Example Setup for Extra Quota – WHMCS Module for Email Hosting Provisioning

WHMCS Advanced Setup: How to add a Product with extra storage options

With the latest version of our WHMCS module (released on February 14th, 2021), we’ve introduced a new Configurable Option called Extra Quota. This is an example on how to set up a Product using this new option with our WHMCS module for email provisioning.

This example Product allows incremental updates of 10GB Basic mailboxes while also requesting a minimum of 5 mailboxes to be bought – your customer will be able to buy 5 or 6 or 11 mailboxes of 10GB each, for example. The Extra Quota Configurable Option will also allow to order extra space for their mailboxes. For example, they will be able to order extra 100GB which can be divided between their mailboxes.

Use this guide to set up a similar Product for your Reseller business or use our suggestions to further customize your Products and start offering professional email hosting services to your customers.

1. Create the product and the configurable options

Follow the WHMCS Setup Guide to install the module and create your first Product. Once your Product and Configurable Option Group are created (as explained in Step 3 of the guide), you can continue to edit them using the next steps.

2. Product example

2.1. Product Setup

This is how your Product should look like after the setup. What to look for and double check:

Details tab: check “Require domain”

Pricing tab: set your product to “Recurring” and leave the price set to 0. The price will be calculated using the Configurable Options. Enable payment for the prepayment options you want to offer: monthly, yearly, etc.

Module Settings tab: choose the option for “Automatically setup” you want to offer.

Configurable Options: choose the desired configurable Option Group – that you will edit at the next step.

Upgrades: check the option to allow upgrades via “Configurable Options”.

2.2. Configurable Option Group Setup

Next, edit the Configurable Option Group you have created for this Product and make sure you have created all the necessary Configurable Options:

• Total Mailboxes
• Total Enhanced Mailboxes
• Mailbox Quota (GB)
• Total Aliases
• Total Distribution Lists
• Extra Quota (GB)

Make sure there are no spelling errors and that they each have a value assigned, even if it’s zero.

Tip: you can hide all the Configurable Options that are not variable.

2.3. Configurable Options Setup

To make this product variable, we will choose the Option Type “Quantity” for Total Mailboxes in order to let the customer specify how may email addresses he wants to purchase. The price will be obtained by multiplying the quantity entered by the customer with the Pricing you specify for one mailbox in the Configurable Option “Total Mailboxes”. 

Tip: if you want to make several tiers for pricing, you can specify minimum and maximum quantity accepted for the product. For example, the pricing per mailbox is $1.00 when you buy between 5 and 10 mailboxes (product A) and $0.90 per mailbox when you buy between 11 and 50 mailboxes (product B).

The Configurable Option “Mailbox Quota (GB)” is where you specify the mailbox size. The value should be the size of one single mailbox, not total storage per product.

Tip: you cannot have multiple options with different pricing for “Mailbox Quota (GB)” if your “Total Mailboxes” or “Total Enhanced Mailboxes” are variable (it will break the pricing).

Up until now, the total Quota was calculated as follows:

Total Quota = (Total Mailboxes + Total Enhanced Mailboxes) * Mailbox Quota (GB)

With the new version of the module, we introduced the Extra Quota Configurable Option. The new formula for calculating the available Quota is as follows:

Total Quota = Extra Quota (GB) + (Total Mailboxes + Total Enhanced Mailboxes) * Mailbox Quota (GB) 

Extra Quota will be added on top of the total quota that the mailboxes have. You can set Extra Quota in two ways:

• as a Dropdown and have fixed options: 50Gb, 100Gb, 200Gb, etc. with different pricing for each, or
• as a Quantity and let the customer buy in 1GB increments (by default) (for example: 155 x 1GB for extra 155GB quota);

Tip: If you want bigger increments (5GB, 10GB, etc.), you can set up the Extra Quota Increments under the Product → Module Settings section; for example: 10GB increments means your customer can buy 15 x 10GB for extra 150GB quota 

Just like before, the customer can choose any size (between 0.1GB and 100GB) when he creates a new mailbox in his WHMCS Client Area.

3. Check your configuration

Go through your setup for Product and Configurable Options once again and make sure you didn’t forget anything. Some of the most common mistakes are:

• You skipped Test Connection from the Setup guide. First make sure you can connect to PolarisMail back end
• You didn’t specify Require Domain on the Product
• You didn’t create a Configurable Option Group for the Product
• You didn’t assign a Configurable Option Group to the Product
• The Configurable Option Group doesn’t have all these Configurable Options: Total Mailboxes, Total Enhanced Mailboxes, Mailbox Quota (GB), Total Aliases, Total Distribution Lists; they have a misspelling, or they don’t have a value assigned, even if it’s zero

Remember, the pricing is the sum of the price you set on Product and the prices you set on each Configurable Option.

You can now go ahead and place a test order and try to upgrade it afterwards from your customer Client Area in WHMCS.