Automated Recurring Billing with Overages?

[artherd]

Note: Admins- please feel free to move this to the apropriate group, I was not sure where to start.



I need a billing system for DA that will automatically detect and bill additionally per month the bandwidth overages, withought any human intervention.

For instance, if I have an account where 50MB is allowed per month, (with $1/MB overage charge) and the account transfers 100MB, I want to charge the base fee of 29.95 plus $50 for 79.95 that month. All automated. How do I do this with DA most efficently?


Whois.cart looks great for setting up new domains, but what about recurring billing to the credit card or PayPal automatically? I sure like the price.

And what about overages?

I do NOT want to shut off the account, I want to silently bill more the next month, automatically.

Does such a beast exist?

 

[nobaloney]

I need a billing system for DA that will automatically detect and bill additionally per month the bandwidth overages, withought any human intervention.

Neither of the two currently available solution I know about, ModernBill and Whois.Cart, offer this.

For instance, if I have an account where 50MB is allowed per month, (with $1/MB overage charge) and the account transfers 100MB, I want to charge the base fee of 29.95 plus $50 for 79.95 that month. All automated. How do I do this with DA most efficently?

As far as I can see you'd have to write a system yourself.

Whois.cart looks great for setting up new domains, but what about recurring billing to the credit card or PayPal automatically? I sure like the price.

Whois.Cart can do recurring billing. But if you want to change the price you have to do it manuallly before the billing is done. If you add it as a separate charge, Whois.Cart will bill the credit card twice and if your payment processor has a transaction charge you'll pay it twice.

ModernBill allows you to add it as a separate charge, and only bill once.

But neither will do it for you.

Note that the preceeding information is what I understand based on having corresponded with folk at both companies. For more up-to-date information, and to verify the information above, please contact the two companies directly.

Jeff

 

[artherd]

Hi Jeff, it's surprising there's not something like this out there for DA.

I suppose we could write something, but I was hoping someone out there alredy had adressed this serious issue.

 

[nobaloney]

I'd settle for talking the folk at ModernBill into adding it.

Before we can do that though, a bunch of us have to be using it.

Jeff

 

[artherd]

jeff- do you think DirectAdmin's API is to the point where they could easily add it?

Seems like this is a pretty major feature. What do you all do now when an overage occurs?

 

[nobaloney]

jeff- do you think DirectAdmin's API is to the point where they could easily add it?

I don't know; this has to be answered by John or Mark.

Seems like this is a pretty major feature. What do you all do now when an overage occurs?

We still bill by hand.

We have DA set to warn us if someone goes over; and if we get the warning we add it to the bill we create at the end of the month.

Jeff

 

[servnetix]

ServNetix billing software does offer overage as part of the software. It is set up when creating packages and each package can have it's own overage price.

WWW.ServNetix.com look under demo then log-in as admin once logged in click on Global > Services Hosting > Create Package then select DirectAdmin under Control Panels.

Once the page reloads you will see the feilds.

Usage Resource:
Disk Space: MB Fee:
Traffic: MB/Day Fee:


I hope this helps.

 

[nobaloney]

After I went to Global there was no entry for Services Hoting.

Jeff

 

[servnetix]

look at the links on the left and click Services "Hosting" then click on the tab " Create Package " now select DirectAdmin under Control Panels, once the page reloads you will see the feilds that will allow you to automaticaly bill for overages.

 

[nobaloney]

Now I understand the problem, Lee.

There are no links on the Left.

Not with Mozilla, not with Konqueror (both running on Linux).

But before you run out and "fix" your system so it works with Linux browsers, please let us know a bit more about it.

Will it actually monitor usage on the DA server and automatically bill for overages? Or just allow me to type in the overage information?

Can you add suport for the BluePay payment gateway?

Can you do automated monthly payments through credit card gateways even if the gateway doesn't support it?

Do you capture/hold credit card information?

If so, do you store it on the server in an encrypted fashion? Do you make the card and contact information available for us to use for manual billing?

Are you, or will you be, CISP approved?

Do you have arrangements with any of the registration services to open an account, or are we on our own with registration accounts?

Do you include a complete management interface where domain customers can manage their domain account or must we supply that separately?

Can this be hosted on the same machine as one of the control panels it's managing, or must it be on a separate server?

Thanks for any additional information you can provide me with.

Jeff

 

[servnetix]

Hi Jeff,

It will automaticaly check via a cron job in Global > Administration Tools > Cron Jobs then you can either enable or disable that task. Then bill the customer the set fees that are given for that package overages.

We offer a development solution that would allow you to do that, currently it isn't one we will be adding but it's on the list.

SevNetix is fully automated so that invoice are created and sent via e-mail.

CC information is stored and encrypted so it can be reused. It is also visalbe in the admin and customer area when that page is opened.

Not sure what CISP is can you explain.


we haven't set-up any affiliation with any of the registrars because they all offer different feaures and I don't want to push customer to one over the other.

About the Domain issues we will not offer a complete integration of a registrar. this would cost a ton of money. We recommend you sending them to the registar Directly so if they ever leave they know were to manage the domain for themselves.

Leet me add that we do offer a customer interface so they can update information, add services, make payments, review invoices and even open support tickets. There are also domain tools they can use to ping trac and who-is.

We highly recommend hosting on it's own server , however we have many customers that host on the same production server.

I hope this helps.

 

[nobaloney]

We offer a development solution that would allow you to do that, currently it isn't one we will be adding but it's on the list.

Both ModernBill and whois.cart offer integration with BluePay; both say it was a very simple implementation.

But I'm not going to buy a system that doesn't offer my gateway as a supported option.

What are the benefits of your package over ModernBill, so that I should consider changing gateway accounts?

Not sure what CISP is can you explain.

According to VISA:

<snip>
Members must use, and are responsible for ensuring that their merchants use, service providers that are CISP-compliant. Service providers who have validated compliance with CISP can be found on the List of CISP-Compliant service providers. A Member who uses a service provider, or whose merchant uses a service provider, that is not a compliant service provider should refer that service provider to the CISP site for information on how to become compliant. Although there may not be a direct contractual relationship between merchant service providers and Acquiring Members, Members remain responsible for any liability that may occur as a result of non-compliance with CISP.
</snip>
And...
<snip>
If a merchant or service provider refuses to participate in CISP, Visa may impose a fine on such Member responsible for the merchant or service provider. Ultimately, merchants and their service providers must meet the CISP requirements to continue to accept Visa Payment products.
</snip>

we haven't set-up any affiliation with any of the registrars because they all offer different feaures and I don't want to push customer to one over the other.

Again, both ModernBill and whois.cart have, with Enom, and in both cases, they've negotiated much lower prices than I could get myself. So, again, there should be a reason why I'd give this up in order to use your offering... in what way is it better ?

About the Domain issues we will not offer a complete integration of a registrar. this would cost a ton of money.

It wouid cost us the same "ton of money", and it would be a lot more cost-efficient if you could do it and build your costs into the price.

We recommend you sending them to the registar Directly so if they ever leave they know were to manage the domain for themselves.

The problem with that is that to resell at least some of these providers you have to have code approved so your customers can manage their domains. As an example, OpenSRS requires you have your domain management interface approved before you can use your account.

Let me add that we do offer a customer interface so they can update information, add services, make payments, review invoices and even open support tickets. There are also domain tools they can use to ping trac and who-is.

These are all good features. Is your support ticket service integrated with DirectAdmin's? If not, then I imagine having two such ticket systems may confuse our clients.

We highly recommend hosting on it's own server , however we have many customers that host on the same production server.

This sounds very reasonable to me.

At the moment the show-stoppers for me are the domain management, the higher-priced domain registrations, and of course the fact that I can't manage your system with Linux.

Perhaps we should carry on the rest of this conversation privately; can you please email me with your contact information? (Mine is below, in my sig.)

Thanks.

Jeff