Monthly or Annual?

Evoir · 04-19-2005, 04:44 PM

Ok, So a few of my client sites have come up for renewal, and I am now in the awkward position of paying monthly for these domain names. One of the main reasons I became a resseler, was because it was an easy way for me to "take care of everything" for my clients. I'd give them an annual price, I'd bill them annually, and it was done.

I'd like to still invoice my customers annually, and I wouldn't even mind adding funds to my FQ account to cover the amount I expect each domain to incur, but, it seems like an accounting nightmare (I have trouble balancing a checkbook).

What have other resellers done with this? Are you billing your clients monthly now? Are you prepaying for a year (I know, that''s not exactly the right terminolgy).

I've been rethinking how well reselling at FQ works for me anymore.

This is not a thread to debate with FQ about the changes, but rather to get feedbackl from FQ and others about ways to use the reseller program to my advantage. I like to keep it simple.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!
Evie

*hobbes* · 04-19-2005, 05:23 PM

We still bill clients annually, but now pay FQ once per month. The FQ team has been great in working through the few glitches that popped up in annual accounts that transitioned to monthly, and other than these, it's not that much more difficult accounting wise now. Plus we get the float

Evoir · 04-19-2005, 05:28 PM

So, were you able to work out a once a month billing cycle? Rather than 3 different billings within 1 month? What kind of glitches were there for you?

*hobbes* · 04-19-2005, 06:17 PM

FQ has moved to the once a month billing cycle; or rather they always had it, but it's new for folks who have always done yearly payments and now switched to monthly (as there's no cost benefit for doing it yearly). Even for yearly accounts that expire mid-month and are switched to monthly, payment only has to be made on the 1st.

The glitches were related to receiving incorrect termination notices and odd posting of payment to domains within an account. The former has been fixed (I think), and once all yearly accounts are converted to monthly, the posting of payments should be a non-issue.

*Binky* · 04-19-2005, 06:36 PM

Quote:

(I have trouble balancing a checkbook)

I'm worse . . the world's worst. For me financial planning consists of punching numbers into the bank machine and if the money comes out I figure I'm okay for a couple of days, anyway.

When I got notice about the monthly thing I instantly dug a hole in the ground and put my head in it. Then completely forgot about it. I just got my first monthly invoice. I am not happy. I won't bill my clients monthly because it'll be a nightmare for me. Even with my excel spreadsheet I have trouble keeping on top of things. So I'll probably send in twelve months worth of payments at a time for each account.

I thought businesses loved annual payments in advance.

*Matt* · 04-19-2005, 06:38 PM

I still prefer to invoice clients yearly, but have a few clients paying monthly. I don't pre-pay for anything, just pay monthly invoice.

Note to FQ: if I didn't trust you guys so much, I would have left due to confusing monthly e-mail invoices. Really, the way they are formatted makes making sense of them nearly impossible without pulling out a piece of paper, pencil, and calculator.

-Matt

dank · 04-19-2005, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Note to FQ: if I didn't trust you guys so much, I would have left due to confusing monthly e-mail invoices.

Agreed. I know FQ isn't trying to pull a fast one on us, so I haven't bothered trying [much] to make sense of the new billing arrangement. I just put everything on the monthly auto-billing and pay off the credit card each month... Any other company and I'd be very leery.

Dan

*Joe* · 04-20-2005, 06:50 AM

I absolutely loathe this monthlly billing business. As I mostly pass on the discount I get to my clients (friends!) I just trust FQ with 12 months worth of fees upfront thereby letting them hold the float and deduct one month's fee at a time. If FQ does go belly-up (I have confidence they won't), I lose whatever percentage of the float FQ is holding at the time. I'd rather take that risk than go through the hassle of reading and handling monthly bills for a dozen or more accounts.

Andilinks · 04-20-2005, 09:49 AM

Just an idle observation, for what it's worth:

Quote:

If FQ does go belly-up (I have confidence they won't)...

New and prospective clients without a history here are not likely to be so confident.

Andi

Evoir · 04-20-2005, 12:11 PM

I'm wondering how well the reseller program is doing with all the change... oh, I wish I could know. I know that if I were faced with the decision to join the reseller program now, I'd probably pass on it. The one big selling point for me was the simple billing. Like, I didn't have to get all accountant-like to do it. But, I am in kinda deep, and so here I am.

And I love the services FQ provides, very happy with them.

Thanks for all of your replies. I feel less alone in my trying to figure out how to do this. Think I will bill a year in advance and try to make certain I always have anough money in my account. Maybe should use a credit card instead of my bank card.