This Knowledge Base article will help you set up Payment Gateways in Blesta so you can capture payments from customers.

Let’s begin!

How to Configure Payment Gateways in Blesta

Step 1. Login to your Blesta admin. Once you’ve logged in, click Settings in the top right corner.

Step 2: Once you’ve opened the Settings, click the Payment Gateways option.

Step 3: The Payment Gateways page will load and you’ll be taken to the Installed screen, where if you had any payment gateways added, they would be listed.

Click the Available tab at the top to see a list of available payment gateways.

Step 4: Choose from the list of available payment gateways. Common payment gateways include:

• Authorize.net
• Braintree
• PayPal
• Stripe
• Skrill
• Square

For my store, I’m going to enable PayPal Payflow Pro to accept all major credit and debit cards.

Step 5: After clicking Install for PayPal Payflow Pro, you will be presented with a screen to enter your login credentials to your PayPal account as well as the option to accept currencies you want to accept on your store at payment.

Enter your PayPal account information, then click Update settings.

You will be returned to the list of Payment Gateways where you will see the PayPal Payflow Pro module listed.

If you wish to add additional payment gateways, click the available tab and install additional gateways.

Congrats! Now you’ve added your first Payment Gateway and your Blesta shop is ready to take payments!

This Knowledge Base article will instruct you on how to configure a cPanel server in Blesta as well as your first package so you can resell Shared Hosting.

Let’s Begin!

How to Configure a cPanel server in Blesta

Step 1: Login to your Blesta Admin. Once you’ve logged in, click Settings in the top right corner.

Step 2: From the list of settings, click the Modules option.

Step 3: When the Modules page loads, click the Available tab. This will show all available Modules.

Step 4: Scroll down through the modules until you find the cPanel module. Then click Install.

The module will be installed and you will see a successful result message like the one below. You’ll also be taken to the Manage cPanel Module area.

In the top right corner, click Add Server.

Step 5: You’ll be taken to the Add cPanel Server page. There’s a few options on this screen, let’s examine them one at a time.

• Server Label is how the server will appear in your Modules > Server Listings.
• Hostname will be the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) of the server, such as yourserver.serverhostgroup.com.
• Username will be the admin username for the cPanel Reseller account.
• Token (or Remote Key) will be the remote token you get from WHM.
• Use SSL while connecting to the API should be checked.
• Account Limit should match the number of cPanel accounts your reseller account at ChemiCloud supports.

Next, let’s look at the Nameservers Section:

At ChemiCloud, we use 3 nameservers. Be sure to click the “Add Additional Name Server” button to add a new Nameserver so a box for the 3rd nameserver appears..

If you have created custom nameservers, you can enter them here. Otherwise, you should enter our nameservers.

When you’ve finished, click Add Server to add the server into Blesta.

You will be presented with Server Added success message and you’ll be taken back to the Manage cPanel Module area.

Step 6: Next you need to create some packages. These will be the packages you will sell as individual Hosting Shared Hosting Plans.

To do this, click the Packages option in the top menu then click Packages.

You will be taken to the Packages screen. By default, there are no packages.

To create a new package, click the + icon in the top right corner. You will be taken to the New Package screen.

Step 7: There are a lot of options on the New Package screen, let’s review them in sections below.

• Enter the Package Name which will be displayed to your customers.
• If you choose to expand the Description field, you will be presented with a HTML Rich Text editor where you can enter a description of the package. Here you would enter the type of information that goes with the hosting plan, such as disk space, bandwidth, and other features.
• The Status option lets you choose whether this package is available or discontinued.
• With Quantity Available, this should represent the max number of accounts that can be created with this package on the reseller plan that goes with it.
  • It is up to you to do the math to be sure you have allocated enough packages to the max resources that go with your Reseller account. Otherwise, you will experience errors in auto account provisioning.
• The client limit is the maximum number of services (of any status) each client can create through this package.
• You can opt whether to use renewal prices for package upgrades, if you choose.
• In module, choose cPanel.

After selecting cPanel as your module, you will see the Module Options section update. Let’s review that section:

• For Group, I have left this as the default because I haven’t created any server groups. You can choose to create server groups, if you have multiple Reseller servers. This can be used to help you organize which packages go to which group of servers.
• The Server drop-down lets you choose on which server to provision the package for new accounts.
• The cPanel Package dropdown lets you choose the corresponding package in WHM that this Package in Blesta goes with.
  • Keep in mind, whatever Packages exist in Blesta must also exist in WHM.
  • Enable Selling Sub-Domains allows the customer to create additional subdomains, or not, if you choose.
    • You can opt to define how many subdomains they can create if you wish, or it can be set to Unlimited.
  • With Dedicated IP, you can opt to give customers a Dedicated IP on this package.

Next, let’s look at Pricing:

• Set the Term and Length with the Term/Period options.
• Currency lets you define in which currency to offer the plan.
• The Price column allows you to set the price of the package.
• With renewal price, you can set a different renewal price if the initial price is offered on a special.
• If you choose to offer a setup or cancellation fee, you can set that price here.
• The three checkboxes let you decide:
  • Whether the package is taxable.
  • Will auto cancel at the end of the term.
  • And is Pro Rata.

Next, let’s look at the email section:

• The Welcome Email section let’s you edit what is sent to your customers who purchase this package. The welcome email typically contains information such as their cPanel account username, password, and nameserver information.
• Blesta comes with a Sample email from which you can draw inspiration by clicking the Load Sample email button in the top right corner of the text editor.
• You are also given a rich text editor into which you can setup the welcome email anyway you like.

Finally, let’s look at the Group Membership option:

Here you must create a group for this package. You can think of groups as ways to organize your hosting packages. For this, I am calling my package Shared Hosting.

When you’ve finished, click the Create Package button in the bottom right corner.

Step 8: You will be returned to the Packages screen where a list of your Packages will be displayed, along with a success message.

Congrats! You’ve linked your Blesta installation with a cPanel server and you’ve configured your first package!

Let’s get going!

How to Configure the General Settings in Blesta

To access the Company Specific Settings, use the steps below:

Step 1: Login to your Blesta. Once logged in, click Settings in the top right corner .

Step 2: Once the System Settings opens, click General.

Step 3: Once the General Settings are open, you’ll see a list of options in the column on the left. First, let’s tackle the few General Settings.

Under General > Localization Settings, you can set the following settings:

• Default Language
• Calendar Start Date
• Time Zone
• Default Country

If you make any changes, be sure to click Update Settings to save your changes. \

Step 4: Next, look at the row of options on the left side and beneath Billing/Payment, click Invoice and Charge Options.

Once the Invoice & Charge options load, you have many options to review:

With these options, you can update the following:

• Set the number of days in advance invoices are created.
• Set when to process automatic payments.
• Set how many days past due before a service is suspended.

If you make any changes, be sure to click Update Settings to save your changes.

Step 5: Once you’ve finished reviewing the Invoice and Charge settings, return to the menu on the left and beneath Billing/Payment, click Invoice Customization.

Once the Invoice Customization options open, you have many settings to review & customize:

With these options, you can update the following:

• Set invoice formats, start value, increment value, and padding.
• Add a logo, and/or background images to invoices.
• Set the terms.
• Set the paper size.
• Set the invoice template… fyi Blesta ships with two different templates – Default and Quickbooks.
• Set whether the Logo, Company Name and Address, or PAID watermark appears on invoices.

If you make any changes, be sure to click Update Settings to save your changes.

Step 6: Next, return to the tools on the left side and beneath Billing/Payment settings, click Notices.

Once the Notices options open, you have many settings to review & customize:

The settings for Notices let you adjust the following:

• Up to three notices can be sent and used as payment reminders (before) or late notices (after), in relation to the invoice due date.

Be sure to click Update Settings if you make any changes.

Step 7: Next, return to the tools on the left and click Payment Gateways. The option is located in between Messengers and Taxes.

Payment Gateways are how Blesta communicates with credit card or other payment processors to process payments from customers.

Once the Payment Gateways section loads, you will be presented with a list of the Installed Payment Gateways.

If this is a new installation, there will be none. To install a gateway, click the Available tab.

You will be presented with a list of Payment Gateways:

Once a Payment Gateway is installed, it will disappear from the Available tab and appear in the Installed tab.

Common Payment Gateways are:

• Authorize.net
• Stripe
• Braintree
• PayPal

Step 8: Once you’ve configured your Payment Gateway(s), return to the tools on the left side and click Email Templates beneath Emails.

A list of Email Templates will appear:

There are a lot of email templates that are used for a number of different customer notifications. If you plan to have extensive branding for your business, you’ll definitely want to edit each of these templates and brand them according to your needs.

You can edit the templates by clicking Edit.

After clicking Edit, you’ll have a few options, including:

• The Name that appears when the email is sent.
• The email address that is used. Be sure this is a real email address in case customers reply to the email they receive.
• The Subject line that is used.
• And you have a rich text editor which displays the content of the message. You can use this to easily edit and brand each message without having to know any HTML or CSS code. Blesta makes it very easy to do this, which is another reason Blesta is a pretty cool app for Resellers!

When you’ve finished, be sure to click Update Template.

Step 9: Lastly, return to the list of tools on the left side and beneath Emails, click Signatures.

There are 3 Signatures by default:

• Admin
• Billing
• Sales

You can click the + button to add a new signature if you wish.

Alternatively, to edit an existing signature, click Edit.

On the Edit screen, you have the option to edit the name of the signature.

You also have a rich text editor which you can use to create your email signature to be displayed when Bletsa dispatches automated emails.

Once you’ve created your signature, be sure to click Update Signature to save your changes.

And that’s how you Get Started with Blesta! We hope you enjoyed this article. Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Please join us in the next tutorial where we will walk you through How to Add a cPanel Server and New Packages in Blesta

Blesta is a well-written, secure, user and developer-friendly client management, billing, and support application. It is suitable as an alternative to the popular application WHMCS.

Forget about sending invoices, collecting payments, taxes, and all the other boring things that no business owner wants to do. Let Blesta automate it all!

How to install Blesta in cPanel

Step 1: Login into your cPanel.

Step 2: Scroll down to the Software section and click Softaculous Apps Installer.

Step 3: Once Softaculous opens, use the search in the top left corner to search for Blesta. Click on Blesta once the Ecommerce section loads.

Step 4: Once the Blesta product page loads in Softaculous, click Install Now.

Step 5: The installation page for Blesta will load.

First, you need to enter a directory into which you want to install Blesta. You can name this directory anything, such as Blesta or billing, for example.

Next, you need to enter the following:

• Admin Username
• Admin Password (you can use the Key button to generate a random password)
• First and Last name of the System Administrator
• Admin Email

Once you’ve filled in this information, click the blue Install button to install Blesta.

Step 6: Softaculous will review the information you’ve submitted and install Blesta. It typically takes a minute or two as Blesta is somewhat heavy but well optimized.

Step 7: Once Blesta has been installed, Softaculous will present you with a successful installation screen, along with the URL of the application and the URL of the Admin login.

Click your Admin URL to begin using Blesta!

And that is how you install Blesta!

Please join us in the next tutorial where we will walk you through Configuring the General Settings in Blesta