2ndSite Automates the Billing Cycle

• By theWHIR.com , April 05, 2005

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By Justin Lee, theWHIR.com

April 5, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Setting up an accounts receivable system for any business that needs to automate the collection of recurring fees, whether a Web hosting provider, fitness club or courier delivery service, can be an overwhelming task. This is when a recurring billing system can be an effective solution, enabling businesses to automate the collection of monthly and annual fees on a subscription basis.

 

Toronto-based 2ndSite (secondsite.biz) is a recurring billing application service provider that enables Web hosts to process transactions through a variety of e-commerce outlets, including VeriSign, Electracash and PayPal. The software includes the ability to perform invoices and collections, timesheets, file sharing and support ticketing, as well as integrations with accounting software packages such as QuickBooks, Simply Accounting and MYOB. 

 

Developed over the past three years, 2ndSite was first released publicly in May 2004. Since then, the company has released six upgrades of the software, recruiting nearly 10,000 businesses as regular users.

 

The latest version, 2ndSite 2.7, includes a recurring billing module. As with the rest of the 2ndSite service, recurring billing is free for Web hosts with fewer than 10 clients. Hosts that require recurring billing for larger client bases can upgrade their accounts by paying fees on a monthly or annual basis for the additional capacity.

 

Using recurring billing, a Web hosts can automate its entire billing process. The flexible solution allows customers to send recurring invoices and traditional "one-off" invoices. And with version 2.7, 2ndSite customers can now bill customer's credit cards automatically, at pre-set frequencies, for any duration.

 

2ndSite provides the end-user with the ability to transition from recurring invoices to automated payments. Instead of having to receive an invoice, login and pay each month, an end user can transition itself to recurring billing on its own.

 

A variety of customization features are also available, enabling Web hosting providers to brand the solution with their own corporate colors, logos and URLs. Hosts that subscribe to 2ndSite can provide their clients with pertinent information including a record of all past invoices and detailed payment history, which benefits everyone, says 2ndSite president Michael McDerment.

 

"This is great for both the end users and the 2ndSite subscribers because the transition is permission based," says McDerment. "Also, as always a major benefit of 2ndSite is that end-users can log in and see a list of all their past invoices and a detailed report on their history of past payments. We find these reports are very popular with our user base."

 

While there are many recurring billing services, 2ndSite says it offers one of the only free managed services, eliminating the need for security, SSL certificates, firewalls or encryption as it relates to billing procedures.

 

"These must haves can be costly, so a real benefit of 2ndSite is that all things are effectively outsourced," says McDerment. "That's an advantage to our customers as well because [the start-up process] is so fast – even if a host's existing user base is 1000 or more they can transition to 2ndSite in about 10 minutes."

 

Through each updated release, 2ndSite continues to open itself to larger hosts that want to outsource their billing and support ticketing applications. The upcoming May release of version 2.8 will focus largely on 2ndSite's support ticketing module.

 

2ndSite is not without its limitations; unlike many of its competitors, the solution does not have complete control panel automation and integration with the likes of Ensim and cPanel. The tool is most used by hosts that manage their customers' hosting accounts manually, as well as hosts that already have their account management processes automated in place, but are looking for a better solution for collecting fees from clients. 

 

"2ndSite is a better solution for any host who just wants a simple effective billing tool, which will do things like automatically email clients who are late paying their bills," says McDerment.

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