Billing Software and $0.00 Prices
It would seem that a number of billing-related annoyances are due to amounts of $0.00. Invoices are being sent for $0.00 amounts, accounts suspended for $0.00 past due, billing cycles are not being set up properly when the amount is $0.00, and payment frequency options are not showing up for selection when ordering.
The problem? 0 is the ‘disabled’ option in our billing system. So a $0.00 price disables the payment frequency. Since the frequency is disabled, it doesn’t apply a billing cycle.
As for the invoices, billing software is designed to do just that, bill. When the amount of an invoice is $0.00, it assumes that it is a temporary thing (due to overpayment, credits on the account, etc), and generates an invoice with the details. There is an option for ‘Free Account’, which prevents this. However, if this is selected, it sets the payment frequency to ‘never’. So when a client upgrades to a paid package, it never bills for it.
How to fix these problems? Change disabled to -1, instead of 0. Or add a flag somewhere. That solves the first two. Add a configuration option for ‘Do not generate invoice for $0.00′, or again, set a conditional flag somewhere.
Is this a bug or programming error in any way? I don’t believe so. I think it reflects a design decision, and a conflict between that design, and how the software is being used. Most commercial billing systems are not intended to support transactions of less than $0.01.
