nocturnalhostin
New member
There are a few common questions that pop up with Billing issues from time to time, and just wanted to lend my insight to some of those who are out there...
One of the first issues is whether to go with a payment processor (PayPal, 2Checkout, etc.) or a merchant account such as authroize.net. While its true that any larger company will not use a 3rd party processory (unless its requested by a majority of customers), merchant accounts are fairly expensive. Further, when you are an "unknown" company/business, customers actually prefer the security that is added by a third party company in that they have an additional channel for claims disputes.
Of the many payment processors that are out there, I would have to suggest 2Checkout to anyone who is interested (and I'm not even posting my referal link). The reason for this is that processors such as PayPal give many customers the impression that you aren't a true business - but rather a "fly by night" company. Of course, many customers find PayPal more convient to use. The solution that I have found (and the way I've setup large hosting sites) is to use 2Checkout.com as a primary payment gateway, and then paypal as a second gateway.
The next issue is whether or not to accept check/money order/mail in payments. To be honest, this is something that any hosting provider should accept (but be warned that no accounts should be activated on "good faith" - don't even register a domain name for someone until payment is received. There have been several times that a customer claims to mail in a check, only a few weeks later (upon getting a reminder invoce) claims that they never ment to order service and don't feel that they should have to pay for a service they never used. My current policy is to accept payments, wait 14 days, send a reminder, and not activate until payment is received. If no payment is received within 2 weeks after the reminder, I just consider it a lost sale.
Another question is whether or not to accept bank transfers - I'd have to say that this is a BAD idea and should never be done. Of course, I've had my identity stolen and bank account emptied - but asside from that, there are often huge fees associated with bank transfers and its not worth it for the small monthly fee of many web hosting packages.
The next group of questions commonly asked is about which automation system to use. There are several avaliable, such as WHM AutoPilot, HostAdmin, lPanel, and Modern Bill - of which I have used them all.
WHM AutoPilot lacks some of the features, but seems to be the easiest to install and configure, although many customers find that its interface is somewhat lacking. Another wonderful feature of WHM AutoPilot is that it is under active development and actively supported - their support is second to none (kudos to Brandee, the developer!).
LPanel is loved by customers but suffers from the minor problem of constant updates and minor bugs - but this programs "bad reputation" is more due to problems that people make in setting it up (although you can't realy blame them as the documentation is incomplete). There have also been reports that their support is lacking - although I have not personally ever had a problem with their support staff - although it may be a few days before they can respond (which is frustrating to many people who have implemented it before testing everything).
Next in line would be Modern Bill - this is truly a wonderful package and has the added feature of being compatible with management systems other than cPanel (such as Ensim/Plesk/etc). The down side is a lack of support (one really needs to rely on their forums) and the program (well, to most people) is extremly difficult to configure. If you have several days to spend playing with it it is worth the effort - but I'd say that configuring Modern Bill properly is akin to trying to setup an open source program such as Nagios (if your not familar with that let me use the common quote that its like underwater VCR programing).
Lastly, there is Host Admin. Host Admin has many interfaces for different management systems, like modern bill, but these need to be purchased seperatly. While this isn't much of a problem, Host Admin is by far the most expensive option there. It does suffer from the probelm that it is difficult to integrate with your site and prefers to be its own complete solution, although it is possible to configure it with a lot of work. However, the worst thing about the current version of Host Admin is that it only allows you to input one set of name servers, so it is useless for a hosting provider with multiple servers. The author has said upon multiple occasions that this will be corrected in the next release, but almost a year later and I'm still waiting...
Asside from that, I don't think there is too much more about billing systems that I can lend insight to - asside from the fact that whatever system you do decide to use, it is still important to keep proper "books" so to speak, as a backup for finacancial/accounting reasons.
Oh, I almost forgot - the issue of whether to use a DBA or register a corporation. A DBA is much cheaper, but corporations have an inherent bonus for customers as they instantly seem more professional. However, you have to worry about added cost and have to be very careful with accounting. Another problem is that many who register a corporation forget about getting a Dunns&Bradstreet (sp?) number/id - this is a must to show knowledgable customers that your company is serious (espically if it is a privatly owned company which most smaller ones are).
Hope this helps some of you a little....
One of the first issues is whether to go with a payment processor (PayPal, 2Checkout, etc.) or a merchant account such as authroize.net. While its true that any larger company will not use a 3rd party processory (unless its requested by a majority of customers), merchant accounts are fairly expensive. Further, when you are an "unknown" company/business, customers actually prefer the security that is added by a third party company in that they have an additional channel for claims disputes.
Of the many payment processors that are out there, I would have to suggest 2Checkout to anyone who is interested (and I'm not even posting my referal link). The reason for this is that processors such as PayPal give many customers the impression that you aren't a true business - but rather a "fly by night" company. Of course, many customers find PayPal more convient to use. The solution that I have found (and the way I've setup large hosting sites) is to use 2Checkout.com as a primary payment gateway, and then paypal as a second gateway.
The next issue is whether or not to accept check/money order/mail in payments. To be honest, this is something that any hosting provider should accept (but be warned that no accounts should be activated on "good faith" - don't even register a domain name for someone until payment is received. There have been several times that a customer claims to mail in a check, only a few weeks later (upon getting a reminder invoce) claims that they never ment to order service and don't feel that they should have to pay for a service they never used. My current policy is to accept payments, wait 14 days, send a reminder, and not activate until payment is received. If no payment is received within 2 weeks after the reminder, I just consider it a lost sale.
Another question is whether or not to accept bank transfers - I'd have to say that this is a BAD idea and should never be done. Of course, I've had my identity stolen and bank account emptied - but asside from that, there are often huge fees associated with bank transfers and its not worth it for the small monthly fee of many web hosting packages.
The next group of questions commonly asked is about which automation system to use. There are several avaliable, such as WHM AutoPilot, HostAdmin, lPanel, and Modern Bill - of which I have used them all.
WHM AutoPilot lacks some of the features, but seems to be the easiest to install and configure, although many customers find that its interface is somewhat lacking. Another wonderful feature of WHM AutoPilot is that it is under active development and actively supported - their support is second to none (kudos to Brandee, the developer!).
LPanel is loved by customers but suffers from the minor problem of constant updates and minor bugs - but this programs "bad reputation" is more due to problems that people make in setting it up (although you can't realy blame them as the documentation is incomplete). There have also been reports that their support is lacking - although I have not personally ever had a problem with their support staff - although it may be a few days before they can respond (which is frustrating to many people who have implemented it before testing everything).
Next in line would be Modern Bill - this is truly a wonderful package and has the added feature of being compatible with management systems other than cPanel (such as Ensim/Plesk/etc). The down side is a lack of support (one really needs to rely on their forums) and the program (well, to most people) is extremly difficult to configure. If you have several days to spend playing with it it is worth the effort - but I'd say that configuring Modern Bill properly is akin to trying to setup an open source program such as Nagios (if your not familar with that let me use the common quote that its like underwater VCR programing).
Lastly, there is Host Admin. Host Admin has many interfaces for different management systems, like modern bill, but these need to be purchased seperatly. While this isn't much of a problem, Host Admin is by far the most expensive option there. It does suffer from the probelm that it is difficult to integrate with your site and prefers to be its own complete solution, although it is possible to configure it with a lot of work. However, the worst thing about the current version of Host Admin is that it only allows you to input one set of name servers, so it is useless for a hosting provider with multiple servers. The author has said upon multiple occasions that this will be corrected in the next release, but almost a year later and I'm still waiting...
Asside from that, I don't think there is too much more about billing systems that I can lend insight to - asside from the fact that whatever system you do decide to use, it is still important to keep proper "books" so to speak, as a backup for finacancial/accounting reasons.
Oh, I almost forgot - the issue of whether to use a DBA or register a corporation. A DBA is much cheaper, but corporations have an inherent bonus for customers as they instantly seem more professional. However, you have to worry about added cost and have to be very careful with accounting. Another problem is that many who register a corporation forget about getting a Dunns&Bradstreet (sp?) number/id - this is a must to show knowledgable customers that your company is serious (espically if it is a privatly owned company which most smaller ones are).
Hope this helps some of you a little....
