Quantity billing still seemingly unusable

[mastermindpro]

I was hoping that the new quantity billing options would finally allow me to switch from my loathed MB4 installation, but it appears the option either doesn't work or is incredibly confusing. I was working in the online demo system trying to create a service that did quantity billing, but it's really unclear how it works.

 

I created a configurable option group with a new option of quantity type. I named the one line Qty and changed the monthly price to $50. This seems counter-intuitive, since we'd have to set up a different "quantity group" for each service that had different monthly pricing. That's ugly at best.

 

Is the quantity option still being worked on? As it is, it doesn't seem useful to me.

[michael_s]

This is how I use it:

 

Say I offer site monitoring for $2.00 per site. I set up an option for Site Monitoring and select the Qty configurable option type and set the price to $2.00/month.

 

Now the customer has 7 sites he wants monitored, so during checkout he fills in 7 for the qty in the QTY box. The cart totals it up as $14/month added to the order.

 

That makes sense to me and works how I would expect it to. Perhaps you could explain further what the problem is or what you are expecting it to do.

[mastermindpro]

So, then the base service that the quantity option applies to costs nothing? I have to setup a quantity-type option for every single service that I wish to sell multiples of? Can you see why I think this is a cart-before-the-horse approach?

 

Why can't the quantity option simply be an on/off option to add to a service? Why can't the *service* monthly (or weekly, quarterly, yearly...whatever) total simply be multiplied by the integer in the quantity field? This is, after all, how every other system I've ever seen functions. It's worked well for them...why did we re-invent the wheel?

[michael_s]

So, then the base service that the quantity option applies to costs nothing?

 

No. It costs whatever you set it to when you create the base product + the cost of the configurable option.

 

You seem to be missing the point of a configurable option and option groups. It is not to add multiples of a base service, it is to add multiples of an option on a base service.

 

So I have a bunch of services. Say 3 hosting plans, 1, 2, 3. The cost 5, 10 and 15/month respectively. They all have the option for Site Monitoring for $2/month.

 

Lets say I can host 3 sites on plan #3 and I want site monitoring for all 3. That adds $6/month to the base price of $15 for a total of $21/month

 

There was no re-inventing of the wheel. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, adds the ability to enter quantities for product options when ordering. It does not have anything to do with the quantity of base product/service you are adding to the cart. The price of the base service is set in the Pricing section of the product.

[mastermindpro]

Hum...that's not very clear from the documentation. I do see the point that it's not re-inventing the wheel, however, the ability is still largely useless. We (and the forums are quite ripe with this request) need support for quantity of the base service. Without that, WHMCS is unusable for many situations.

[othellotech]

We (and the forums are quite ripe with this request) need support for quantity of the base service. Without that, WHMCS is unusable for many situations.

 

item amount =0

option amount =x

use quantities

job done

[mastermindpro]

Then I have to create 100+ base services and 100+ "configurable options" that apply to those priceless base services. Inconvenient to the point of unusable.

[michael_s]

It is unusable for you because you are trying to use it for something that it is not for. It is not for adding multiples of a single product. It is for adding a user input quantity for a product option - a very different thing entirely.

 

Adding multiples of a product is not something that is currently available as far as I know. There are several long discussions about this if you search the forums.

[mastermindpro]

There are several long discussions about this if you search the forums.

 

My point exactly. For the majority of us who need quantity-based billing, the feature does not help.

[michael_s]

I thought your point was that the Quantity configurable options were unusable, which they clearly are usable and very effective.

 

I was just clarifying that the feature that you actually want (Quantity field for Services/Products in the order form) is not what this feature is. It is unusable due to the Square peg, round hole syndrome.

[M2]

I'd like to chime in on this one - I completely agree with mastermindpro. We offer Hosted Exchange services that require quantity based billing. We have clients that purchase single accounts as well as those with 50+. Using configurable options is the *only* way to enable quantity based billing - and it can be painful to implement.

 

As a billing/ordering system geared toward web hosting, it would be great to be able to configure the available billing cycles (with pricing) and then simply have a check box to enable quantity calculations (a * b = c). More and more companies are offering hosting services where quantity based billing is a definite need.

 

As it stands, one must first configure the base products' price, then utilize configurable options for clients to "tack-on" additional quantities above the base price. This requires some "creative wording" for product & option descriptions, and as such, when added to the shopping cart you will see something like the following:

 

Exchange E-mail Accounts: 3 x Exchange E-mail Accounts +$XX.XX USD

 

The above happens when using the "quantity" field for configurable options - and honestly this looks really bad - in the cart and on the invoice. It is logical for how configurable options work - just not very "user friendly." It would be nice to simply have (product + billing cycle) X (quantity) = $X.XX.

 

The way we have gotten around this is to NOT use the "Quantity" field and simply use the "Drop-down" - which is again painful as we must pull the calculator out to calculate pricing - yeah, a little work on our part - but it makes the invoices look better and there is less confusion when products are placed in the shopping cart. How much fun it is configuring (50 options) X (3+ billing cycles).

 

Something that I was tinkering with before finding this post (also suggested by othellotech above):

 

1. Product base price (configured in product setup) = 0

2. Configurable Options (using "quantity" + payment term) = x

 

This would be fantastic - if it worked in "stock form." The problem arises in that pricing is displayed for the base product as "$0.00" for each payment cycle during initial product selection, then again during billing cycle selection (step 2 - during configurable options - e.g. client selects quantity), and then again shows like the following in the shopping cart:

 

» Exchange E-mail Accounts: 2 x Exchange E-mail Accounts +$XX.XX USD

 

Unless there is a way to format the output that is displayed in the cart and form fields - this also looks pretty poor. Imagine buying new hard drives online and seeing this at checkout:

 

» Big New Hard Drives: 3 x Big New Hard Drives +$198.00 USD ("total") $297.00 USD <<< HUH? - what is this?

 

Unlike most members of the forum, hosting is only a small portion of our business. We're an IT/MSP that utilizes a completely different accounting/billing system for that side of the business - which is in a different ballpark, very costly, but required.

 

I mention all of this only as CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. I truly appreciate what WHMCS can do, and it does a GREAT JOB - much better than the competition (we have used it for roughly for two years - and are very pleased). However, this is one of a few items that we feel should be standard for a billing system of this type.

 

(Another thing we would love to see would be the ability for clients to use promotions during product upgrades...but that is for another post.)

[blakeh]

I'll second the concern on the quantity billing. We also do hosted exchange and hosted email and charged based on users. It also seems like you can't do price breaks for more users unless you do it as a dropdown like M2 mentioned, which is just kinda gross.

 

bh