Expiring/Renewing One-Time Products like Digital Certs

[risrik]

I was setting up products like digital certificates which are one-time for a year or two and was wondering how I will know when they expire.

 

They are not recurring items because the customer must agree to it again so I set them up as one-time prices. At the end of the year when their cert is expiring, I need to ask them if they want to renew their certificate and continue their dedicated IP. The dedicated IP would just continue unless I cancel it for the account. What is the best way to handle this? Is it something I just have to keep an eye on and say, 2 weeks before they expire, send the customer an email to see if they want to continue? Is there a way to renew the one-time fee for them so they don't have to go through the order process again?

 

Thanks!

[chickendippers]

How do you have the SSL certs setup? As an addon doing it manually or using the Enom automation?

 

I have my certs set up using the Enom automation, they're on a recurring billing cycle. So an invoice will automatically be generated unless the customer tells me they don't want to renew.

[risrik]

Manually through my hosting supplier as I am a reseller. That is, when someone orders it, I manually request a digital cert for them, and my supplier adds it to their account/website. At the end of the year period, I normally ask the customer if they want to renew, invoice them, and renew it with my supplier.

 

Now that I'm using WHMCS, I just wondered what was the best way to handle a product that's technically one-time priced yet sort of recurring at the same time. Can you charge digital certs as recurring? I guess if they don't cancel when the invoice is sent out, then they want it again. Even so, I need to know that they've been charged for another year and to renew it with the supplier. Otherwise, they'll pay for another year but their digital cert will expire because I didn't renew it! Anyways, just wondering what the smoothest way of handling this is!

[handsonwebhosting]

We've actually used a separate system for our SSL Orders (X-Cart Shopping Cart) and had a custom API developed to integrate with Comodo for instant orders and delivery of the certs. We've been looking to bring that into WHMCS rather than using a separate system and have ours setup under One Time packages also.

 

The thoughts on the WHMCS setup is to use SQL queries to export a list of SSL Certificates that are registered through us, then query the expiration date. If date is less than 60 days away, send a notice to the customer to renew the certification.

 

We currently do not do the renewal automatically, clients must send the new CSR to the system to have the SSL Certificate generated (esentially they're buying a new one). So for WHMCS, they would basically just get a notice saying that their Cert is about to expire and to contact us to purcahse a new one. I don't think we'd do an automatic renewal even on the new system. Too many people open up sites with a 1 year SSL Cert and then want a 3 year cert the next year (or upgrade to a bigger Cert, or an EV Cert). Domains are one thing, but Certs vary depending on numbers of years ordered, waranties etc.