Hey,
Im doing a bit of research at the minute.
Im looking for some suggestions on what hosting companies want in an offline billing system for managing their clients, packages, invoices and anything else which would help the running of your business.

I already have a beta out of software and everything in the beta is now tested and fully functional so its time to add more to it

Please reply with anything you think should be included for management offline and anything you think could be integrated with an offline system, eg. allow customers to edit their account information online, then update the offline program.

I would really appreciate any suggestions as it would be great help in improving the program.

Thanks
John

Hi John,

I dont know if this is possible, but I would like some flexibility with respect to billing...

ie) I would like to be able to charge whatever I want, and not necessarily base it on a plan - lets say I have an offering that I charge on a $/user/month basis - How about if I then set parameters on that - ie) $/user/month + $x for every MB above Y + $x for every GB above Y..

Not sure if this makes sense - and its not a real example in my case - but that sort of flexible billing may make this package attractive to ASP's as well as hosting companies?

Hey Andrew!
Great to see you

Not really sure what you mean...
At first I thought you just meant ability to add custom accounts instead of all being under packages, but then you said about the parameters so not sure what you mean now..
Can you explain it in terms for someone slow like me please?

While it may seem that everyone and everyone's grandmother has plugged into the fast paced world of globalization. Many people do not feel comfortable paying online, and offline payments are their subconscious way of knowing that the money will arrive on time and without any complications. Also the more methods of payment you can offer your clients the more comfortable and safe that they feel, because you have to remember money is the name of the game.

I'll totally agree, but what I don't understand is why people will pick sending money via snail mail over a paypal account. When they have both to use. It is like they would rather risk having their account suspended :-(. do you know what I mean?

I only do a few offline transactions and thats because the people like either in the same country or the UK.
They pay 6 months in advance only to make sure they are covered and dont have to send money very often.
Its cheque they send so doesnt matter if it gets lost.

The things Im thinking of for this arent for offline payments though, its to manage everything offline so you can store your private information offline