Hosting Suite uses your ordinary WHMCS system cron for scheduled work. If customers have paid but renewals remain pending, trials are not ending, or application setup is still being checked, verify this scheduler before creating another cron entry.
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01 Use the installation's own command
- Open WHMCS Automation Settings or Automation Status and copy the cron command shown for your installation.
- In the hosting control panel for the account that runs WHMCS, check its scheduled jobs. Keep one correct system-cron entry using that command.
- Use the actual command-line PHP binary and WHMCS cron path. Do not paste an example path from a different server.
- Use WHMCS's recommended five-minute frequency where your hosting plan permits it, and configure the daily task time in WHMCS.
- Confirm that both Hosting Suite hook files remain installed, including the trials hook even when trials are disabled.
02 Check the suite's view
Open Workspace > Suite settings > Background tasks. Review Background processing, Billing processing and the last reported activity. Then open PHP & environment and compare the web and cron environments. A website running PHP successfully does not prove that the command-line PHP has the same version or extensions.
The suite processes work in bounded batches. A busy installation can require several runs to finish all pending items. A heartbeat shows that the hook ran; inspect the relevant renewal, trial or application record to confirm its actual outcome.
03 What runs here
The scheduled lanes include paid-renewal settlement, renewal reminders and automatic invoices, trial reminders and expiry, pending application verification and retries, configured currency filling, visitor-country data refresh, website maintenance schedules and health monitoring. Previously queued hosting actions can also finish here. Current account-tool changes normally run when submitted.
What should I check when an automated workflow stalls?
Read the specific record before retrying. For a renewal, check its invoice payment and review state. For an application, inspect Customers and setup. For website automation, inspect its history and whether account changes are paused. Restore the cron configuration, wait for a normal run, and refresh those records.
Do not mark an unpaid invoice paid to clear a queue, or create duplicate system-cron entries to make work run faster. If the cron starts but fails, collect its error, PHP version, last run time and affected service reference for support. The packaged worker commands are support and recovery tools, not an additional installation requirement.