System Utilities

Link Tracking

The link/ad tracker tool is designed to allow you to track your advertising campaigns. The way it works is that you can setup the various links you want to use and then instead of linking directly you use the tracking link WHMCS gives you. It then tracks the number of click throughs you get and ultimately conversions using a cookie, providing an easy way to analyse how successful different promotions and links are.

How does it all work? When the click passes through WHMCS the system increments the count by 1, but also sets a cookie on the users computer to say they used that link. Only the latest link they used is ever stored so a conversion never counts more than once, and the cookie lasts for 3 months, so if a user then places an order with that cookie still present on their computer, then the conversions count for that link increases.

How to add a tracked url

Begin by going to Utilities > Link Tracking
Click "Add a New Link"
Enter a name to identify the link and then the URL the user should be forwarded to when followed
Click Add Link
The link has now been added for tracking

How to get the URL to use for tracking

After adding the url for tracking, click the edit icon next to it
The Link/URL field on the edit page will show the link you need to use - eg. http://demo.whmcs.com/link.php?id=1
You then just link to that URL from wherever you run the promotion

How to monitor the links

To see how your links are doing, just go to Utilities > Link Tracking
It then lists the links you've setup for tracking, the number of clicks each has had and the number of conversions (orders)

Browser

The browser section allows you to have a communal list of links/favorites that all your staff have access to - for example you might add bookmarks for your domain registrar login page, server bandwidth monitoring pages, server tech support team, etc...

Calendar

The calendar lists all pending, active and suspended products, addons and domains on the dates they are due. It allows you to easily see at a glance upcoming payments. It also shows domains expirying for each date.

You can also add your own events and tasks to the calendar. These can be either one time events or regular recurring events (eg. server payments, admin tasks, etc...). To add an event, simply double click the date you want to add it on.

To-Do List

The to do list allows you to add tasks that need to be carried out, the dates they are due for completion by and the admin they are assigned to. To-Do Items can also have an unlimited length description for storing additional information about the task. Due items are shown on the admin homepage.

Activity Logs

WHMCS logs all activity, admin logins, gateway communications, sent and received email communications and domain lookups. This allows you to monitor and track all the activity taking place inside your WHMCS system. The logs can be found in the Utilities menu and include:

Activity Log
Admin Login Log
Gateway Log
Ticket Mail Import Log
WHOIS Lookup History Log

Over time, log records in your WHMCS System will build up. As the number of records grows, so will your database and you may begin noticing a reduction in performace. Luckily however, WHMCS allows you to empty these logs any time you like should they start affecting performance. You can see the size of your database by going to Utilities > Database Status. To empty your logs, use the following steps:

Login to your WHMCS Admin Area
Go to Utilities > System Cleanup
You will then see options to empty each of the 5 log tables listed above
To empty a log table, simply click the Go button next to that table
A confirmation message will then appear confirming the log table has been emptied

Database Backups

The database is where all your WHMCS data is stored and so is very important. It is therefore recommended that you take regular backups of it. There are 2 built in solutions for automated backing up the database using the daily cron - one is email and the other is an FTP backup to a remote server. These can be configured in Setup > Database Backups. You can use both of these options together if you wish to receive an email and have the file uploaded by FTP.

When configuring the FTP backup, the default port is used if one is not defined. You can define a custom port by putting ':' after the hostname/IP followed by the port number.