During our work on BILLmanager 5, we have made some changes both in interface and functionality of the system.
This article is intended to help administrators to better understand changes in BILLmanager 5 and plan the import from BILLmanager 4 to BILLmanager 5 properly.
New features
New COREmanager 5 engine:
- A new user interface which can be customized according to personal needs
- Multithreading
- API (some features remain unchanged)
- Head files for developing custom integration modules, plug-ins, and adding new BILLmanager sections
- Updated file structure
New built-in ihttpd server, now supporting the necessary configurations.
A new mechanism for installation and integration of module configuration, with the use of repositories.
Added possibility to configure automatic payments. Some payment gateways support refunds and automatic money back from client accounts.
Added possibility to store and display history for the main objects.
Added support for client segments with different selection criteria and automatic mass mailing.
New billing type "Client can choose" which allows configuring flexible model to work with add-ons.
Recalculation history.
New limits on the service order.
New contract types.
Automatic and manual validation of payer data.
Localization tools for managing payers by countries.
Added synchronization mechanisms for:
- IP addresses. BILLmanager 5 now synchronizes IP addresses every 24 hours.
- OS templates. It allows monitoring usage of commercial OS templates.
- Services. For example, when you integrate BILLmanager with VMmanager, the billing system will check that all virtual machines created in VMmanager are also created in BILLmanager. If a virtual machine is found in VMmanager but doesn't exist in the billing system, the corresponding notification will be created in the "Notifications" module.
Changes
Manual setup of services and management of automatic errors is located now in "Tasks". Also, you are able to perform other operations that can be performed only by Admins.
Advanced integration with DNSmanager: automatic creation of free domain names generated for services on provider's name servers.
Integration between BILLmanager and IPmanager is a mandatory step now when you integrate it with other ISPsystem control panels.
Integration with domain registrars and SSL providers is now performed in "Processing modules".
Disabled add-ons for tariff plans are no longer billed. The previous settings sometimes led to issues.
Internal unit names of measure are specified according to international standards.
Payment methods are no longer bound to companies and can be used without them.
Tax rates can be configured for service provider globally, with the possibility to add more details.
Discounts are no longer available for "Clients groups". Group discounts can be set in "Promo actions".
Payment notification URLs were changed for most payment gateways.
Deprecated features
BILLmanager runs on Apache. Nginx proxy feature remains unchanged.
"Enumeration with quantity" add-on type. Instead of this billing type, you can use "Client can choose" add-on type which allows for more flexible configuration.
Ticket category. A client can select a department when creating a new ticket. You can add a description for a certain department that will be shown to clients.
"Game hosting" service type. You can use a custom service type to set up these custom services.