ModernBill – An Automated Billing Solution for Web Hosting
Billing is one of the many challenges that confront web hosting providers. There are just so many things to keep track of.customer profiles, invoices, credit card charging, etc. etc. etc.
But unlike businesses of old when everything was done on paper, you now have the added option of automating the billing process using a variety of software applications in the market that are designed specifically for this function.
One such automated billing software, designed for web hosting operations, that you might want to consider is ModernBill by ModernGigabyte LLC(Version 4.1.3 Build 2 is it’s latest stable release).
Here are some of the reasons why:
It allows your customers (via the end-user login feature):
* automatic sign up for your services
* to create invoices
* real-time domain registration at signup with the following registrars:
o Enom
o OpenSRS
o OnlineNIC
o SRSPlus
o EmailRegister
* view and manage their domains
* view and upgrade/downgrade their package(s)
* add features to their accounts in a self-service fashion
* pay for invoices online through the following gateways:
o Authorize.net
o QuickCommerce.net
o eProcessingNetwork.net
o EchoEFTSecure
o BluePay
o Pay Flow Pro
o CyberCash
o Linkpoint
o USAePay
o Propay
o Firepay
o eWAY
o PSIgate
o PlanetPayment
o 2Checkout
o Paysystems IBA
o PayPal
o WorldPay
* read news
* get support (read ModernGigabyte’s Support Policy)
It will allow you (as the web host) to:
* automatically charge clients credit cards (cc)
* keep an automatic ledger of all of your accounts
* control of many server functions automatically with its integration with the following server modules/control panels:
o Plesk
o C-Panel
o Ensim
o Hostopia
o DirectAdmin
o Custom
* view your entire business from just one page (via its dashboard feature)
* Auto-Suspend (and Unsuspend) delinquent accounts
* offer customized billing via its Ala Carte Billing option
* have automatic Bandwidth Billing
* reconcile all of the customers accounts to a single account via Account Merge
* group servers to maximize inventory
* assign packages to a group of order forms to allow continuity across the product offerings
* offer free domains
It supports:
* Linux Servers (Windows coming soon)
* MySQL database
* PHP development code (Developer Version available)
* RC4 credit card encryption algorithm (support for other encryption methods coming soon)
General Features include:
* Professional Graphical Interface
* Web Based Access and System Configuration
* Multi-lingual Support
* Integrated Order Form
* 100% Automation
* Installation Wizard (with New Manual)
* Reporting
* Statistical Charting
* Auto-installing Modules
* Migration Tools
New modules include:
* Kanoodle (“Pay-Per-Click” Search Engine)
* FraudGuardian (Fraud Scoring System)
* MBAlert (System-tray Monitoring Utility)
* Subscriptions (In Development – Database)
* Forum Accounts
* OnlineNIC
* SRSPlus
* Protx (Direct)
* USAePay
* Propay
* Firepay
* DirectAdmin
Plus enhanced modules for:
* Plesk
* Cpanel
* Ensim (In development, will support Resellers)
* Enom
* Paypal
The following WebHosting Talk (WHT) (www.webhostingtalk.com) forum threads offer added information about the software:
* if your thinking of using modernbill, think twice
* Moderbill (sp)
* Storing Credit Cards in Modernbill?
Some highlights:
* although it’s a great software, its support isn’t
* had a problem with 2checkout in june2003
* simple/straight forward ordering steps
* confusing configuration
* encryption strength (you choose the length of encryption key, and meets encryption type of Visa, MasterCard and other major cc companies)