Many companies are looking for ways to cut back the amount of time spent on organizing billing, invoicing, account activation and keeping up support.

This has a lead to an onleash of Billing Management software. We've all heard of them: ModernBill, PHPCoin, WHMAutopilot, H-sphere, Nixt, and many more. Which one do you use or would like to use? Why?

This question was answer before but I use Perldesk

Well I have bought WHM AutoPilot but I havent tried it yet because I dont know how to install it and implement it with my website but once I do then I will be able to tell you my experiences

*Moved post*

I use phpCoin but I dont think its very helpful, the only thing I use it for really is for clients to signup and they are sent to paypal and its recorded and an email is sent to them and us.
I run most things from programs on local computers and networks instead of using a script online, I can normally customize it a lot more to do only the things I need.
I think a lot of the scripts out do far too much, a lot more than I need and it just gets in the way when I only need a few things really.

You can try perlbill

As in most instances, the REAL question is what do you need.

Following that, how comfortable are you with PERL, PHP, PGP, MySQL, etc.

I tried several, and really ALL I wanted in a billing package was the ability to track who owed me what, and email invoices.

I actually offer my customers a lower cost if they pay via PayPal subscription, so I don't have to invoice them

For my needs, WHM Autopilot, wasn't right because ALL of the fraud and abuse I suffered was using automatic signups, and frankly most of the packages out there were WAY more than I needed, and more than I wanted to spend.

What I use right now is Webhost 5.7 (www.wh57.com) - however, if you are looking for a well-supported piece of software - that ain't it!

I'm always looking at new ones as I run across them, but so far, I haven't seen any that make it worth porting my data from Webhost.

John

Currently it's all done offline. It takes a while to setup new accounts, etc. - but then it's a lot easier (and faster) for employees to just bring up the clients file, change anything if it needs changing and so on.

However, in the future I plan to purchase either ClientExec or PerlBill. All I want really is the same as Fallcreek - a piece of billing software which does exactly that, and no more.

ModernBill and WHMAutoPilot - they're very good, yes, however they do billing and more. They're also pretty bulky - and WHMAutoPilot reminds me of a badly done RVSkin.

I think ClientExec and PerlBill are both pretty good (however I think PerlBill is better) - and do what they're supposed to. Both look very nice, and are extremely clear for both the customer and myself (and employees).

I checked out WebHost 5.7, however it isn't too good on the looks side. It seems to do the job, and do it well - however I don't think it looks professional enough for the clients.


It's very important to have a good piece of billing software which works well for you, your employees and your clients. It needs to do what you want it to do, and also be stable at the same time.

Too often people purchase something which either does more than what they want, or even at times less! It's nice and all to say "Hey look, I've got ModernBill" - but do you really need it? Do you really need all those features? If you're looking for a piece of billing software, then ModernBill is a bit OTT. However, if you want something that does everything for you and is on the verge of making you a cup of tea, then ModernBill or WHMAutoPilot are both perfect for the job.

Anjay,

You are exactly right, WH57 looks like crap, so what I did was integrate it into my site with headers and footers.

It also lacks a couple of other fundamentals, like being able to deactivate an account without deleting it, etc.

But I'm going to go take a look at perlbill, I haven't tried it yet, all the cPanel integrated stuff scares the heck outta me, not only is my past experience with them rough in terms of fraud, etc., but they also seem bloated to me while at the same time being limited - I'm no c++ programmer, or whatever they write it in, so I can't always use the vendors I want with them.

John

How easy to customise is it? Would you say it is very easy? I'm thinking it may be worth it to look into it, and even purchase it and see how easy it is to customise and make look good - even if I don't end up using it, since it's pretty cheap.



I've been looking around, and have come up with a few other billing systems:

http://www.siteinteractive.com/acctman/
http://www.bug-invoicing.org/
http://www.secondsite.biz/

There are also loads of others on HotScripts and the PHPResourceIndex; however I didn't really have time to go through the thousands of programs they have so did a quick search for "billing system" and went over the first page, and came up with the three above. There are probably loads more, and maybe even better ones available - I'll do a more intensive search when I've some more time though.

I've not tried any of the above, however from some quick glances Account Manager seemed the better one out of the lot. However I'm planning to look into them all more intensively and really see which is the better one out of the lot.


In regards to PerlBill - It looks good, and does get the job done, however it's a bit pricey for what it does at $200. That's why personally I'm leaning closer towards ClientExec, and am also looking at other options.

Anjay,

The problem is that the script is so poorly documented.

There is a header and footer editor included in the script, so they are fairly easy to change, but you actually have to edit the perl scripts to change fonts, etc.

If you are fairly comfortable with perl you should find it relatively simple to modify.

John

We've been using ClientExec for 7 months. Overall I'd say it's a good product. Support has been so so and there have been some big problems. These problems were not enough to make me want to stop using it though.

For the price, I'd say it's definitely worth it. They just released version 2 with many new features.

Still use PP and custom forms + manual accounts (well macros and custom spreadsheets)

I'd love to find the digital accountant but to be honest the stuff is pretty simple in accountancy and best tracked that way.

I looove my WHM Auto pilot, fall creek why didn't you just set it to manual installs, instead of automatic? Do you not screen your orders before set up manually or are you relying on the pay gateway? Just curious. I had tried a couple others but without actually have a pro create a custom script just for my business this to me is the best one. I like all the other features I can implement in it such as invoiceing for other items like script installs, domain registrations that are not part of hosting etc.

Don't get me wrong, I think WHMAP is a great piece of software!


It's not just the auto setup, it's mainly that it does too much.

What I really want is just a billing solution.

Solutions that do everything wear me out setting them up, learning them and worst of all , when something goes wrong life is misery.

John

I'm also a loyal ClientExec fan. It does what I want it to do and that's it! Of course, there are still some items that I think is essential which it lacks; domain registration/charge and basic accounting (such as issuing credits, balances, etc.)

However, the positives far outweigh the negatives (that's why I'm sticking with it). The cPanel integration is working great, although I still validate all orders manually; clean, simple ui (by far the best I've seen) and integrated tt system.

my$.02