someone help.....

I just got a merchant account but i don`t have a order form. Does anyone know of someone who can write one for me?

I didn`t realize that gateway doesn`t provide one like CCBILL does. So i`m completely stuck. All i need is a one page order form where customers can order a hosting plan and be billed monthly. I also offer a reseller program...... how do all the other hosting companies program their order form to bill their resellers?

Don`t you guys use gateway and then have your own order form program which you wrote? And don`t i need to get a ssl (i think it`s called) so i can stick my order form on a secrue area?

this sux

The form is easy.

But you have to know what the URL to the gateway is and what form field names the gateway needs to process the charge.

no wait..... but how do i bill my reseller customers?

So gateway does provide an order form type thing but i just have to customize it?

I understand how the order form knows how to bill my regular customers monthly. But how do i program my order form to bill my reseller customers?

I called authorizenet and talked to the gateway tech support and they said i have to have someone write me an order form in order to be able to do that?

i`m sure this is simple to do......but i don`t know how.

Assuming you're not using a shopping cart, it's my understanding you create a form on an HTML page that contains all the fields required by your CC processor to process a charge (name, full address, phone, CC info etc) and when the SUBMIT button is pressed the form links to the CC gateway for processing. You need to know what field names the gateway requires you to all the fields (not the labels, the field names!) on the form.

As for the resellers, assuming they put in orders on your system too you need some way of indicating on the form it's a reseller order. Or just create a second form only for resellers.

You can't just hack out a good form. You need some thought and upfront prep.

well what are you using to organize your resellers? Is it a master account on a server using WHM or Alabanza's DHM, Site5's Bill Admin? - something else?

I would presume if you're using resellers you have a control panel system devoted to handling their accounts?

In short, give us some info on your setup and we'll see what we can do to help you.

Greg Moore

yikes....i`m totally stuck.
I have a control panel to organize my resellers were i can see how many resellers i have and what date they signed up (i was also going to write it down on paper).
But i`m confused about the billing part. I just got a merchant account and so was told by gateway (authorzienet) that i have to construct my own order form.......but i don`t know how (i know HTML very well, but the codes that make up an order form are really weird looking). And how do i code my order form to bill my resellers since resllers are obviously billed different than regualer hosted members?

Which of these two methods is best?

Virtual Terminal - allows you to manually process mail and telephone credit card transactions, as well as issue credits, just like a real physical terminal, but with the added flexibility of letting you access it from any Internet connection in the world.

WebLink - allows merchants to link their web site to the system in order to accept credit card payments from customers in real-time with complete automation.

Don`t i need to use the virtual terminal method since i have resellers? And is`nt it best to bill all you customers the first day of every month (Jan 1st, Feb 1st, e.t.c). All i want is an easy, reliable billing system but i don`t know how to put it all together. Jeez, this sux.

Ok.

If they control panel doesn't allow for automatic rebilling then you'll need to set up a form to connect to the gateway for AVS, then return the information from that form to you, so you can add it to your records. You enter the information into your records (whether that be notepad or quickbooks etc), and build a list. Once a month you upload a batch file to authorize.net and process the billing.

Pro-rata is where your calculator comes in. Just divide the monthly fee by the days of the month they signed up before the usual billing period and either add it to the monthly fee or charge it on sign up.

If you can't nut out the coding just have the information sent to you directly via e-mail and then manually enter it via the virtual terminal. I have the manuals all printed out here and there is a *lot* of them I know.

there isn't much 'easy' to a merchant account. It does take some time and effort. The added flexibility is worth it though. You're essentially taking away the responibility of your 3rd party processor, and putting it on your own shoulders Phoenix has a programmer lying around with a 'supposed' very good billing system he doesn't think is valuable enough to build out.. I think we should all poke and prod him about i. Some further automation of merchant accounts would be very nice

ah shoot, this is confusing.

I`m used to CCBILL. It was sooo easy with CCBILL. Oh well. I`m not really confused about billing my regular hosted members monthly. I`m more confused as to how to bill my reseller customers. I guess i`m supposed to attach the reseller`s resold accounts to their main account and bill them at the end of the month for all the accounts they have. Wait, don`t you (and all) hosting companies use authorizenet (gateway)?

And i guess i`m not supposed to use the "weblink" method cause that charges a customers credit card immediately, right? So i should use the "virtual terminal" and collect all the info and credit numbers and bill at the end of the month manually.

So basically i just need to have a regular order form for my customers. And if one of these customers is a reseller then i simply add the extra dollar amount to the resellers main account. This is the way to do it, right?

Darn, can`t someone just put together an order form for me? Can`t i just copy and paste CCBILL`s order form`s code and use that order form?

darn

Ouch! Hey! Stop that! I don't like being poked and prodded.

Our supposed very goodly billing system works well for us. But as we were doing our billing from Xcel spread sheets before, pretty much anything was a step up from that disaster.

It runs on our intranet, so I'll talk to the developer the next time he's in a good mood and see if it's possible to set up a demo copy of it facing outward instead of inward.

I'll put together some screen captures and throw them up on my home directory, so the curious can see what it looks like, while I wait for a favorable mood.

One of the many curious features are the Xensei Billing Haiku's. He wrote a whole bunch of them and they are randomly pulled from the database as well.

My favorite:

Your NT co-lo crashed.
I am the blue screen of death.
No one hears your screams.

I just got upgraded to Win ME (new computer, and don't have an old Win 98 disk around), and I know people can here me scream at least once a day.

I would be interested in seeing this billing system of yours as well. I've been poking about looking for one, and as you've seen at WHT there are a lot of other people in the same boat. Billing is one thing I'd be very happy to have a little more automated..

Greg Moore

hey everyone,
check out Ensim and check out their new billing and customer manager: http://www.ensim.com/products/cbm.shtml

I think it addresses all of the woes expressed here. I have not actually used the system, but I have heard it is awesome and takes the pain out of all the management from some of my peers.

Later.