How should billing work in ISPC3

[redray]

I need billing capabilities in ISPC3. My question is: "Is there a plan how billing should be implemented in ISPC3?"

My thoughts:

I think billing should be implemented as a seperate Module with seperate DB-Tables to keep the ISPC3-core free from billing data.

The recent DB-structure is not very good for billing. One Customer could buy multiple Hosting-Packages. This is not possible with the recent DB.
The hirarchy should be like: Customer -> Account or Contract -> Website

A DB-Table domain should be added where all buyed Domains are stored.
This would also be an important step for implementing domainrobots. To prevent Customers from using the DNS-System only as a Secondary-DNS Server, only domains from the table domain should be selectable in the DNS-System.

Now you can add an Order and a Billing-System to ISPC3. The Order and the Billing System should be seperated. The Output of the Billing System should be XML so you can Import the billing data into Lexware. Or you add an additional invoice module which generates invoices as pdf.

I would recommend to use the db-tables for the Order and billing-system from oscommerce v3.

Orders can be imported by adding entrys to sys_datalog.

[till]

I think billing should be implemented as a seperate Module with seperate DB-Tables to keep the ISPC3-core free from billing data.

yes.

The recent DB-structure is not very good for billing. One Customer could buy multiple Hosting-Packages. This is not possible with the recent DB.
The hirarchy should be like: Customer -> Account or Contract -> Website

This works very well for me with the current DB structure.

A DB-Table domain should be added where all buyed Domains are stored.
This would also be an important step for implementing domainrobots. To prevent Customers from using the DNS-System only as a Secondary-DNS Server, only domains from the table domain should be selectable in the DNS-System.

I think we need a more general approach where we have recurring and non recirring billing items of several types. And I wont mix up the billing system with the domain robot. And why should customers not be able to order secondary dns services? Thats a common feature.

Now you can add an Order and a Billing-System to ISPC3. The Order and the Billing System should be seperated. The Output of the Billing System should be XML so you can Import the billing data into Lexware. Or you add an additional invoice module which generates invoices as pdf.

ok. XML export can be one option beside pdf.

I would recommend to use the db-tables for the Order and billing-system from oscommerce v3.

I will take a look at their implementation. But most likely it will not fit for waht we need.

[redray]

below are my comments ...

[QUOTE=till;168081]yes.



This works very well for me with the current DB structure.

But how do you handle the case that one customer buyes webspace package A and after a month he buyes webspace package B on top?

I think we need a more general approach where we have recurring and non recirring billing items of several types. And I wont mix up the billing system with the domain robot. And why should customers not be able to order secondary dns services? Thats a common feature.

I agee with you, till. I won't mix up both systems. Although i think a db-table domain is desperatly needed! It's also a security feature! At the moment i can use notgood.customer-a.org where customer-a.org belongs to someone else on the same server. With the domain-table u can assign domains to your customers - and they can only use assigned domains for dns, mail and webspace. Furthermore you can add a flag for domains not registered over the isp (Sec.-DNS only).

ok. XML export can be one option beside pdf.


I will take a look at their implementation. But most likely it will not fit for waht we need.

Yes, maybe it's better to have a look at parallels billing than at oscommerce ...
http://www.parallels.com/de/products.../billing/demo/