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[The Hub] Allow us to link new websites after New Client created

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My current system is I invoice the client and after they’ve paid, I then go and create the website. Unfortunately, it has recently come to my attention that I cannot link the client to their site after they’ve paid the invoice for that site because the site has to be created before the invoice/client is created to link it.

This is also frustrating because I have clients go and purchase multiple sites in the future where I run into the same issue.

This leads to further problems with clients needing access to the Dashboard of the site vs just WordPress back-end.

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 19:25:43
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  • Tony G
    • Mr. LetsFixTheWorld

    This is what happens when payables and receivables are irrevocably linked. Your entirely reasonable and common business model may not fit the target audience that DEV has in mind.

    One way to handle this might be to use a different system to create a credit hold transaction for a new purpose. When the client has taken that step, go through with DEV hosting and create the account, get real invoicing and payments started, and when they’ve paid on the new account release the initial hold.

    Another way might be to separate your accounting for services and site resources. So go through DEV for everything related to the actual site, but use different software/services for your site building, maintenance, support, consultation, etc.

    The awkwardness of these solutions is that your client is literally in two databases and they’re getting invoices from two systems that have different templates. It’s a useless hassle on the vendor. Well, this is what happens when we bundle multiple services with one vendor, as I’ve described recently in another thread. The solution: If all accounting is separated from hosting services, and centralized into an accounting-only application, then these problems don’t exist. Of course then there are other challenges, like manually entering accounting info from DEV into a different system. This creates a paradox: “But that means DEV offers a white-label solution that we can’t use”. Yup – an unfortunately avoidable situation.

    Whatever you do, stick to your model. Don’t build it before they make a solid commitment and/or pay or it. It’s too easy to make investments of time and commitments that turn into a loss. There are too many people who will “game the system” if they find leaks like this, getting you to build an environment that they can abuse and then not paying for it.

    Good luck with this.

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Gavin McNeill ,

    You’ll need a website created in order for it to be linked with the website; once an invoice is generated, then I’m afraid it cannot be updated as it’s billed on the Stripe side.

    In such cases, you could have a two-step invoicing process, i.e. 1st invoice for a setup fee, i.e. before the website is created.

    Then after the 1st invoice, when the website is created, you should be able to manually add the client to the website individually via the Hub, as shown in the following screenshot:
    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    Once the client is added to the website, you should be able to Bill the client with recurring or one-time payments according to your needs that would be linked to the website.
    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    Please do let us know whether the above fit your needs.

    Kind Regards,
    Nithin