Importing Data

From WHMCS Documentation

Revision as of 00:01, 27 November 2008 by Matt (talk | contribs) (Manual Client Entry)

We understand that the majority of companies already have a billing system in place to manage their hosting clients and are worried by the difficulties of switching to a new billing system. With that in mind, we provide the following guides and automation scripts in order to make importing easy.

Automated Import Scripts

The following are automated import scripts from competing applications so if you are already running one of these switching is easy.

  • Modernbill V4.4.x & V5
  • ClientExec V2.8.x & V3
  • WHMAutoPilot V2.5.x & V3.x
  • AWBS V2.5 or later
  • Lpanel V1.7 or later
  • WhoisCart V2.2.x
  • AccountLab Plus V2.8.x
  • PerlBill (Clients Only)

You can download these from the Import Scripts section of our client area.

Manual Client Entry

To manually import your clients and their hosting accounts, you should use the following steps.

  1. Go to Clients > Add New Client
  2. Fill out the clients details - the minimum required fields are First & Last Name, Email Address & Password
  3. Click Add Client

Once the client has been added, you can proceed to add their hosting accounts. You do this as follows:

  1. On the client summary page, click the "Add New Order" link in the Actions panel
  2. The client will be preselected, so you should fill out the rest of the form - begin by choosing the payment gateway you want the client to pay with
  3. Next, choose the product/service and billing cycle the client pays by
  4. If the package comes with a domain, enter the users domain in the box provided. And if the domain is registered with you, you should select the "Register" option and choose any addons the user has for their domain.
  5. Ensure both tick boxes for sending an order confirmation and generating an invoice are unchecked so the user is not emailed about the order you are adding
  6. Finally, set the Order Status dropdown to Active and then click the submit button to add the order to WHMCS
  7. You will now been shown the order screen summarising the details of the order you just added
  8. Now as the final step, you must go into the products and/or domains page and set the correct next due date. To do this, from the order screen, click on the link in the Type column of the items ordered - this will take you straight to the details screen. From there, you can edit the next due payment date (and for hosting accounts select the correct server and enter the username for the account to allow suspensions & terminations to be performed by WHMCS)

To add a domain on it's own without a product, follow the steps below:

  1. On the client summary page, click the "Add New Order" link in the Actions panel
  2. The client will be preselected, so you should fill out the rest of the form - begin by choosing the payment gateway you want the client to pay with
  3. Leave the Product/Service dropdown menu set at None
  4. Enter the domain in the Domain text field and select Register as the Domain Registration Option (even though you aren't intending to register it today)
  5. Choose the number of years you next want the client to be invoiced for at the time of renewal and tick any addons the user has for their domain
  6. Ensure both tick boxes for sending an order confirmation and generating an invoice are unchecked so the user is not emailed about the order you are adding
  7. Finally, set the Order Status dropdown to Active and then click the submit button to add the order to WHMCS
  8. You will now been shown the order screen summarising the details of the order you just added
  9. Now as the final step, you must go to the domain's information page to enter the correct next due and expiry dates aswell as selecting the registrar the domain is registered with if using one of the built in registrars. To do this, from the order screen, click on the link in the Type column of the items ordered - this will take you straight to the details screen.

You have now finished adding your client. By following the steps above, your client will have not been notified that you've added them and will now be invoiced by WHMCS prior to the next due date for the items you have added to their account.

WHM/cPanel Import Script

The WHM Import Tool can be accessed using the Utilities menu. This will allow you to import accounts from your existing cPanel/WHM servers. It can save hours of time and is very easy to use. Here is how:

  1. You must first ensure you have setup the server you wish to import accounts from in Configuration > Manage Servers
  2. Next, go to Utilities > WHM Import Script
  3. Now choose the server you want to import accounts from in the dropdown box
  4. A list of the accounts on that server will now be displayed
  5. From here you can select the accounts you wish to import - you can select all the accounts by clicking the checkbox in the header row
  6. Then simply click the Import button at the bottom of the page an the accounts will be imported

Accounts created by the import will be created a client account with the name "cpanelusername Owner" and a random 7 digit password. Domains and their usernames will then be imported and they will be assigned to the correct server and package in WHMCS. Intially all accounts will be set as free accounts and you will need to go through and specify their various pricing information and payment methods. The data imported by the import tool will mean that all the cPanel account functions are possible including Suspend/Unsuspend/Terminate & Change Password.

Quite often you will then need to move the accounts around and group more than one domain under one client. To do this, see the "Moving a Product/Service to another Client" article in the Products Management section.

Common Errors

Import Failed - This error occurs when an account cannot be assigned to a package in WHMCS. This happens when there is no package setup for the WHM Package Name in WHMCS. Before performing an import, you must ensure you have setup all the packages in use on the server by accounts you are wanting to import on a package in WHMCS. To do this, go to Configuration > Products/Services, create or edit an existing product and enter the WHM Package Name such as "demohost_Starter" in the Package Name field on the modules settings tab.