New fraud protection module, new functionalities for HostBill Forms, invoices, SSL products and more – that’s what we’ve prepared for you in today’s release!

StopForumSpam plugin

Fraud is well known plague for any online business owner and at HostBill we put every effort to provide you with the tools to detect and automatically block fraud attempts. Our newest addition to the range of fraud protection modules is StopForumSpam plugin. StopForumSpam is a free service that records reports of spam on forums, blogs and wikis. The records are then made available to search, view and access in an automated way to block suspected spammers. HostBill plugin enables to check your customers email in StopForumSpam database and verify orders IPs. The orders from TOR-exit nodes are automatically rejected by HostBill. This way you can effortlessly use this source of information to increase your protection against fraudulent orders!

Components: Forms – hints/descriptions for mutli-item fields

Thanks to HostBill flexible and versatile product configuration options you can enable clients to create the product that exactly meets their expectations. With HostBill Forms you can build flexible products that can be configured during order by supplying additional information and selecting variations. With a variety of field types to choose from, Forms are built to handle the most challenging product configuration.

New option for HostBill Forms enables to add hints/descriptions for multi-item fields (such as dropdown etc). Descriptions are optional and they can be set for each value (as seen below). In client area (order page) the descriptions are displayed below the select form, as an additional description after choosing given value.

SSL services – generating CSR code

When purchasing a SSL certificate clients can provide CSR when placing the order or submit it afterwards. New option allows to generate CSR when placing an order:

Invoices: auto-collections

In HostBill you have the option to automatically move manually issued invoices to Collections status certain number of days after due date. We’re now giving you the ability to override this option per client and/or per client group. It can be set in Client Profile/Client Group -> Settings & Automation -> Billing. We’ve also added new notification emails for admins and clients about moving invoice to collections.

This week we’ve also added a couple of other new features – you can browse them all in our Changelog.

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We’re happy to announce that the SolusIO module is now available also with the post-paid billing model!

Post-paid billing in SolusIO

Recently we have launched SolusIO module, which allows to sell VPS and Application Hosting. At first, the module supported pre-paid billing and now, we’re happy to announce it also supports post-paid billing model.

With post-paid billing customers pay only after the services were provided: they can pay per hour of actually consumed resources (hourly billing) or a fixed monthly price (monthly billing). Unlike pre-paid billing, customers receive access to the part of the SolusIO interface called “user area”.

SolusIO itself doesn’t store the price-related information as it delegates this task to the billing system – in this case HostBill. Every paid feature in SolusIO is tagged not with the real price but with a virtual one, called “token value”. The token is a virtual unit of measurement, which is converted into price after the billing system sends the required price-related information. To show prices, SolusIO interacts with the billing system via API, to get the currency, the currency symbol, and the price in this currency.

Enabling post-paid billing in HostBill module

To use SolusIO module with Post-paid billing model, you must additionally configure “Billing Integration” in the SolusIO panel (you can see the instructions on how to do that in module’s documentation). Once this is configured, you can create your post-paid billed Cloud package. The first step is configuring flavors in HostBill Flavor Manager – this is where you set flavor name and price per hour –  a monthly charge will be automatically calculated based on this setting. Then, when configuring the product you can set the price type to Flavor and configure the frequency of generating invoices, the setup fee and fixed recurring fee to be added to each invoice. In configuration wizard choose Cloud Hosting, with the option where one account in HostBill = multiple virtual machines in SolusIO Resources; set the flavor (as configured previously), the user role and the limit group. Once it all done, the package is ready.

The module provides single-sign-on widget to SolusIO to create and manage VMs. HostBill handles account provisioning, measuring and billing the token usage. HostBill admin area provides SolusIO user details and preview of used hours for each user’s Virtual Machines. Clients can also see see SolusIO used hours for each VM.

The detailed instructions can be found in HostBill documentation.

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New this week: Register.be domain module, DNS Helper tool for DirectAdmin module, improvements for User API plugin, new Client billing contact setting and more! Read on to explore all new features!

Register.be domain module

Register.be is an accredited ICANN registrar offering domain name registration, web hosting and email services. With this HostBill integration you can effortlessly resell Register.be domain names and benefit from HostBill domain automation features: automated registration, transfer and renewal, automated domain synchronization, which allows your staff members to update HostBill domain records with registry details, ie. to make sure that domain renewal/expiration dates are in sync and automated import of the existing domains from registry to HostBill. In client area, customers can manage contact details related to domains they have registered and update nameservers the domain is pointing to.

More about domain automation in HostBill can be found in this blog post.

DirectAdmin DNS Helper

At HostBill we’ve already launched DNS Helpers for cPanel and Plesk modules and now it’s time for DirectAdmin integration!

DirectAdmin DNS Helper is an extension shipped with DirectAdmin module to help you connect your DirectAdmin installations with one of the HostBill-supported DNS services: Power DNS, Power DNS Slave Zones, OnApp DNS, cPanel DNS or any other DNS that HostBill supports.

The instructions on how to install and configure the connection to HostBill can be found in module’s documentation. For the module to work, you need to setup DNS templates to use your actual master nameserver (i.e. DirectAdmin, Power DNS, cPanel DNS) in your DirectAdmin installations. Once the plugin is pointed to your HostBill install, any time a new zone is created / updated / deleted in DirectAdmin, the extension will notify HostBill about it. Then HostBill will decide what to do next. It can either push this zone to real master nameserver or notify secondary nameserver to create/update slave zone and after exporting such zone, HostBill can assign it to the related customer.

In a result slave DNS (any supported by HostBill) will be notified automatically about new zones in DirectAdmin or DirectAdmin DNS will not be used to handle DNS queries, but as a source of data for actual DNS server that handles requests. With this approach you can benefit from flexible & automated DNS templates built into DirectAdmin on any central DNS server you wish to use with it.

Client billing contact 

New feature in client management allows to add client billing contact – details that will be used for payments. By default billing contact is the client account holder, but from now on it can be changed. As you can see, we’ve also improved admin area client profile view:

User API improvements

User API module for HostBill lets your customer gain access to HTTP REST API to enable integrations with third party apps. API is self-documenting, so your clients will have nice, comprehensive documentation of all methods that your API offers. Module enables a multitude of different API calls, giving the end user multiple possibilities.

In today’s release we’ve added a couple of improvements to the plugin. So what’s new? First of all, we’ve added the possibility to choose authorization method: through basic http auth (default) or based on JWT (JSON Web Token). JSON Web Tokens are an open and standard way for you to represent your user’s identity securely during a two-party interaction. That is to say, when two systems exchange data you can use a JSON Web Token to identify your user without having to send private credentials on every request.

We’ve also added available methods call for services to check what functionalities provides given service. New Sign up call enables registration. We’ve introduced Rate limited calls – now admins have the ability to turn on rate limit (limited availability for one IP address) for some of the calls such us signup, register, reset password etc. Another option is meant to bypass 2FA attacks. In User API there is a possibility of an attack/leak when the attacker gets client’s username/password, the client has 2FA turned on and the attacker uses User API to turn off 2FA through editing account details or getting 2FA secret. You can now increase the security by blocking the possibility to turn off 2FA through user API call or not returning 2FA secret in GET/details call.

The post New integration: Register.be appeared first on HostBill Blog.

This time in HostBill release: new functionality added to HostBill Reports – now you can automatically snapshot report data from certain time period!

HostBill reports

HostBill allows you to generate various reports, either using pre-defined templates that can also be customized or optionally you can create your own reports based on your individual needs. Reports give you access to handful information from you HostBill, which can also be presented in a form of a widget on your admin dashboard.

New HostBill functionality allows to create snapshots: generate reports in a given time period and store them on a server and optionally send them to staff. Thanks to this option, you can get historical data, add it to admin area widgets and compare the results in time.

Creating report snapshots

To snapshot report data, in the report details find and choose “Optionally: Auto-snapshot report data”. You can configure the snapshot and select its name, frequency – how often the report should be generated (on demand, daily, weekly, monthly), target – where the report should be generated (saved in database, saved to filesystem for later download or emailed to selected staff members) and data to retain – a number of auto-exports (for unlimited enter 0). One report can have unlimited number of snapshots. When creating snapshot currently selected columns/params/conditions will be used. Changing them after snapshot is created will not affect previously generated snapshots.

Additionally, when generating the report, you can choose the option “Generate report & store results” which will save the results as a snapshot with frequency on demand and unlimited data to retain, saved to filesystem.

All automatically generated snapshots are listed in a new tab: Report Snapshots. In the listing you’ll find the snapshot details including the date when it was created, the date of the last export, and the number of exports created. Each snapshot here can be edited, you will also have the chance to manually generate the report with current values, download the attachments or delete given snapshot.

Reports widgets / series

All reports from Statistics & Reports can be exported into Admin Dashboard Widgets in various forms (data table, pie chart, line graph, bar graph). When editing bar and line graphs you can add new data series to compare other data on single graph (more info in this video). Now, when adding new data series to the report, you can use snapshots instead of defining columns.

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This week in HostBill plenty of news! DK Hostmaster domain module, Utrust and DIBS EasyPayments payment gateways, new options for payments (partial payment, full month billing) and invoicing and more!

DK Hostmaster domain module

DK Hostmaster is the administrator for domain names ending in .dk. DK Hostmaster maintains a part of the infrastructure (DNS) in the Danish internet space and administers a WHOIS database. HostBill integration provides domain automation: automatic registration, transfer, renewal and ability to delete the domain. With this module, customers can Update domain registration contacts, change nameservers the domain is pointing to and manage the domains DNSSEC keys at registry! The module is premium and available for purchase here.

Utrust payment gateway

Utrust is the cryptocurrency payment solution designed to modernize the finance and payments industry and solve the problems of traditional payment methods by offering instant transactions and immediate crypto-to-cash settlements for the merchant. Utrust platform works with all crypto wallets available on the market to give customers unrestricted access to your business. New Utrust payment module for HostBill enables to accept payments using major digital currencies.

DIBS Easy Payments

We’re also happy to inform, that HostBill now supports DIBS Easy Payments payment gateway for collecting payments out of the box. EasyPayments is the new DIBS platform featuring various payment methods in one agreement!

New features

We’re also introducing a couple of new features this week:

Failed payment url

In Miscellaneous Billing Settings in HostBill there is an option to set the url, where the client should be redirected to after submitting payment using offsite processing payment gateway. Now, we also give an option to redirect the client to a given url after client payment failed using offsite processing gateways. You can use built-in “Payment was not completed” page or create your own.

Final number for credited invoices

New option for EU billing method enables to decide whether to create final number for credit-paid invoices. If the invoice was fully paid using credit, you can choose “No” in this option so the invoice will not have the final number but remains as a pro-forma invoice. This can be set in General Settings -> Billing.

Credit Cards: Partial Payment

New functionality for credit card payments allows to make a partial payment only. In HostBill  General Settings -> Billing ->Credit Cards you can decide whether clients can pay only full due invoice amount (by default) or whether clients can define amount to pay, with possibility to set the minimum amount. With the second option on, in client area clients will be able to choose partial payment and specifying the amount they wish to pay. The client can enter the value no higher that the full due amount and not lower that defined minimum amount.

Full month billing

New option in product configuration allows to charge for additional month after first day of the month. With this option on (turned on/off in Product Configuration -> Other Settings) you can create a product that is billed on a per month basis, with no pro rata payments. This means that no matter which date of the month the order was placed, the invoice is for the full month, and no matter when the invoice is cancelled, the client is charged for the full month.

As always, for the full release notes please visit our Changelog section.

The post New modules: DK Hostmaster, Utrust & DIBS Easy Payments and load of new features! appeared first on HostBill Blog.

A lot of news this week! Three new modules to start with: Seafile provisioning module to sell Seafile accounts, Phone.com notification module and hCaptcha plugin. Read on to find out more!

Seafile module

Seafile is an enterprise file sync and share platform with high reliability and performance. It is designed as a reliable cloud file storage and collaboration platform. Seafile provides similar feature set to well-known cloud storage software, while it allows users to host the server on their own hardware. New HostBill integration enables to sell accounts on your Seafile and charge for storage space. All existing Seafile accounts can be automatically and effortlessly imported into HostBill. The account management is fully automated by HostBill, from creation to termination, including automatic downgrades and upgrades. The module supports HostBill Account Metrics feature, which enables to define alerts and custom actions on certain quota. Clients can easily Single-Sign-On to Seafile UI from HostBill client area, view their login credentials, change password and manage their account. Use this HostBill module to expand your business and offer your clients new services!

Phone.com mobile notification plugin

The easiest way to on top of what’s going on in your HostBill is to use one of our mobile notification modules and get notifications straight to your phone! It works for both staff and clients. The admins can get notifications about ticket events, billing events, new orders, incoming payments, failed logins, automation failures – it all can be configured on per staff or per staff team or department basis. Clients can be notified new invoices, ticket replies etc and to send reminders about service expiration or payment dates. In HostBill you can use various service providers to send the notifications, and now our new module enables to use Phone.com service!

As HostBill modules are designed to work together, apart from standard HostBill event notifications, you can use Phone.com module to get notifications from other modules as well, for example Cloud Monitoring (to get notification when the website is down) or SMS Verification (to get verification code).

hCaptcha widget

One of the easiest way to protect user privacy is a captcha solution. At HostBill you can use HostBill’s default captcha, Google reCaptcha and from now on also hCaptcha solution. The hCaptcha widget can protect you from bots, spam, and other forms of automated abuse, by providing captcha image verification upon signup. The plugin is free and available to all HostBill users!

This is not all! The release is also full with new features – you can check the details in our Changelog. We also have another blog post about a new feature coming up – stay tuned!

The post New Seafile provisioning module, hCaptcha and Phone.com plugins and more! appeared first on HostBill Blog.

New functionality in HostBill: Contracts, which enables to define specific terms for each product/service, order or client!

Contracts

Last year we’ve introduced Order Agreements feature, which enabled to add various contracts and agreements to specific products and services. We’re now going a little further and introducing improved Contracts feature. Contracts are automatically generated documents that customer accepts after order (if the order scenario requires this step). The feature is especially helpful for companies that need to sign a specific contract defining all details of the service.

Contract templates, settings and automation

Contract templates can be created in General Settings → Ordering → Agreements & Contract templates. To add a new contract simply provide its name and description (admin only) and edit the template of the agreement, which will be then available for customers in PDF format. You can also add various attachments (loaded from available general-purpose files added in Extras → Downloads). You can use contracts created in this section in product configuration in Other Settings tab.

Each client can have one default contract assigned. In configuration settings you can decide how to proceed upon new order: whether to generate new contract for each new order or to attempt to re-use customer default contract or alternatively decide to not generate contract if its not set in product.

If you go for the first option (Generate new contract for each new client order), each order will have a separate entity contract generated. If you decide to attempt to re-use customer default contract, there are three possibilities:

• if the client has a default contract set, it will be used in this case
• if the client doesn’t have a default contract, new entity contract will be created and set as a default one
• if client orders a product with its own contract template, new contract entity will be created for this product

Contract details & management

Contracts are assigned to a given client, order and account/domain and can be accessed and edited from the client profile or order/account/domain details.

The Contracts section in client profile view lists all contracts assigned to a given customer and gives the ability to create a new one (by clicking on a blue New Contract button). In each contract details you can set/edit Contract number, template, status (Draft, Pending, Active, Expired, Cancelled), expiration date, add a public note, an attachment or admin note (for admins only). You can also view/set if the Contract was accepted, when and at what time.

Invoice merge

Contracts now also have impact on the invoices. In Billing Settings, if you choose one of the options to merge invoices, you can further configure the merge options and choose not to merge services with different contracts, so each service with a given contract will have a separate invoice assigned to it.

More on contract can be found in HostBill documentation. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to comment!

The post New feature: Contracts appeared first on HostBill Blog.

Time to find out what’s on sale in our next Deal of the Month. This March you can get our Ordering and Signup plugins with 15% discount!

15% off on Ordering / Signup plugins

At HostBill we thrive to make the whole customer journey with you as smooth as it can be, hence we provide tools to help you with all aspects of your business. Thanks to our Ordering / Signup plugins you can simplify the signup process and increase sales. Now all of those plugins are 15% off with the code ORDERING2021! The offer is valid from 18th March until 1st April 2021.

Shop at -> https://hostbillapp.com/features/apps/tag/ordering_sign_up/

What’s on sale?

Cart Suggestions plugin allows to monitor client purchasing behavior and display product suggestions in cart. With Order Quote module you can send customized quotations for your products and services. Private Products enables to make your products available only for selected group of customers. With Payment Links you can collect payments faster, without the need to log in. Thanks to the Staff Sales plugin you can reward your staff and add commissions from each sale to your staff members. Cloud Signup module simplifies the signup process and allows signup/login using social-media profiles. AD/LDAP for Staff and for Clients enables authentication using AD/LDAP protocol. And last but not least – the powerful Multi-Brand module, which allows to create unlimited brands to sell your products using one HostBill backend!

The post March Deal of the Month appeared first on HostBill Blog.

New release, new HostBill functionalities! This week we’ve added a bunch of improvements to Admin area: new log, new feature for contracts, login details client function, invoice generation from account automation queue and more!

Admin area

Contracts

Recently we’ve introduced improved Contract feature, which enables to define specific terms for each product/service, order or client. Now, you can add contract details into email/invoice templates. New {contract} template function can be used in email templates and invoice template to dynamically load related contract details such as contract number, creation date, expiration date, status, acceptance date and name of the person who accepted the contract or public notes added to the contract. You get the detailed instructions on how to add invoice details to templates in related article in HostBill documentation.

Configuration log

All actions in HostBill are logged allowing you to keep control over what’s happening in your HostBill. You can easily browse the logs divided into various categories, helping you to quickly find what you are looking for. Newly added Configuration log shows all main configuration changes, with the date, the person who made the change, the setting subject to change and the configuration before and after the change.

Login details client function

Login details is one of many available client functions in product configuration. New functionality allows admins to define the list of form fields to appear in “Login details” client function:

Accounts – generate invoice

In account details admins can generate the invoice from the automation queue section. New configuration settings enable to  update service due date, generate pro rata invoice and set the dates for pro-ratation and decide whether the invoice should be sent to client.

Modules

This week we’ve also updated some of our modules. Gateway Fees plugin now allows to disable gateway fees by admin in a single client profile. Sepa Direct Debit now has the functionality to separate regex to match final invoice numbers. Plesk now supports “No Hosting” option in product configuration.

Curious to find out more? Check the Changelog for details!

The post New release, new functionalities! appeared first on HostBill Blog.

The start of the new week is when the new HostBill release comes out. Continue reading to get to know the details of today’s release.

What’s new?

HostBill provides multiple configuration options to set how your invoices should look like and what information to contain. When downloading invoices, estimates or credit notes HostBill by default automatically adds prefix (business name) to the PDF file name. Now you can disable this feature in Document Templates section in General Settings.

Smart Search is an efficient search tool through your HostBill installation. It searches within tickets, invoices, accounts, domains, orders and clients matching your query. Now, the product search is optional and not default.

Modules’ updates

GoGetSSL module which automates management and provisioning of your SSL certificate offerings now has the ability to display Cert and CA Bundle in client area. New option for OnAPP integration enables to override console URL in app settings. Resello Microsoft CSP has a new possibility to upgrade components. As for the plugins, Google Currency Converter, which is a default currency conversion module in HostBill, now has the ability to select source of currency conversion from two free currency conversion servers.

To find out about the bug fixed this week please refer to our Changelog!

The post New release – what’s new? appeared first on HostBill Blog.

Today’s release comes with a new domain registrar module, a new recurring payment method, a listing page for all order pages available and more!

INWX Domain Registrar module

INWX is a German ICANN accredited domain registrar with over 400,000 domains under management. The product range includes a portfolio of over 2000 different top-level domains (TLDs) as well as hosting and SSL certificates. New HostBill integration allows to automate INWXa domain provisioning and management.

It provides: automatic registration, transfer, renewal and synchronization, which allows your staff members to update HostBill domain records with registry details, for example to make sure that domain renewal/expiration dates are in sync. You can also automatically import existing domains from INWX registry to HostBill and import all available extensions & prices from registry with your price margins. With INWX module you can get premium domain prices on the registration page and register premium domain names. INWX registry API can also be used as a lookup engine for fast and accurate domain searches.

With this module, end customers can easily manage contact details related to domains they have registered with you, get the domain EPP code (which allows to transfer domain out) and change nameservers the domain is pointing to.

Stripe Source SEPA: recurring payments support

Stripe Source SEPA Direct Debit is one of multiple payment methods available for Stripe module for HostBill. Now it supports recurring payments! Recurring charges for this payment method are optional and it can be turned on in module configuration. You can also establish when the payment should be collected. As the module requires mandate reference data, it can be added to the client profile once the module is activated.

Cart homepage / order pages listing

What does your client see, when he enters the cart page in your HostBill? It can be the first available category, when no other has been displayed before. It can be the last visited category. Or it can be a summary of the order (for the multi-cart option), if the order has been previously configured. 

Now, we’re adding a page that will list all available categories (ie. order pages) in a nice, clean and attractive manner. The category tiles will list the category name, optionally description and the lowest price and a link/button leading to the category. In the Theme 2019 for each order page you can choose your icon from the available ones or add your own:

This can be easily set in Theme Editor (in Order pages section), so you can create a nicely looking cart page:

What else?

A bunch of other improvements are also added in today’s release! In admin area it’s now possible to download XML/UBL invoice for pro-forma / non-final invoices. Neustar domain registrar module now supports nameservers management. Realtime Register has a new option in app connection that allows to set a DNS template during a domain transfer. Google Currency Converter has more free and paid API endpoints for currency conversion. That’s not it! Full list of new features and bugs fixes can be found in our Changelog!

The post New INWX module, central cart page and more! appeared first on HostBill Blog.

HostBill is an extremely feature rich and well-developed all-in-one platform for automation, billing, client management and support. However we do understand that even though HostBill is the perfect solution for many online businesses, making a switch from other similar system that you are currently using and migrating all the data might seem overwhelming and a bit of a hassle. We’ve been on the market for over 10 years now and since day one we’ve been asked numerous questions regarding migration to HostBill from competitive billing/automation systems. Over the years we’ve performed dozens migrations and as a result we’ve worked out set of best practices for migration to HostBill, so you can rest assured your data will be safe.

Migration to HostBill

At HostBill we have years of hands-on experience in migrating data from various known systems and versions as well as from some inhouse/custom-built systems and we can migrate literally from anything. Multiple times we’ve performed:

• Migration from Whmcs
• Migration from Ubersmith
• Migration from Clientexec
• Migration from Blesta
• Migration from AWBS
• Migration from OBAS (Odin Business Automation Standard) / PBAS

Migration from Whmcs

For Whmcs migration we currently offer two options:

1. Unmanaged/automated migration using provided import tool + documentation. The migration tool is built to be as universal as possible so it comes with few shortcomings – especially if you use some third party Whmcs modules. It is the most cost-effective solution.

2. Managed/custom migration by our staff. With this approach we quote each migration individually based on a short interview and installation check. We then adjust the migration tool to your specific business case and modules used. This solution with individual approach is more costly and is especially meant for enterprise clients or installations with multiple modules etc.

Each migration is different

Even though we’ve performed migrations from the same billing/automation system multiple times, there are no two exactly the same cases of migration. Each installation comes with different set of modules, different types of products offered and different kind and amount of data stored as well as different versions of software migrated to and from. Taking all of that into consideration we do not provide readymade migration tools to just download and run as it wouldn’t be effective. Instead we treat each migration case individually, with proper attention to every little detail, just as a custom development project, where we carefully examine requirements and expected outcome.

No migration is 100% perfect or hassle-free

During the numerous migrations that we’ve performed we’ve learned that no migration is hassle-free (but we know how to handle it). After migration there is always some data-checking required. This is why we perform migration in iterations: initial migration is a test one for client to check the data (nobody knows your clients and services better than you so you may notice if something does not look the way it should after migration). Then we apply patches to migration tool build for this case. Afterwards, the next/final migration is scheduled and takes place. Since all systems are different in general, there are some updates required after migration. i.e: product configurations, pricing/terms etc.

How migration looks like in practice

Just to give you a head-up of how the migration process is carried on in HostBill, here’s the scenario of how we proceed with each migration case.

First, the customer contacts us using website form or support ticket enquiring about migration to HostBill. Then we review the migration case by asking series of questions such as:

• What entities to migrate (invoices, transactions, clients, accounts, products etc)
• Approximate amount of data to migrate (number of clients, invoices, accounts, domains etc)
• What sort of modules/third party integrations were used in old system (payment gateways, hosting modules, domain modules etc.)
• Is there any additional development required – ie. whether HostBill offers modules used by client in previous system.

After receiving migration case details, we estimate costs and time required for the migration and once we settle the costs, we schedule the migration. Prior to proceeding with migration we do a backup – both HostBill and source system should be backed with client’s in-house backup practices. We can then perform initial / test migration to customer’s HostBill (non-production version, with emails/automation disabled to not disrupt end-client services). Once done, the customer is asked to review data migrated into HostBill. If something is missing/broken/inconsistent we patch our migration tools and re-migrate. Once we’re all happy with migrated data we treat it as final, and suggest for switch-over:

• HostBill automation, emailing, client portal is enabled
• Our customer notifies their clients about new billing system
• Customer disables old billing system (so it would not bill the clients or perform automatic tasks as suspensions/terminations).

Ask for refugee discount!

Switching your business core component to something new is both time and resource consuming. Let’s face it – it’s also scary. We can encourage this move with a ‘refugee discount’ – contact us to learn more!

The post Migration to HostBill – all you need to know appeared first on HostBill Blog.

The list of payment gateways and payment methods available in HostBill has just got bigger! Read the blog post on this week’s release!

Omise payment gateway

Omise is a payments platform offering a wide range of processing solutions for any business needs. Omise provides powerful payment tools, comprehensive risk management solutions, as well as connection to card networks and consumers’ preferred payment methods. Omise enables revenue growth and seamless payment experiences across online, in-store and in-app. Omise gateway is a module built to process/tokenize credit cards. It also supports refunds and recurring charges.

HostBill supports following Omise payment methods:

Internet banking – a payment option based on online banking, representing a substantial percentage in the e-payments mix. The customer completes transactions online in their online banking environment; having funds debited from their bank account right away.

PromptPay – a service offered by participating banks in Thailand enabling you to accept payments from customers through a QR code.

True MoneyWallet – a method allowing to accept payments from Thailand’s number 1 e-wallet, TrueMoney Wallet. End customers can now choose to pay seamlessly just by inputing their phone number and an OTP.

Rabbit Line pay – allows to accept online payments on mobile application and website. Customers paying via Rabbit LINE Pay go through a redirect payment flow. This means they are redirected from your website or mobile application to Rabbit LINE Pay’s secure checkout page where they authorize and confirm the payment.

What else is new?

Sepa Direct Debit module for Stripe now supports recurring payments. Ascio domain registrar has an option to not expire domains that are expiring in Ascio. UserAPI plugin has a new API method to download ticket attachments and two new functionalities: Attachment list in ticket details response and Transaction list in invoice details response. We’ve also added a bunch of new hooks – you will find the details in our Changelog!

The post Omise payment gateway with 4 new payment methods appeared first on HostBill Blog.

April Deal of the Month starts now! Get 15% off on all Email Services modules!

15% off on Email Services modules

For a limited time only all of our Email Services modules are now 15% off with the code EMAIL2021 – enter it during checkout to get the discount! The code is valid until 29th April 2021.

The Email Services modules allow to sell, automate and manage email services with HostBill. With one of those modules you can easily become email services reseller, using HostBill for email services billing and provisioning accounts. Depending on your preferences (and the module chosen) you can charge your customers for number of domains, aliases, mailboxes, outgoing message limit or use other billing model for your business using powerful billing options.

It’s a perfect opportunity to use your customer base and offer them some extra services that they surely need!

What’s on sale?

At HostBill we have a number of Email Services modules available: Zimbra, SpamExperts, Kerio Connect, SmarterMail, Rackspace, OpenSRS.

You can browse the modules and shop at https://hostbillapp.com/features/hosting-integrations/tag/email_services/

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A lot of news this week in our release! New module allowing to sell dedicated servers: Hetzner Robot, improvements to Hetzner Cloud integration, new invoice merging options, update to affiliate commission plans and much more!

Hetzner Robot module

Hetzner Online is a professional web hosting provider and experienced data center operator. It provides high-performance hosting products as well as the necessary infrastructure for the efficient operation of websites. Hetzner Robot is a module that allows to sell Hetzner Dedicated Servers, with advanced automated billing and invoicing.

With multiple client functions available, resellers can allow clients to reboot and reinstall servers, enable rescue mode, manage reverse DNS, manage firewall, display server information and detailed traffic usage – all within HostBill multi-functional and easy to navigate client panel.  The module allows admins to easily connect HostBill accounts with existing Hetzner servers. Administrators control and manage client billing details, account lifecycle and client area functionalities from HostBill admin panel. 

Hetzner Online improvements

Hetzner Cloud module for HostBill allows to sell VPS hosting and resell Hetzner Cloud virtual machines. New updates to the module bring in new functionalities for client area. Client can now view usage graphs (CPU, disk, network), enable and disable rescue mode, reinstall virtual machines, change OS and update reverse DNSAttach/detach ISO. All client area functions availability depends on the admin and can be turned on/off in product configuration.

New invoice merging options

In HostBill we provide multiple options for merging invoices. You can choose to generate separate invoice for each service or automatically merge invoices generated on the same day either regardless of due date or only with the same due date. If you decide to merge invoices, you can further configure the settings and choose not to merge invoices for taxed items with invoices for non-taxed items, not to merge services with different contracts. There also is an option to issue invoice for domain renewal sooner, if customer have invoice for other services issued in renewal month. We have now introduced two new invoice merging options:

• Issue invoice for any service renewal sooner, if customer has invoice for other services issued in renewal month
• Issue invoice for any service renewal sooner, if customer has invoice for other services issued in renewal year

These options can be set in General Settings -> Billing and in clients or client groups overrides.

Affiliates: Ability to change commission type over time

In HostBill Affiliate System you create unlimited and flexible commission plans, with various commission rates. The commission rates can be set depending on the product price or service billing cycle, and can be either a fixed price or a percentage. You can also set plans with recurring commissions, so you can affiliate can get paid each time referred customer pays for service. New option allows to change the commission type and rate over time, so now you mix it up to create the plan best working for you and the affiliates, for example:

• $10 after signup
• 10% after 1 month
• 5% after 3 month
• $0 after 6months

Or any other you come up with!

That’s not it! The OpenSRS module now has a new client function that allows to set a IPS tag for a domain. The Inventory Manager has a smart search added and a new option to delete items in bulk. In AD/LDAP it’s now possible to set the login method per admin. We’ve also added a couple of other functionalities – you can look it up in the changelog!

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This week release is packed with new features! New domain registrar, new payment method for Stripe module, new form field, update to Inventory Manager and much more!

NORid domain registrar

Norid runs the registry for Norwegian domain names. All domains directly under .no are registered Norid. In addition to processing applications the company develops the domain name policy according to the needs of society. HostBill integration allows you to automate NORid domain provisioning and management: automatically register, transfer, delete, renew and synchronize the domain. Client area functionalities allow to manage contacts, manage DNSSEC and update name servers.

Norid requires applicant to confirm/sign declaration prior to domain registration. With HostBill it’s possible to generate such agreement “on-the-fly” with cart data for customer to agree before domain purchase (thanks to the new Form field described below). During module installation new Agreement template will be auto-added in Contract templates. When configuring domain/tld product in HostBill, you can make use of mentioned agreement template. You can read more about it in module’s documentation.

The module is premium – check the details and pricing here.

Stripe ACSS Debit

Stripe module for HostBill already supports multiple payment methods. Now, a new sub-module enables to accept payments using Stripe ACSS Debit. The ACSS – Automated Clearing Settlement System provided by Payments Canada allows Stripe users in Canada and the United States to accept pre-authorized debit payments (PADs) from customers with a Canadian bank account. The configuration guide for this module can be found here.

New form field: sign agreement

HostBill enables clients to configure their products during order by supplying additional information, using wide range of field types. Each filed type can be configured according to your individual requirements. Moreover, some field types (Qty and Multiple Selection Fields) give you the opportunity to use premade fields. You may also import a field type from your files. Now we’re introducing a new field type: Agreement Form field, which allows the client to review and electronically sign/accept  agreement before purchase of product/domain. Contract template can be chosen from the available Contracts or alternatively you can create a new contract template. You read more about this form field in HostBill documentation.

Admin profile (My account) UI preferences

HostBill is a very flexible software that can be configured according to personal preferences and business needs. Admin area view is one of the sections that is used in different ways by different users. New improvement enables admins to set preferred search areas and visible client-related tabs across HostBill Admin UI. In Admin area -> My account you can choose which tabs to display. In Client-related tabs you can select list of tabs related to customer which should appear across your admin UI, such as contracts, accounts, domains etc. In Default search areas you can select smart-search areas that will be by default enabled for you.

Inventory Manager Update

Inventory and Asset Manager module helps you to keep track of every single item your company owns and sell and categorize assets into main categories / item types. With Inventory Manager you can track every item by its manufacturer, vendor, serial number and even physical location in your company. It helps you to create your own structures and manage/resell any asset like software, licenses, hardware, services.

New Inventory Summary tab added with this week’s release lists all inventory items. There is an option to download XLS file with the listing. In settings, in a new summary columns sub-tab you can define the columns, that should appear on the summary listing tab (such as category, name, manufacturer, vendor, price etc.). You can also add custom fields to be displayed on the listing.

New functionality allows to define “custom fields” for items (available in Settings -> Item fields). Admin can add, delete and edit the fields consisting of the name, variable, description, field type. Custom field is assigned to each item. The values for each field can be defined in “Additional details” tab.

2019 theme: Use gravatar in support replies

2019 Theme is the most feature-rich client area themes for HostBill. New option enables to use gravatars in ticket replies. When enabled, instead of an icon there will be a gravatar displayed next to the ticket reply in client area.

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Full list of new features and bug fixes as always is available in the changelog.

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In today’s release we’re introducing a new domain registrar module, improvements to Stripe Intents, new options for product configuration and order auto-cancelling and more!

DNS.lu

DNS.lu is a service coordinated by The Restena Foundation responsible for the management of Luxembourg country code top-level domain (ccTLD): .lu. HostBill integration allows to automate DNS.lu domain provisioning and management: domain registration, transfer, renewal, deletion, synchronization. Client functions available for this module include managing contacts and updating name servers. The module is Premium, you can find out more about its pricing on the featurepage.

Please note that .lu domains do not allow to change registrant, they will charge for domain trade. The .lu domains do not have the EPP code, every domain transfer request will be sent to registrant’s email to confirm. Also,
.lu domains do not allow to renew at any time like many other eu domains, and the max renew period is 1 year.

Auto-cancel unpaid order

In HostBill, one of the available automation options is to cancel unpaid order X days since creation of such order. This can be set in General Settings -> Other -> GDPR/Data Retention and from now on also in Product Configuration -> Automation settings:

Product configuration: allow client to use own domain

A new option in cart enables to block customers from using domains registered outside of current HostBill installation. In HostBill Product Configuration -> Components -> Domains, when turning on the option “Allow using own domain”, you will be able to choose to allow it only if the domain was/will be registered with you.

Stripe Intents 3D Secure

Stripe Intents 3D Secure is one of the payment methods supported by Stripe module for HostBill. New functionality enables to insert card number directly in cart without the need to visit invoice post-order, which will improve and speed up the checkout experience!

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In today’s release we’ve also added some new functionalities to AD/LDAP module (ability to search for users by DN match rather than attribute matching and a simple utility to test-search users for easier configuration), Omise Gateway (support for webhooks), Vies Vat EU (module can now add separate note to invoice if customer is outside EU with tax exempt enabled) and more – the whole list is available in the changelog!

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In today’s release we’re introducing new PayPal Checkout integration, Groups for Registrations Fields and more. Read on to check the details!

PayPal Checkout v2

PayPal Checkout v2 payment option gives your buyers a simplified checkout experience that keeps them local to your website or mobile app throughout the payment authorization process and lets them use their PayPal balance, bank account, or credit card to pay without sharing or entering any sensitive information on your site.

We’re now releasing a new, updated PayPal Checkout integration. This module, the same as the standard PayPal module, enables to turn on/off subscription payments. When a client chooses to pay with PayPal Checkout and clicks on Checkout with Paypal button, a PayPal checkout form will be displayed, allowing the client to authorize payment. Once authorized, the payment will be processed and the client will be redirected to the paid invoice details. More info on module configuration can be found in its documentation.

Registration fields groups

Registration Fields in HostBill allow to define information required upon client signup and stored in client profile.  Here you can define and edit the forms that will be available on sign-up / profile edit. There are few presets to choose from. All entries can be sorted with drag & drop and additional options are available for each field. New functionality allow to divide registration fields into groups (such as: personal information, login information, options etc). A registration field can be assigned either to only one or no group at all. Field groups are only displayed in admin area.

Other news

As for new functionalities, from now on it is possible to set staff members notifications to only inform about failed domain actions. We have also added an option to edit invoice and amount in order details. New options for Proxmox module allow to set custom port in app settings and enable user VM templates management. In Email verification module it is now possible to disable verification form in cart and to to enable default order redirection. If you’re curious to get all the release notes, please visit our Changelog!

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Curious to find out what’s our next Deal of the Month? In May you have the chance to buy HostBill Licenses modules 15% off and start reselling popular licenses for control panels, security solutions, cloud computing apps and more!

15% off on Licenses modules

Each month at HostBill we prepare a special deal for you. This time all Licenses modules for HostBill are available with 15% discount. Use code LICENSES2021 during checkout to apply the discount to your order. The offer is valid until 27th May 2021.

What’s on sale?

Licenses modules for HostBill enable to resell popular licenses for control panels, security solutions, cloud computing apps, Microsoft Cloud products and more. With HostBill, the licenses are provisioned automatically. End clients can display license details and manage their services in HostBill client area for easy access. The Licenses modules category is quite extensive and includes: Buy cPanel, OpenProvider Licenses, cPanel Manage2, Softaculous Licenses, GSuite, Webroot, Plesk Key Administrator, DirectAdmin Licenses, Imunify360/CloudLinux, Resello Microsoft CSP, intY Cascade, R1Soft Licenses, ActiveCampaign Reseller, LiteSpeed Licenses and Rhipe Microsoft CSP modules.

Shop at -> https://hostbillapp.com/features/hosting-integrations/tag/licenses/

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This week new in HostBill: two new payment methods for Stripe integration, new functionalities for DigitalOcean and UpCloud modules and more!

Stripe BACS and Stripe BECS payment methods

Stripe Bacs and Stripe Bacs are payment methods offered by Stripe that enable to accept Direct Debit payments from customers with a bank account – the first one for clients in the UK and the latter for clients in Australia. We’re happy to announce that HostBill now supports both methods to process payments in HostBill out of the box! Bacs Direct Debit and Becs Direct Debit are reusable (which means you can reuse this payment method without authorizing and collecting payment details again), delayed notification payment methods – it can take a few business days to receive notification on the success or failure of a payment after you initiate a debit from the customer’s account. You can find out more about the integrations in HostBill documentation.

Digital Ocean

With DigitalOcean module for HostBill you can resell DigitalOcean droplets and are free to charge for OS templates, regions or droplets size. New features for the integration allow to attach support staff SSH keys when creating VM and to select Private OS Images in product configuration.

UpCloud

UpCloud integration with HostBill enables to sell VPS Hosting by reselling UpCloud instances. With HostBill various billing models and flexible product configuration options you can charge your customers for OS templates, locations or VM plans. We’re happy to announce new functionalities added to the module: the option to inject staff SSH key to customer machines during creation, the option to select machine name source in product configuration and the option to specify custom storage type and size in product.

That’s not all! For all the news from today’s release please visit our changelog!

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