Products and Services

From WHMCS Documentation

Revision as of 10:05, 20 September 2021 by John (talk | contribs) (Pricing)

You can configure products at Configuration () > System Settings > Products/Services or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Products/Services > Products/Services.

Watch the video tutorial for this feature Configuration Service: Have our team configure WHMCS for you.Services

Product Groups

Product groups organize products on the order form. Each group has a separate page, and you can group products in categories or across several pages. For example, you may wish to list your shared hosting plans separately from reseller plans. Clients can switch between groups on the order form or you can link to them directly (see Links below).

To create a product group:

  1. Click Create a New Group.
  2. Enter a Product Group Name. This will display on the order form.
  3. In WHMCS 8.0 and later, enter the desired product group URL in URL or use the default generated product group URL. For more information, see Friendly URLs.
  4. Enter a Product Group Headline and Product Group Tagline.
  5. To specify a template other than the default template, select a template from Order Form Template. Normally, all product groups use the system default order form template that you specify in General Settings.
  6. Check Available Payment Gateways to choose the payment gateways to offer on the checkout page for products in this group.
  7. Check Hidden to hide the group on the order form.
  8. Click Save Changes.

To edit the group at a later date, click the corresponding edit icon in the Products/Services list.

To customize display sorting, see Sorting.

Products

To create a new product:

  1. Click Create a New Product.
  2. Choose a Product Type. You can choose from the following product types:
    • Shared Hosting — Use this type for products that will provision a shared hosting account.
    • Reseller Hosting — Use this type for products that will create a reseller hosting account (for example, a cPanel reseller account).
    • Server/VPS — Use this type when selling a server (for example, VPS or dedicated). The client must select a hostname, root password, and nameserver prefixes when they order this product.
    • Other — Use this type for anything that isn't a hosting product (for example, software licensing). Product types do not affect billing in any way. However, depending on the assigned server module, they may affect behavior and the Client Area service details page (including login options).
  3. Select a Product Group.
  4. Enter a Product Name.
  5. In WHMCS 8.3 and later, enter the desired product URL in URL or use the default generated product URL. For more information, see Friendly URLs.
  6. Select a Module. For example, for hosting plans on a Plesk server, select Plesk.
  7. Toggle Create as Hidden to hide or show the product on the Client Area order form.
  8. Click Continue.
  9. Configure the tabs on the page that appears. For more on these tabs, see the sections below.
  10. Click Save Changes.

To edit the product at a later date, click the corresponding edit icon in the Products/Services list.

To customise display sorting, see Sorting.

Details

The Details tab contains general information about a product, including its name and product group:

  • Product Type, Product Group, Product Name, and, in WHMCS 8.3 and later, URL — For more information, see the Products section above.
  • Product Description — Detailed information that relates to this product on the order form.
    • The system maintains line breaks when you format a description.
    • When using HTML, we recommend avoiding new lines unless you want them to appear in the end result.
    • When the key: value format is used in the description, WHMCS will apply the Feature Highlights styling.
  • Welcome Email — The email template to send when activating the product. You can create custom email templates to use on different products. For more information, see Email Templates.
  • Require Domain — The domain registration option when ordering the product. Always enable this for hosting and disable it for other products that don't require a domain name.
  • Stock Control — The available quantity of an item (for example, servers) or a limited special-offer product. Check this to enable the limit, and then enter the remaining quantity. WHMCS will stop orders when it reaches zero.
  • Apply Tax — Whether to apply tax rules to this product. For more information, see Tax/VAT Rules.
  • Featured — Whether to display a product more prominently. This option is only available on some supported order forms.
  • Hidden — Whether to show the product on the order form. Customers will still be able to order this using the direct order links.
  • Retired — Whether to hide the product from Admin Area menus, like the product menu in the client's profile.

Pricing

The Pricing tab lets you specify the prices and active duration of the product.

Price Grid
  • Payment Types — Select Free, One Time, or Recurring. If you select One Time or Recurring, the pricing grid will appear. Enable the desired billing cycles by checking Enable.
    • For One Time products, enable One Time/Monthly and enter your prices into that column.
    • For Recurring products, check Enable for the billing cycles that you want to offer with the product.
    • For Setup Fee in each column, enter any setup fees for a given billing cycle. For example, you may charge setup fees on monthly cycles and offer free setup for yearly cycles.
  • Allow Multiple Quantities — Select whether clients can order multiple instances of this product on the checkout page. The product cannot require additional configuration (like product custom fields or configurable options).
    • No — Disables the option to specify a quantity for this product.
    • Yes - Multiple Services — Each unit represents its own individual service instance. For example, specifying a quantity of 10 will create 10 service records upon ordering, each with its own price based on the product price. The service Recurring Amount is equal to the product price.
    • Yes - Scaling Service — Each service instance allows a quantity to be defined. For example, specifying a quantity of 10 will create one service, with the product price multiplied by 10. This is stored in the service's Recurring Amount field.
  • Recurring Cycles Limit — For Recurring payment types, the default value (0) will invoice indefinitely until cancelled. However, by entering a value in this field, you can limit the number of times clients will be invoiced for this product. For example, entering 5 on a monthly product prevents the system from generating an invoice in the 6th month after ordering.
  • Auto Terminate/Fixed Term — You can set up products that automatically terminate after a set number of days from the service's registration date.
    • To enable this, enter the number of days to wait before terminating. Then, choose an email template to send to the client when termination occurs (for example, confirmation of completed payment for installment payments).
    • Set this to 0 to disable this feature.
    • Entering a number in this field terminates the product when the cron job runs that many days after the product registration date.
    • Use this to offer free trial products for a certain period of time or time-limited products that should only recur for a certain number of cycles before stopping.
  • Termination Email — If you entered an Auto Terminate/Fixed Term value, select an email to send to the client at product termination.

Note:
Termination Email only includes custom product-type email templates. For more information, see Email Templates.

  • Prorata Billing — This allows you to bill products on a specific day of the month and charge a prorata amount at the initial time of order. If you check this, the system will charge all clients on one specific day each month. Otherwise, the product will use the default anniversary billing system (for example, Jun 15–Jul 15). Changes to this setting apply to new orders only.

Note:
Prorata billing is not compatible with free domains or having domain renewal invoices that the system generates further in advance than other products.

  • Prorata Date — The specific billing date for all sales of the product. If you set this to 1, the system will charge all clients on the 1st of each month.
  • Charge Next Month — After this day of the month, the system will also charge a client for the next month in their initial payment when signing up on a monthly billing cycle.
    • If you don't enable this, you set the prorata date to 1, and a client signs up on the 30th of the month, they would only pay a small amount.
    • If you enable this, they would pay the prorated amount plus the next month in advance.
    • To prorate a product but not enable this feature, set Prorata Date to a normal value and set Charge Next Month to 32.

Module Settings

This tab specifies which server type the product will use and how WHMCS will behave when someone orders this product.

  • From Module Name, select the type of server you're using. If a product has no specific module to link to, set it to Autorelease to simulate activation and send a welcome email.
  • Select your desired options. The options you will see depend on your module. For more information, see the Provisioning Modules section.
  • Select an automation setting for product activation:
    • Automatically setup the product as soon as an order is placed — Set the product up instantly. Generally, use this for free products.
    • Automatically setup the product as soon as the first payment is received — Set the product up when the customer pays for the order.
    • Automatically setup the product when you manually accept a pending order — Set the product up after an admin has manually reviewed and accepted the order.
    • Do not automatically setup this product — Never set the product up automatically. Admins can still initiate setup manually from the product details page under a client's profile.

Metric Billing

Usage-billing-module-settings-metric-config-83.png

Metric Billing
Metric Billing displays when you select a module that supports this feature (WHMCS version 7.9 and above).

To enable a metric for billing or display purposes, set the toggle to On. If you enable a metric, it will appear within the client's product details view of the Client Area. Within the Admin Area, an admin will always see all metrics, enabled or disabled, when viewing a service for a product that reports metrics.

To configure pricing for a metric, click Configure Pricing.

For usage and configuration instructions, see Usage Billing.

Custom Fields

From this tab you can create custom fields for this product. This allows you to collect additional order form information that you need to supply the product.

  • Field types consist of textboxes, menus, checkboxes, link or URL fields, and password fields. Text in password fields appears as asterisks (****).
  • You can set fields as admin-only for private data, required or optional on the order form, displayed on the order form, displayed in the Client Area, or displayed on invoices (for example, VAT numbers).

For more information, see Custom Fields.

Configurable Options

Use this tab to select the configurable options to associate with the product. You can display them on the order form or in the Client Area. Configurable Options are options that alter the price of the product.

For more information, see Addons and Configurable Options.

Upgrades

Use this tab to specify whether the client can upgrade or downgrade from this product to another. WHMCS can fully automate upgrades and downgrades for many of the modules.

  • Select the products that the product can be upgraded or downgraded to.
  • Use Ctrl+Click to select multiple products.
  • Check Configurable Options to enable upgrading configurable options, if there are any on the product.
  • Select an Upgrade Email template to use when a client upgrades to this product. You will first need to create a new product email template under Configuration () > System Settings > Email Templates.

For more information, see Automated Upgrades and Downgrades.

Free Domain

Use this tab to configure the offer of a free domain with a product. WHMCS lets you offer free domains with your packages when customers purchase them with certain payment terms. For example, you might want to offer a free domain when someone purchases a package annually.

  • For Free Domain, choose whether and how to offer a free domain.
  • Select one or more Free Domain Payment Terms to set the billing cycles that are required for a product to receive a free domain.
  • Select one or more Free Domain TLDs to set which TLDs can be used for a free domain.

For more information on how to configure this, see Offering Free Domain Registration.

Other

Use this tab to set miscellaneous settings such as product affiliate rates, product downloads, and overage billing.

  • Custom Affiliate Payout — Select whether to provide a percentage of the price, provide a fixed amount per sale, or disable commissions.
    Note:
    Selecting No Commission disables commissions for the product. This setting overrides the default commission. However, if you configure either the affiliate or product commission to one-time, that selection will override this setting.
  • Affiliate Pay Amount — The percentage or amount paid for a purchase of this product, depending on your choice for the setting above.
  • One Time Payout — Whether to prevent subsequent commission payments when the product renews.
    • If you do not check this, the affiliate will receive a commission every time that the product renews.
    • If you did not select Fixed Amount, set Affiliate Pay Amount to 0.00.
  • Subdomain Options — Enter a domain in the format .yourdomain.com to offer a free subdomain for the domain at signup. You can offer more than one by entering a comma separated list (for example, .yourdomain.com,.yourdomain.net).
  • Associated Downloads — The files to automatically release to the customer when the product is activated.
    • Click Add Category to create a new category of downloads.
    • Click Quick Upload to upload a new file.
    • For more information, see Product Downloads Distribution.
  • Overages Billing — Enable billing for the product based on disk and bandwidth usage for the month. For more information, see Disk Space and Bandwidth Overage Billing.
  • Soft Limits — Enter the soft limits for Disk Usage and Bandwidth.
  • Overage Costs — Enter the overage costs for Disk Usage and Bandwidth.

Links

Link-tab-urls-83.png

Use this tab to view the URLs that direct visitors to a product.

  • When a visitor accesses the Direct Shopping Cart Link, Direct Shopping Cart Link Specifying Template, or Direct Shopping Cart Link Including Domain URLs, the product will automatically be added to the shopping cart and the visitor will proceed automatically to the configuration step.
  • When a visitor accesses the Product Group Cart Link URL, the visitor will go directly to the product group page.
  • When a visitor accesses any of the URLs in the Product URLs, they will be redirected to the Direct Shopping Cart Link URL.
    • Each time that a new visitor accesses the link, the Visits count will increase.
    • To delete a product URL, click the corresponding red delete button.
      • You cannot delete the active URL.
      • When you delete a product URL, the URL will become nonfunctional.

For more information, see Linking to WHMCS and Friendly URLs.

Sorting

You can sort groups and products using the crosshair icon in the appropriate row. This is on the left for groups and on the right for products.

Drag and drop sorting.png

After moving, a success message will appear on the top right of the page to confirm that the system saved the sort order. It is not possible to move products between groups using the drag-and-drop method.

Feature Highlights

Feature highlights allow you to define features and their values for products in a way that WHMCS can interpret for comparison-based display.

The system supports Feature Highlights for most order form templates. For more information, see Standard Order Form Templates.