Domain Invoice Generation

[Juanzo]

Is it possible to generate the invoice for domains on another date from the hosting packages? Currently I have configured the "Invoice Generation" setting for 10 days but that's too little for domain renewals but ok for hosting services.

 

I'd love to generate the domain invoice 40 days or more before the domain expires.

 

Also I've noticed that there are "Domain Reminder Settings" that I have configured but they don't seem to work. Do you know what should I check to see what's wrong?

[chickendippers]

No it isn't possible.

 

The domain reminder settings can be configured to send emails before the invoice has been generated. I have included the manual renewal instructions in mine.

[Juanzo]

Thanks for your reply. What do you mean by "manual renewal instructions"?

 

I don't seem to get how to manage domain renewals. 10 days prior to due date for the invoice generation seems fine but domain renewals should be processed before and even if the "Domain Reminder Settings" alerts the person, if they decide to renew it they should wait for the invoice to be generated?

[chickendippers]

Manual Renewal Instructions are:

• Login to WHMCS,
  
• Click My Domains,
  
• Click View Details
  
• Click Renew Domain

[rldev]

But how does a admin renew a domain early for a client and invoice them for it at the same time?

[Matt]

Exactly as explained in the steps above your post.

 

Matt

[chickendippers]

The admin doesn't do anything, the client does it!

[Boss]

I am also having the same issues with Domain Renewals. Clients asking for the invoice prior to the auto generation 10 days before expiry.

I also think the invoice should be sent with one of the renewal notices at least 30 days before expiry.

I will add the above type of instruction to the renewals notices. But I did the above for the client and generated an invoice for the client, the program has now generated the invoice as wanted but sent two emails. One of which is a Order Confirmation.

Which reads:

"We have received your order and will be processing it shortly. The details of the order are below:

Order Number: 5718343796

You will receive an email from us shortly once your account has been setup. Please quote your order reference number if you wish to contact us about this order."

 

This to me is an extremely confusing email for both me and I'm sure the client.

To start with, why do we need a new order generated, shouldn't it be just an invoice generated?

Then we have got the wording about setting up a new account. This is totally wrong and confusing all round.

 

How do I fix this?

For example I don't believe I can change the default email for when someone generates this invoice on it's own.

But mainly I don't think this email or the order generation is necessary at all.

 

Thoughts etc please?

[chickendippers]

Most actions within WHMCS generates a new order (new account, upgrade, downgrade, buying an addon, domain renewal), it's just how things get done.

[Juanzo]

On 3.6.2, there is only one box where we can select how many days before due payments invoices are generated.

 

Using 10 as a value for hosting seems perfectly reasonable but not for domains. Using a higher value like 30 would solve the "domain problem" but would send invoices for hosting services too soon.

 

Clicking on the renew button inside the client details will generate the invoice and renew the domain, but since we can't be sure if the client is actually going to pay or not, that is not suitable for us.

 

Adding a new box called "Invoice Generation for Domains" inside "AUTOMATION SETTINGS" would solve the problem.

 

What do you think Matt? Guys?

[othellotech]

Any reason the client cant remnd the email telling them the domain is coming up for renewal, and to login and click renew ?

[Juanzo]

If he clicks on the renew button and he doesn't have any credit, will the invoice be generated but the domain will not be renewed until he pays?

 

If so, that could work.

[othellotech]

If he clicks on the renew button and he doesn't have any credit, will the invoice be generated but the domain will not be renewed until he pays?

 

If so, that could work.

 

Yep, works exactly like that

[BoardBoss]

Adding a new box called "Invoice Generation for Domains" inside "AUTOMATION SETTINGS" would solve the problem.

 

What do you think Matt? Guys?

 

In the table tblinvoiceitems there is already a field identifying the type of invoice (Domain, Hosting, Addon, etc.). I wouldn't think it would be that far of a stretch to allow a separate invoice timing specification for domains.

[PauGasol]

On 3.6.2, there is only one box where we can select how many days before due payments invoices are generated.

 

Using 10 as a value for hosting seems perfectly reasonable but not for domains. Using a higher value like 30 would solve the "domain problem" but would send invoices for hosting services too soon.

 

Clicking on the renew button inside the client details will generate the invoice and renew the domain, but since we can't be sure if the client is actually going to pay or not, that is not suitable for us.

 

Adding a new box called "Invoice Generation for Domains" inside "AUTOMATION SETTINGS" would solve the problem.

 

What do you think Matt? Guys?

 

We need the same , the domains renew 30 days and the hosting products 3 days... modernbill 4 have this option . Is very important, i cant understand how option is not yet in 3.6.2 i cant migrate my system without this option.

[eugenevdm]

We have a similar problem, and for the most part following the instructions provided by chickendippers and agreed upon by Matt is valid:

 

* Login to WHMCS,

* Click My Domains,

* Click View Details

* Click Renew Domain

 

This is really useful when clients receive domain renewal notices or if they e-mail us asking us to renew the domain for them (a surprisingly large number of users do not opt to renew the domains themselves and rather asks us to do it for them. Luckily the admin area has a 'log in as client' in the client summary screen so this can be done).

 

HOWEVER, 90% of our customer base pays by debit order (aka direct debit / bank draft) and this present the following scenario.

 

Client's domain expires the 18nd of the month. They get an invoice 14 days beforehand, on the 4th. Since they are paying all their services with direct debit, they assume the invoice will just be paid when we do our debit order run, on the 25th. And that is correct, it will be marked paid, not on the 25th, but on about the 6th of the next month when we've processed all the unpaids. However, in the meanwhile, his domain has gone off the air, due to non-payment.

 

Very unhappy situation.

 

One potential workaround would be to mark the invoice as paid before the 25th, but then we'd still have to do a reverse reconciliation to see which client's debit orders were rejected. There is a lot of manual intervention still required for domain renewals and this is causing lots of extra admin in our company.

[chickendippers]

I suppose the answer in this situation would be to have a separate invoice generate settings for domain name renewals.

[SilverNodashi]

Hi Eugene,

 

One way around this scenario, is to tell the clients to pay via EFT as soon as the new invoice is generated, and then not invoice them on the debit order. In fact, it's almost better then not to use the debit order for domains at all. Your other alternative is to set the renewal reminder to 30 days, or maybe even 40 days

[eugenevdm]

Softdux,

 

Thank you for your continued input on this forum, it is much appreciated.

 

My accountant and you came to the same conclusion - to set all domain renewals to EFT. I do however have a concern about this as far as the amount of work manual reconciliation of the transactions that may result because of this. We have approx 1500 domains on our books, so now we would have to manually recon about 5 domain renewal transactions every working day of the year. With debit order on the other hand we only recon failed transactions, so a huge amount of manual work is spared.

 

We are now investigating a new possibility - and that is setting the "Next Due Date" on all our domains to 1 month before it actually expires. Our preliminary testing shows that if you renew such a domain it sets the new due date to +1 year without affecting the Registration or Expiry Date. So this might be ideal. The only problem now is manually changing all those existing and new "Next Due" dates to -1 month. I suppose ideally we would like a setting in WHMCS giving us "Set Next Due Date for domain renewals to -1 month" or a script that can do this say on a daily basis...

 

Do you know any WHMCS Scripting experts that might want to take up this task? ;-)

[SilverNodashi]

surely that can be done with a simple SQL script

 

Lookup the how the date is formatted, and then change it to a new date -1 month.

 

If it's in standard UNIX format (ddmmyyyyhhmm / 200808181422), then it's a very simple task to accomplish. Do a dry run first, or test if on an offline copy of the DB.

[eugenevdm]

This is not a simple script at all, because you have to bear the 'hidden' field in mind, 'nextinvoicedate'. And then you have to bear in mind that invoices may have already been issued against this domain. And if you're working with hundreds of domains your risks increases of screwing it up.