Bandwidth billing like MB4

[mastermindpro]

I'm seriously contemplating a switch from MB4 due to v5 being a piece of garbage. MB has abandoned their bandwidth billing capabilities almost entirely, and after more than a year of waiting for support to be re-added, there is no activity whatsoever.

 

We have multiple non-webhost services that need to be bandwidth billed. We've developed a number of custom scripts to insert bandwidth information into the MB4 database on the day prior to invoice generation. Is such a process available in WHMCS? In other words, can we dump numeric values into a table somewhere in the WHMCS database that would tell it to use those numbers to generate an invoice correctly? Has anyone used that kind of a feature yet in WHMCS?

 

Thanks!

[Matt]

There aren't any kind of automated bandwidth billing features in WHMCS but it would certainly be possible to have WHMCS bill for them if you had a script that would write in the amount the client should pay into the correct place in the WHMCS database.

 

Matt

[TheHostingHeroes]

I'm seriously contemplating a switch from MB4 due to v5 being a piece of garbage. MB has abandoned their bandwidth billing capabilities almost entirely, and after more than a year of waiting for support to be re-added, there is no activity whatsoever.

 

 

well now Parelles (SWSoft) have purchased modernbill, maybe things will get better. But i'd never go back to modernbill after WHMCS.

[scurrell]

well now Parellels (SWSoft) have purchased modernbill, maybe things will get better.

 

:lol::lol:

 

That's all my laughs for the week used up, and it's only Tuesday.

[TheHostingHeroes]

Glad to see I could entertain you

[mastermindpro]

There aren't any kind of automated bandwidth billing features in WHMCS but it would certainly be possible to have WHMCS bill for them if you had a script that would write in the amount the client should pay into the correct place in the WHMCS database.

 

Matt

 

So, I can create a product/service that has a 0 recurring cost and then adjust that via an external script the day before the invoice is generated? I just want to make sure this is realistically possible before we start the switch.

[Matt]

Yes, that's certainly possible. Another possibility would be to just insert a row into the invoice items table - you can then set a custom description and price. If you add it with no invoice number then on the next cron run WHMCS would pick it up and generate an invoice for it.

 

Matt

[Nick]

Yes, that's certainly possible. Another possibility would be to just insert a row into the invoice items table - you can then set a custom description and price. If you add it with no invoice number then on the next cron run WHMCS would pick it up and generate an invoice for it.

 

Matt

 

That's pretty sweet - didn't know it'd create an invoice for orphaned items.

 

Would it combine them in with an invoice being created for the same user on the same cron run?

[Matt]

Yes, just need to make sure the paymentmethod and duedate values all match.

 

Matt

[mastermindpro]

How can I do this, though, if I don't know what the invoice id is going to be? That field is non-null in the db, so I have to enter something there.

[Nick]

How can I do this, though, if I don't know what the invoice id is going to be? That field is non-null in the db, so I have to enter something there.

 

If you add it with no invoice number then on the next cron run WHMCS would pick it up and generate an invoice for it.

 

Try adding it as zero.

[Lethanialist]

Has anyone successfully done this? We don't use prorating so it's not like we could make a script that checks bandwidth usage on the first/last of the month. It seems like we'd have to go through every day and find which customers will be getting a new invoice, and add invoices for their bandwidth but nobody else's. And if a customer got an invoice, say, a week before their service period was up, paid it, and then used even more bandwidth, how would that be taken into account?

[neobug103]

Why doesn't Matt just create the ability for whmcs to charge them automatically for the extra bandwidth usage? I can't imagine it would be very difficult.

[SilverNodashi]

I'm sure this is very possible. What I suggest, is to have an option to enter what extra bandwidth could cost per MB (for shared hosting) or GB (for servers), and then poll the WHM bandwidth stats to see if / when that bandwidth limit is reached, and then start billng extra for the extra bandwidth.

 

For dedicated servers, one would need to have a way of polling the routers, or whatever you use to produce your MRTG / CACTI graphs, I suppose?