Ken - All of the things you said about ISP customers and billing are all things we utilize in Powercode. I 100% agree that you'll never love your billing system. But yeah - it does what you said in your message. I'm sure other systems do also, Probably the biggest differences are (a) idiosyncrasies of the particular system and (b) support.
On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > What constitutes a good billing solution depends on what you are billing > for (goods, services), what else you want it to do, and what other systems > it should integrate with. > > > > If you are just billing people for microtrenching saws, that’s very > different than if you are billing for recurring Internet service. > > > > As an ISP, we usually want to give customers a (secure) online payment > portal where they can view their account status and pay their bills, change > their credit card on file, etc. We also usually want it to integrate with > our operations systems so people get notified if they are past due, get > automatically turned off after a grace period, and can pay online and get > automatically turned back on. Ideally with exceptions like don’t turn off > the police station or the hospital without approval from a manager. We > also want it to understand things like monthly bills are due on the service > anniversary date but are sent out 20 days in advance, and not get confused > by things like 28 day months or leap years. None of this is pertinent if > you are selling goods not services. > > > > Customers also don’t seem to understand the difference between an invoice > and a statement. I think they expect something like a utility bill, which > typically shows account balance at the beginning of the period, payments > received and services invoiced since then, and the new account balance. > Kind of a combination invoice and statement. Also a place for notices, > like our terms of service have changed, our payment address has changed, > etc. > > > > Our current system does none of that, so I have nothing to recommend. As > others have said, it is not realistic to love your billing system. Maybe > one could aspire to hate it less? > > > > *From:* AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *David Hannum > *Sent:* Thursday, April 17, 2025 11:47 AM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Billing > > > > We've been with Powercode since I believe 2009. We've frequently looked > at other options and have always felt that Powercode was the best bang for > the buck for our company. Nothing ever wowed me enough to want to jump > ship. None of them are perfect. We've always gotten good support from > Powercode - actually pretty great support at times. They've always > responded quickly to custom reports and bug fixes. > > > > On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 12:40 PM Steve Jones <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I don't hate power code.I don't really love it or like it, but it > functions.It works.It gives me what I need and irritates the hell out of me > and sometimes bills are customers too much. It's monitoring system is a > little archaic, but it can be made to work. > Their support is hit-or-miss around The Times of any of the industry > events. There is no support because they pretty much closed their doors. > Overall it gets us through the day and it's not but it's not cheap > > > > On Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 9:34 AM Cameron Crum <[email protected]> wrote: > > Simon is out at Sonar. Hasn't been there in over a year. It is majority > owned by Blue Star (Jerry Jones). > > > > On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 9:05 PM Chuck McCown <[email protected]> wrote: > > We are probably also dropping Playt but I have heard some ungood things > about Sonar… > > > > Like they have stopped developing and support is not as good as it used to > be. > > Don’t remember who said it and they may just be a sore head too. > > > > I presume Simon is still involved? > > > > *From:* AF [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Mark - Myakka > Technologies via AF > *Sent:* Wednesday, April 16, 2025 6:31 PM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> > *Cc:* Mark - Myakka Technologies <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Billing > > > > Chuck, > > > > We are finally dropping Platypus and moving to sonar. Not in love with it > yet. verifying and transferring our 12 year old data has not been fun. > > > > -- > > Best regards, > > Mark mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]> > > > > Myakka Communications > > www.Myakka.com > > > > ------ > > > > Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 6:33:08 PM, you wrote: > > > > Once again, we are considering going to hopefully something better in the > billing department. > > Anyone love their billing software? > > > > Best Regards, > > Chuck McCown > > McCown Technology Corporation > > 8401 N Commerce Drive > <https://www.google.com/maps/search/8401+N+Commerce+Drive+Lake+Point,+Utah+84074?entry=gmail&source=g> > > Lake Point, Utah 84074 > <https://www.google.com/maps/search/8401+N+Commerce+Drive+Lake+Point,+Utah+84074?entry=gmail&source=g> > > 801-250-9503 Office > > www.microtrench-blades.com > > www.mccowntech.com > > www.terabitnetworks.com > > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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