Domain Renewal Notices

Domain Renewal Notices can be configured to be sent by WHMCS leading up to, and after a domain has passed the renewal date. You can use these to remind and encourage your customers to renew their expiring domains with you.

As of WHMCS 5.3.12, in a new installation, Domain Renewal Notices are configured by default to meet the minimum requirements set out by ICANN for Expiration Reminder Notices by a domain registrar. At the time of writing, those are at least twice prior to the next renewal date, and once following it (if the domain remains unrenewed).

You can however customise the intervals at which Domain Renewal Notices are sent in Setup > Automation Settings.

Begin by navigating to Setup > Automation Settings
Scroll to the Domain Reminder Settings section of the page
For each of the 5 possible reminders, you can enter a number of days and select either before or after from the dropdown menu to denote if it's to be sent the number of days specified before the next due date or after it
You can disable any reminder option by setting it to 0 (zero)

An example configuration is shown below where 3 notices have been setup prior to the renewal date at 60, 30 and 7 days, as well as one 3 days after the renewal date (if the domain remains unrenewed). The fifth possible reminder option is disabled by setting it to zero (0).

Renewal Notice Recipients

Renewal notices are always sent to the registered email address of the client that owns a domain within WHMCS.

Registered Name Holder Notifications

Where a registrar module supports it, WHMCS will also send a copy of the renewal notices to the registered name holder as defined in the WHOIS Record for a given domain.

Please Note: This functionality is only available in specific domain registrar module(s) at this time. They include:

Enom

More will be added in due course.

Customising the Renewal Notices

There are two email templates that are used for domain renewal notices. They are:

Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice - Used for notices sent prior to the renewal date
Expired Domain Notice - Used for notices sent after the renewal date (if the domain remains unrenewed)

These can be edited in the usual way in Setup > Email Templates.

For more information on customising email templates, please refer to the Email Templates documentation.

Email Syntax

The renewal reminders provide advanced variables allowing for the customisation of the domain renewal emails sent to clients. Under normal operation the renewal reminder email template can be left as default, but advanced users interested in customising it, the available options are summarised here.

$days_until_expiry - Will show the amount of days left until the domain's renewal date from the date the reminder is sent out.
$expiring_domains - This contains a list of the domains due for renewal "in the next" XX days. This is an array of information containing domainid, name, nextduedate, expirydate and days.
$domains - This is an array populated with the domains information - domainid, name, nextduedate, expirydate and used to show multiple domains details for future reference.

Reviewing Renewal Notices That Have Been Sent

WHMCS maintains an indefinite log of all renewal notices that it sends to provide you with an audit trail which you can refer to, and export if needed.

It can be accessed from any Domains' Management page within the admin area:

Browse to a domain within the admin area
1. Using search, the domains list, or by navigating to a Clients Profile and selecting a domain from there
Towards the bottom of the page, you'll see a Sent Domain Reminders section
If none are listed, no domain reminders have yet been sent for this domain
When domain reminders have been sent, you will see a list containing the following for each reminder that has been sent: date, reminder type, who it was sent to, and the number of days either prior to or after renewal it was sent for. See the screenshot below for an example.

You can export the Renewal Notices log in CSV format for use elsewhere by clicking the Export button shown below the log and then selecting Export to CSV which is available in the tools shown below the report log.

The Renewal Notices log can also be accessed directly via a report which you'll find in Reports > Other > Domain Renewal Emails. The report allows you to apply more detailed filters and includes the ability to filter by registrar as well as for a specific date range.

Note
This feature was introduced in WHMCS 5.3.12. As a result, you will not see this functionality or logs for any renewal notices sent prior to the date you upgrade to 5.3.12.

Documentation