2 currently.
Thanks for answering.

[RadWebHosting]

PayPal module supports the subscription billing if the service has recurring billing cycles (i.e. monthly hosting, yearly domain. etc).

The subscription checkout option only occurs when the product or domain order has scheduled future renewals.

However, I don't think the client has an option to choose auto-renewal settings when configuring a domain registration in most cases. So you may need to enable "Default Auto Renewal Setting" in order to establish the appropriate circumstances required for subscription option to be presented at checkout (in the case of registrations).

If you are unable to generate subscription billing option under all circumstances, double-check that you are using PayPal gateway (as opposed to PayPal Basic gateway). Also, verify the gateway is configured appropriately for subscriptions.

Edited June 22, 2022 by radwebhosting

[TheHackRepairGuy]

Nice reply back. Thank you!
Though keep in mind, I do have massive numbers of hosting invoices being generated daily and they all autopay without issue through PayPal.

The issue:
Why domain name invoices once generated, but do not auto pay like all of the other literally thousands of invoices that are auto paying each month without fail?

 

[RadWebHosting]

1 hour ago, TheHackRepairGuy said:

Nice reply back. Thank you!
Though keep in mind, I do have massive numbers of hosting invoices being generated daily and they all autopay without issue through PayPal.

Glad to hear.

1 hour ago, TheHackRepairGuy said:

The issue:
Why domain name invoices once generated, but do not auto pay like all of the other literally thousands of invoices that are auto paying each month without fail?

Without having a look inside your operation, my first instinct is that a setting may be preventing the initialization of subscription billing on the domain registration or transfer.

When the user renews it with a manual invoice payment AND the domain is also already set to auto-renew, a billing subscription should be available, assuming everything is configured.

[TheHackRepairGuy]

Nice reply back. Thank you!
Though keep in mind, I do have massive numbers of hosting invoices being generated daily and they all autopay without issue through PayPal.

The issue:
Why domain name invoices once generated, but do not auto pay like all of the other literally thousands of invoices that are auto paying each month without fail?

 

[TheHackRepairGuy]

Pretty much standard settings:

1. auto renewal set by client

2. domain auto renew invoice generates nicely 2 weeks ahead

3. then nothing happens.

Question then is what setting is needed to ensure that domain name invoices auto pay, same as hosting invoices autopay?

 

[RadWebHosting]

33 minutes ago, TheHackRepairGuy said:

Pretty much standard settings:

1. auto renewal set by client

2. domain auto renew invoice generates nicely 2 weeks ahead

3. then nothing happens.

Question then is what setting is needed to ensure that domain name invoices auto pay, same as hosting invoices autopay?

 

I'm leaning towards the fact that the billing subscription has never been initiated for that specific domain during a previous registration/transfer/renewal payment, but that could be determined by checking the gateway logs of those previous transactions.

[TheHackRepairGuy]

30 minutes ago, radwebhosting said:

I'm leaning towards the fact that the billing subscription has never been initiated for that specific domain during a previous registration/transfer/renewal payment, but that could be determined by checking the gateway logs of those previous transactions.

Yes, could would have manually paid renewal years back.

Question then is how does one reestablish an auto-payment for the invoice / service in question within WHMCS?

 

[yggdrasil]

1 hour ago, TheHackRepairGuy said:

Yes, could would have manually paid renewal years back.

Question then is how does one reestablish an auto-payment for the invoice / service in question within WHMCS?

 

I don't think that is possible with PayPal. The user has to accept the recurring billing agreement from this PayPal account, WHMCS only authorizes this on a payment which means you can't just enable it from WHMCS as the user has to accept the agreement from his PayPal account.

Also, nothing stops someone from cancelling the agreement from PayPal which could be maybe why the payment is not executed. That means, even if someone created the billing agreement on first payment, they could log in to PayPal a day later and cancel it, which means they will not be billed in the future, and WHMCS does not detect this either, the only way you would be informed is by email from PayPal that a billing agreement or recurring payment was canceled.

Its actually very simple. Check your PayPal account, if there is no active billing agreement or recurring payment for that customer, then PayPal can't auto bill him for anything. WHMCS will just generate the invoice but it will never be paid as there is no PayPal agreement to bill him. This agreement or auto recurring option can only be created by the customer.

[TheHackRepairGuy]

Nicely done reply back - again!

That said, I guess I'm not fully clear yet why client
who likewise has lots of hosting invoices
and they all run auto-renew wise every month,
even after deleting all payment methods
and adding a PayPal account,
with that new PayPal account having no relation to prior billings
on any of his other dozen monthly hosting services auto paid.
They just get auto paid as expected.

While the domain name invoice,
It just sits there stupid,
doing nothing,
while his brother (hosting) invoices
are auto paying every day with out issue.

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by TheHackRepairGuy

[RadWebHosting]

Hi @TheHackRepairGuy,

So @yggdrasil makes some valid points, which are highly likely scenarios that could break the billing automation you are trying to achieve.

Having said that, it is entirely possible, at least in a controlled environment, to make it work. It might require some purposefulness to initialize, but it's completely doable with PayPal and other gateways to create automatic yearly domain renewal payments with subscription billing.

WHMCS won't initialize subscription checkouts unless the service, for which a checkout sequence is generated, is scheduled to be renewed at a defined variable (month, year, etc) at the time of checkout. 

So, you could ensure the domain is set for auto-renewal in your WHMCS, then initiate a manual renewal of the domain. This should satisfy the required prerequisites for WHMCS to tell PayPal to initiate subscription checkout option. After that, it would be between your client and PayPal whether they complete the process and also later do not cancel said subscription. 

[TheHackRepairGuy]

All good commentary.

Have a test domain renewal in process now (should run in a couple of weeks). Will see how that plays out...