Using Customer and Business Manager

Customer and Business Manager (hereinafter referred to as Business Manager) is a billing solution bundled with your Parallels Plesk Panel package. You can install it as an additional component during or after installation of Parallels Plesk Panel.

Business Manager simplifies the process of signing up, provisioning, and billing new customers according to the following scheme:

1. In Business Manager, you set up service plans corresponding to your service offerings, add the plans to an online store that can be configured to accept all types of payments, and integrate the store into your website.
2. A user visiting your site selects one of your hosting plans and subscribes to the services.
3. Business Manager processes the order. After the payment is received, it sets up a user account and subscription in Parallels Plesk Panel, and notifies the new customer by e-mail.
4. The customer logs in to Panel and starts using the web hosting, e-mail, and other services provided by subscription.
5. Several days before the end of the billing period, Business Manager sends an invoice to the customer stating the account balance and due payment date. On the due date, Business Manager charges the due amount on the customer's card or bank account, or uses another payment collection scheme that you select.

In addition to automated provisioning and billing, Business Manager offers the following advantages:

• Support for integration with payment systems, domain name registrars, and certification authorities issuing SSL certificates.
• Customizable online store.
• Compliance with requirements for stores operating in the European Union countries.

To help you get started with configuring Business Manager, refer to Parallels Plesk Panel 10.3 Quick Start Guide to Customer and Business Manager.

For the comprehensive operating instructions for Business Manager, refer to the Parallels Customer and Business Manager Administrator's Guide.

When you install Business Manager, it adds a set of controls to Panel navigation pane. See the section Business Manager Navigation Menus in Panel for the complete list of these controls and descriptions of them. Each of them opens a certain page of Business Manager in the same window. To switch back to Panel, click Back to Parallels Panel button at the top of Business Manager navigation pane.

To set up the billing of your customers, add the Panel plans, customers, and subscriptions to Business manager. For instructions on how to do it, read the Adding Panel Plans, Customer Accounts, and Subscriptions to Business Manager section. After you do it, Business Manager controls appear on the pages of added objects. Find the descriptions of these controls in the section Business Manager Controls for Linked Objects.

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