Well! Last couple days I have been busy developing our own unique software. How many others agree with this?





P.S. I like this smilie...

I totally agree with this, in fact we have been doing the same.

When you develop your own, you have more control of it's functionality, you have more control over what you can do with it, without someone telling you what you can do with it.

Our software has taken about a month now, as we're including billing, support, sales, stats, and signup.

which did you guys find the hardest was to develop? We just finished setting up (our section) the Signup form and it took a couple days, though it is pretty extensive. Total script size for the signup section is 3000 lines.

Billing all the way lol

The billing area has to be calculated into the following:

- new signup rates, if the amount in the dbs does not match the amount paid....no account.
- If the client doesn't pay....add it to their bill, for a total amount due
- If they don't pay after 30 days, suspend their account and tack on the non-payment fee.
- Create an invoice for each client
- Keep track of paid and unpaid invoices
- and DO IT ALL AUTOMATICALLY.

The billing by far is the hardest portion of the software thus far.

The most important thing about doing this is security. Wouldn't want people to find an exploit and access your db

exactly.

There are downsides of writing your own.

You have to worry about all of the features working properly, etc....but you also have to worry about security first.

For the record, the original post isn't really a question... It's more of a confusing statement

Anyway, I have nowhere near the coding skills to code my own, although at some point in the future I hope to hire someone for that specific job

"How many others agree with this?" that seems like a question to me

Agree with what? How many people agree with the fact that he's coding his own billing panel? Who's so far removed from reality that they'd actually disagree with his statement?

There's really no need to bash his phrasing, as its obvious about what he was inferring. Anyway, while I'm at it, I might as well chime in on this topic, namely the security aspect. Writing your own software does need to be very secure, but if you do it right, and you know that you did it right, then you should be much more relaxed than relying on a script that you have no idea about how it works. Just my 2 cents on that issue.......

I wasn't really bashing, just pointing out

I would make sure you test the heck out of your scripts. We made our first billing system in house for hosting about 4 years ago, it grew and grew and over the years found alot of oops here...oops there...it was always a work in progress....

Have since finished the new software and I must say its the best thing we've ever done. Its great to be able to very easily make modifications to it and add new features.
I've also had the pleasure of building another host's support system as well since then and in the end the cost for them wasn't too much.

Good to hear. Thread closed (too old).