Managing Billing and Invoicing in WHMCS

WHMCS is a powerful client management, billing, and support solution for online businesses. One of its most critical functions is its ability to automate invoicing and payment collection. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to configure billing on your WHMCS installation.

Step 1: Initial Configuration

Before you can bill anyone, you need to tell WHMCS about your company and how you want to handle payments. Navigate to Setup > General Settings in your WHMCS admin area.

• General Tab: Fill in your Company Name, Address, and Email. This information will appear on your invoices.
• Localisation Tab: Set your default country and timezone.
• Ordering Tab: Configure your terms of service URL and default order statuses.
• Domains Tab: Configure domain registration options if you plan to sell domains.
• Invoices Tab: Set your base currency (e.g., USD, EUR, PKR) and enable PDF invoices. You can also define your sequential invoice numbering format here.

Step 2: Set Up Payment Gateways

Payment gateways are the services that process your clients' payments (e.g., PayPal, Stripe). To get paid, you need to configure at least one.

1. Go to Setup > Payments > Payment Gateways.
2. Click on the "All Payment Gateways" tab to see a list of available modules.
3. Find the gateway you want to use (e.g., PayPal Checkout, Stripe) and click to activate it.
4. On the next screen, enter the API credentials provided by your payment processor. Each gateway has different requirements, so follow their documentation carefully.
5. Save your changes. You can activate multiple gateways to give your clients more payment options.

Step 3: Create Your Products & Services

Products are the items or services you sell, such as hosting plans. You need to create them before WHMCS can generate invoices.

Creating a Product Group

1. Navigate to Setup > Products/Services > Products/Services.
2. Click "Create a New Group".
3. Give the group a name (e.g., "Web Hosting", "VPS Plans") and click "Save Changes".

Creating a Product

1. On the same page, click "Create a New Product".
2. Select the Product Type (e.g., Hosting Account) and the Product Group you just created.
3. Enter a Product Name (e.g., "Web Starter Plan").
4. Go to the "Pricing" tab. Enter your prices for different billing cycles (e.g., Monthly, Annually). You can set a one-time setup fee if you wish.
5. Go to the "Module Settings" tab. If this is a hosting plan, select the server module (e.g., Plesk, cPanel) and choose your server. This step is crucial for automating account creation.
6. Explore other tabs like "Upgrades" and "Custom Fields" to further customize the product.
7. Click "Save Changes". Repeat for all the plans you offer.

Step 4: Configure Automation Settings

This is where the magic happens. WHMCS can automate your entire billing workflow.

1. Go to Setup > Automation Settings.
2. Invoice Generation: Set how many days before the due date an invoice should be generated for recurring services. A common value is 14 days.
3. Payment Reminders: Configure reminder emails to be sent if an invoice is unpaid.
4. Overdue Notices: Set up reminder emails for invoices that are past their due date.
5. Suspension & Termination: Configure automatic account suspension for non-payment (e.g., 5 days after due date) and termination (e.g., 30 days after due date).

Important: For automation to run, you must set up the WHMCS Cron Job on your server. Please see our separate knowledge base article on how to configure the WHMCS Cron Job.

By following these steps, you will have a fully functional billing system ready to accept orders, generate invoices, and process payments automatically. This allows you to focus on growing your business while WHMCS handles the day-to-day billing tasks.