Best of the ISP-Lists

Choosing Billing Software

Members of the ISP-Invoicing list discuss a common conundrum. If you're ready to upgrade from a home-built billing solution to commercial software, what features are worth examining closely?

[May 29, 2002]

On the ISP-Invoicing list in May, JP queried,

"We are a small ISP with almost 7,000 customers, and we're looking to purchase a billing program. Currently, we use a program written by one of the owners that uses MS Access and Visual Basic, along with a small portion of QuickBooks. We've looked at several products (Platypus, BillMax, Optigold). Any suggestions?"

A number of respondents took a closer look at BillMax as an option:

[MS offered] "We have used BillMax for over a year, and it's a rock solid program which is extremely customizable. It should give you all the functionality you can handle."

[PF warned] "Even though BillMax is 90 percent configurable, there is no documentation on how to do it. So unless you enjoy trial and error, BillMax is a non-starter."

[MS countered] "If you have a programmer, you can get it working within a few days out of the box. Really, all you have to code are the APIs into your servers for provisioning and your signup pages. BillMax has also just announced a new release which makes it easier to customize, configure, and set up."

JW recommended another option:

"Check out ISP2001. It integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks, works with practically any RADIUS server, and automatically generates monthly, quarterly, or annual bills which can be printed or sent via e-mail."

PF warned that Optigold has some significant weaknesses:

"Optigold is a great billing program, but you have to plan on regular audits of your accounts to make sure that everything it thought it did was actually done, because the program has no ability to get error statuses. For example, you use Optigold to create an account via telnet: there is no way to determine if the telnet session completed successfully or not, so you could set up an account on Optigold, and it could never actually have been created. This is even worse when you cancel customers and they get free access because Optigold can't tell if the account was really cancelled."

RY advised looking at Platypus:

"Several years ago, we looked at many different options and chose Platypus. We've never regretted it. It's got some warts, but so does any program-and Boardtown offers excellent support. The SQL database allows access by other programs, and there are interfaces available which allow you to write your own code."

JW recommended some criteria for making a selection:

"Any billing program must make it easy to communicate with your customers by providing a robust contact management and activity log system, keep accurate information about who can access your services (and thereby be billed for services), and be able to synchronize that login info with your authentication server(s). It also must interface with your enterprise-level accounting system, whatever that may be."

— End