It’s late here, the release date is tomorrow, and weʼre doing some final polishing on the next version of HostBill. Iʼve decided to check what can be done with the HostBill add-ons system in just 40 minutes. The results of my work will be added into the upcoming release. Clients Online is a really simple yet handy add-on that will show you which of your clients are currently logged-in. It integrates itself into the admin homepage, so you will have at-a glance information about your clients’ activity.

Small, simple box on the admin homepage – now you will know who is online.

I canʼt wait for the new version and your feedback on it!

It’s a matter of single days now until the next version of HostBill is released. With this version we will introduce an add-on especially for hosting company owners. If you own or resell a few dedicated servers spread across different collocations, you probably know the pain of managing contacts for them, or going through dozens of emails to find login details or hardware specifications. Well, worry no more, as now you can have all that information in one place – in HostBill!

With our add-on you’ll be able to manage collocations where you host your servers, contacts to them, and keep information about racks, servers, switches, labels etc. Just take a look at the screenshots:

The next version is coming up, and as I’ve just finished developing this i thought I’d share a screenshot of the new add-on that will be included with the new HostBill (1.4.6). CSV Exporter is a simple tool for everyone who wants to do accounting outside HostBill and who needs a set of data exported from it. Youʼll be able to export invoices, transactions, accounts, domains and client details to be used in any program that is compatible with CSV format.

Weʼre like you – every day we work our way through hundreds of tickets, processing orders and managing accounts. Aside from development, we perform many repetitive tasks just like you, and weʼre always looking for ways of making these tasks easier:

- Why two clicks instead of one?

- Why have to scroll down instead of seeing everything in one place?

- Why travel miles with the mouse pointer?

You wonʼt be asking yourself any such questions when working with HostBill!

We spend hours every day, working out the best user experience. For example, I was arguing with Kris B. about a small 16×16 icon for an hour yesterday! A stupid icon that most users wouldnʼt care about – so why do we care? Because you will see this icon a hundred times every day, and to have it fit in, it needs to have purpose; it cannot be randomly picked.

Note that some of the features presented below will be released within 1–2 weeks in an update; others features are already implemented.

Letʼs go through some random little things that make a difference.

1. You wonʼt normally edit automatically-generated invoice item names, so what is the point of having N-input boxes? In HostBill you will see:

- OK, but what if I do need to edit it? Not a problem! What would your natural behavior be? You would hover over Description in order to find out if itʼs editable:- And guess what? It is! So, letʼs click on edit: Read all entry »

We’re not slowing down Next version will be delivered sooner than you expect – within 2-3 weeks, and of-course we got some amazing features coming up. Next HostBill version would be all about admin/support-collaboration. On a side of improved administrator privileges we will also introduce Ticket replies drafts feature – your reply will now automatically be stored for later use – so you can start typing reply to ticket, get more information and get back to replying later. Plus other support staff will also know that you’re replying, so no more double-replying of your fast support team;) Screenshot will say it all for you:

With release of new version we will introduce new feature to HostBill – customizable client fields. During signup client will pick his profile type – Private profile or Company profile – as an administrator you’ll be able to configure which fields need to be displayed for each type of customer, you also will be able to set those fields required or not, to be displayed on client invoice or not. You will be able to define your own custom fields – lets say you operate in European Union and wants your commercial customers to provide their VAT number during signup – nothing simplier with HostBill! Take a look at screenshots and see by yourself.

Admin section – define fields

Client section – sign-up

We’re working hard here on new version, and thanks to your requests HostBill’s built-in livechat would have ability to add it to your existing website, outside HostBill! All you need to do is copy code, add it to your website head tags and your clients can enjoy live support!

Live Chat status bar – click to chat.

Live chat on your website with HostBill

HostBill 1.2.6 coming up – release is scheduled on tommorow, so exactly after two weeks from previous release. I think we will win our own time-challange, because we’ve done A LOT during this two weeks of development.

I’d like to share with you another new exciting HostBill feature – OS Template choose for clients. This is dedicated for VPS hosts who wants to fully automate their business – VPS can now be automatically created with OS template that client picked during order. But the most amazing part is that you as administrator dont need to type in every offered template by hand – just click “Get values from server” and HostBill will fetch all available templates for you automatically! No more complex custom fields, and updating them everytime new OS arrives.

Add this to our other new feature – daily / weekly billing, sit back, relax and enjoy new signups – VPS Hosting rocks!

Admin area – product configuration.

Clientarea – OS available to pick during order

Hello all HostBill users! We’re working hard on record-speed release, and I’ve got a little sneak-preview of one of features. It is console for our vps.net module (statistics were already introduced on their forum).  I’ve just finished implementing it, therefore it might need some styling. Dont forget to leave comment below, letting us know what you think and what else needs to be done.

As usual – click on image to zoom.

Hello again – this time lets take a look at one of new HostBill adminarea features – system statistics – theese are graphical representations of HostBill important statistics. Good thing to know is that if you feel sth is missing here we can add new one within a minutes for you! Let us know what graphs you’d like to see there.

(click on image to zoom it)