HostBill automation should implement your published service lifecycle: when an invoice appears, when payment is expected, what reminders are sent and what happens if a service remains unpaid. Write that timeline before entering day counts in the product.
IN THIS ARTICLE
01 Configure a coherent lifecycle
- Choose a representative product and open its Automation settings. Record the invoice-generation lead time, payment due date and service expiry relationship.
- Set the initial account-creation rule and review upgrades and renewals separately. These actions can use different triggers, so payment-controlled setup does not establish payment-controlled renewal.
- Configure reminder timing and templates. Confirm the customer will receive useful notice before any restriction described in your service terms.
- Set suspension, payment-based unsuspension and cancellation handling to the approved policy. Leave automatic termination disabled until the backup, retention and final-notice process has been tested.
- Review custom tasks and conditions. Give each task a specific purpose and owner, and check for overlap with a built-in action that would send the same message or repeat the same service change.
- Check Settings > General Settings > Task List and both scheduler jobs. Enable and schedule the tasks needed for your installed modules rather than assuming every available task belongs in your business workflow.
02 Check actual account behaviour
Inspect a test account's automation queue to see upcoming actions. Compare it with your written timeline and any client-level override. Test a paid-on-time case, a late-payment case and a cancellation request using controlled services.
After a rule change, review affected existing accounts before the next automation run. A new day count may immediately place an old unpaid service inside a suspension or termination window.
03 Example: compare the automation queue with an approved timeline
For one controlled test service, write the dates your business has approved before changing Automation:
| Event | Evidence to record |
|---|---|
| Invoice creation | The expected date and billing period. |
| Reminder | The selected template and intended send date. |
| Due date | The invoice and service dates used by the workflow. |
| Late-payment action | The approved action and any customer exception. |
Compare those dates with the test account's queued actions. Run separate paid-on-time and late-payment cases and inspect the resulting invoice, message and service state.
Expected result: the scheduler implements the written policy instead of relying on unrelated day counts that happen to look reasonable.
Common questions
Why does one customer follow a different schedule?
Review the customer's Settings & Automation and any account-specific custom tasks. The effective result may differ from the product's normal defaults.
Does disabling automatic cancellation also stop recurring invoices?
Do not assume so. Cancellation processing, invoice generation and service renewal are separate controls. Check the account queue and the relevant settings for the exact behaviour you want.