How to Customize the Service Catalog in BILLmanager

Many providers offer similar services at comparable prices — for instance, nearly identical VPS configurations that cost about the same. Yet, some companies make it easy for customers to find the right plan and complete their order, while others leave users confused during the selection process, causing them to leave without buying anything.

The issue usually isn't the services themselves, but how they're presented. Even small differences in how a service catalog is organized can significantly impact customer behavior.
BILLmanager lets you do more than just list your services; it allows you to structure them so that customers can:

Understand the differences between plans at a glance,
See all available options exactly when they need them,
Quickly assemble the ideal package of services.

We’ve previously covered how the BILLmanager service catalog works and why a well-thought-out "storefront" reduces the load on your support team, helps customers choose and order services faster, and enables providers to test new monetization ideas more quickly.

In this article, we’ll break down how to configure the service catalog display, set up plan grouping and filtering, and make your hosting services clear and visible to users.

Service Catalog Display

In BILLmanager, you can choose the best way to present your services — either as a classic list or in a modern card-based format.

How to configure:
This setting can be adjusted individually for each product type. Simply select the desired option in the "Tariff plan order form" section.

Plan and Product Type Icons

Visual design helps customers navigate your catalog. In BILLmanager, you can upload custom icons for service plans as well as for entire product types.

How to configure:

Go to edit a tariff plan or product type.
In the "Service order configuration" section, upload an image in the optimal resolution.
Configure the display parameters.

Grouping Tariffs

When you have a large number of service plans, grouping them by specific characteristics (filter groups) can be extremely helpful. For instance, this allows you to organize plans based on technical parameters. This gives potential customers the ability to filter plans by the criteria that matter most to them and quickly select the right service. A single plan can belong to multiple groups simultaneously.

Additionally, filter values can be used as tags, which can be color-coded for emphasis.

How to configure:

Go to the "Filter Groups" section.
Create a new group and configure its parameters.
For the created group, select "Values" → "Add" and define the necessary parameters.
Select a value, click the "Tariff", and assign the desired plans using the "Enable" and "Disable" buttons.

Filtering Tariffs
In BILLmanager, you can set up an intuitive system for logically categorizing your service plans, helping customers quickly find the right services based on key parameters. This feature is especially useful when a single product type contains many variants with different specifications. You can use it to highlight plans with specific technical characteristics, like 2 CPUs, or filter them by name.

Once configured, the left-hand menu in the "Products/Services" section will be structured as follows:
— Product Type (Level 1)
— — Product Subtype (Level 2)

When a user navigates to a Product Subtype, they will see all the plans assigned to that subtype.

How to configure:

To set up a subtype, go to Products → Product Types → select a type → the Subtypes button. Click the “New” button to add a subtype.
Activate the required tariff for this subtype. Go to Products → Product types → select a type → “Subtypes” button → select a subtype → “Tariffs” button → select a tariff → “On” button.

Adding Text Descriptions

In BILLmanager, you can create detailed plan descriptions to help customers make informed decisions. These can include both technical specifications and marketing information.

How to configure:

Enter your text description when creating or editing a tariff plan.
By default, BILLmanager will collapse long descriptions, showing only the first three lines of text.
To make descriptions always display in full, go to Product Types → Tariff plan order form settings and enable the "Disclose description in the order" option. This is useful if you want customers to see all plan details immediately before purchase.

Displaying Parameters

In BILLmanager, you have flexible control over how customers see the available add-ons for each service plan. This helps prevent interface clutter and focuses attention on the most important options.
By default, a plan's card displays all available add-ons: six are shown directly on the card, while the rest appear after clicking the "Show more" link. You can adjust the number of add-ons displayed.

How to configure:

Go to Tariff Plans → Options.
Select the desired add-ons and click "Edit".
In the "Service order configuration" section, disable the "Hide on the tariff card" option.

Number of Displayed Service Plans

In BILLmanager, you can choose how many service plan options a customer sees at once when browsing the catalog. This is especially useful for providers with a large catalogue of services.

By default, three plan cards are displayed, but you can configure this number to fit your needs.

How to configure:

Locate the configuration file. By default, it is located at /usr/local/mgr5/etc/billmgr.conf.
In the configuration file, find the PricelistPerItemtype parameter.
Set this parameter to your desired value.

Plan Prioritization

To promote specific products and services, BILLmanager allows you to manually control the display order of service plans and add-ons using a priority-based sorting feature.

Plans with a higher priority are automatically moved to the top of the list. This function is available for both main service plans and add-ons.

How to configure:

Open the editing form for the service plan.
In the "Service order configuration" section, in the "Sorting" field enter the desired numeric value. The lower the number, the higher the tariff plan will appear in the list.

A well-configured service catalog is more than just a list of plans—it's a powerful tool for increasing sales and reducing the load on your support team. With BILLmanager, you can: