Ask HN: Client hosting billing web app

1 points by ollierattue 14 years ago | 5 comments

Hey everyone,

I feeling itchy and want to build another SAS web app. Instead of going for the build it and they will come approach, I have decided to get some early validation of my idea.

I worked at web agency which always had problems with client hosting billing. I often found clients on the server who hadn't paid anything for years. Now most invoicing web applications have recurring invoices but with lots of clients and websites it becomes a faff to track the payments. So I'm wondering if there is space for a a super simple client hosting billing web app for web agencies.

1. Enter you client name, domain name, monthly / yearly price.

2. Client gets an email and sets up recurring payment via PayPal.

3. If payment fails you get a notification and can manually take action.

I also run a web app called Flaregun (http://getflaregun.com) which monitors domain name expiry and SSL certificate expiry. It's like an insurance policy for web agencies. These features would be included as 'perks' to make it stand out from other general billing / invoicing tools.

If you charge clients for hosting it would be great if you could answer a few quick questions and share your thoughts on the idea:

1. How did / do you bill your clients for hosting? Do you use software or raise invoices manually?

2. If you use software which do you use? Is your solution satisfactory?

3. Is online recurring payment a major benefit? I presume the pain of sending out individual invoices for client hosting is that you then need to track and chase payments which is time consuming.

4. Do you bill monthly or yearly?

5. Would you pay for the above automated billing system? If so how much? If not why not?

Thanks for your time,

there 14 years ago |

but with lots of clients and websites it becomes a faff to track the payments

how can it be difficult to track payments? either an invoice is paid or it isn't.

for the billing system i wrote and have used for years (http://corduroysite.com/), the home screen lists outstanding bills, outstanding invoices, and open projects. if an invoice is past due, it stands out in red, and (optionally) customers are emailed every n days past its due date.

but to answer your questions,

1. i use corduroy, add recurring services to each customer account, it generates invoices for all recurring services billed on a given date (monthly, yearly, etc.) and emails the customer an invoice. if they have a credit card on file, the card is charged, the invoice is paid, and the customer is emailed a paid invoice receipt instead.

2. corduroy, yes.

3. yes.

4. monthly for pretty much all services (email hosting, web hosting, pbx hosting, server support contracts, etc.). domain registrations are added as yearly services, so when recurring billing runs that one month, it will add the yearly registration and monthly hosting on the same invoice.

5. yes, but it wasn't available at the time i wrote my system so i made my own.

ollierattue 14 years ago | |

but with lots of clients and websites it becomes a faff to track the payments

-> how can it be difficult to track payments? either an invoice is paid or it isn't.

50 clients all making payments on a monthly basis. Reviewing your bank account for payments, marking invoices as paid (harder to differentiate if they are all the same amount). That's a faff. Setting up recurring billing via PayPal with auto-invoice marking as paid removes this.

It looks like Corduroy allows clients to pay for their invoices via credit card online. Is this correct? Can they setup a recurring payment via credit card?

Thanks,

there 14 years ago | | |

yes, corduroy supports recurring billing with credit cards, but currently only with braintree (cards are not stored in corduroy's database for PCI compliance, so it requires a braintree account with a vault).

customers can login and see their invoices and do one-time payments as well as manage their stored cards.