About reselling...

[bybees]

Greetings,

I have a client that will host with FQ, but it seems I may be able to make some money with the resellers program. I see from the FAQ that I would be responsible for the support and billing of said client. Are there any tools available that would allow the periodic billing of said client? How are you resellers processing the payments (in a semi automated fashion)?

Thanks
Mike

[kitchin]

You'll be happier if you bill in advance. Also, make the billing period quarterly (three months) or longer, unless they really want to pay monthly. If you can do it annually, you will get more reseller points.

[Mandi]

Having installed lots of E-commerce apps for clients, I was thinking heavily in terms of having some sort of virtual billing system.

Then I realized every single client has paid by check; it's just how businesses still do business, ya know?

So I just send paper invoices, created from my accounting software.

[Monty]

Mike, your best bet is to do yearly billing, and 30 days before the account is due, FutureQuest will send you a bill. When I get those, I send the bill to my clients and they usually have the money back to me in plenty of time to pay FutureQuest. I use Bank of America's online banking service to pay FutureQuest, so it doesn't even cost me a stamp to get squared away.

[Evoir]

Yep, I have a policy of only doing annual billing with my reseller accounts. I hate invoicing people, and this way, I do it 1x a year, they save money on an annual account and I get more resseller points. It's a good deal all around.

[Matt]

Hi Mike,

I also recommend yearly billing. If you wanted to do recurring billing, you'll either need to a.) do it manually-- probably not worth your time, b.) forget about reselling and just use FQ's standard service, or c.) have recurring billing set up for your gateway. Option C shouldn't require any special software and only initial set-up on your part and a final cancellation at whatever point the client decides to let his/ her web site go. Any automated system that handles credit cards for recurring billing must store that information securely. For this reason, you're better off letting a gateway handle it.

-Matt