I know I rail about WHMCS and their horrible culture, and I know you think I am exaggerating, but this will put your mind at rest and once again I get to be right.

I misunderstood some instructions from a customer and included some extra things in an order I placed on their behalf. Let’s pretend the total of the order was $232.50 (which it was).

This is what it looks like in the orders list

What if I told you that the order was then edited via the “proper” way to do it, a bunch of items were removed so that the total was now $55, but it still shows $232.50

Any rational business owner…nay, human, would say “there is something wrong here”…or is it me?

It must be me, because despite the order only being for $55 worth of items, WHMCS insist that it is correct. What is great about this is the support ticket exchange and the ultimate excuse for why they do it:

I had an order to the value of $232.50

The order needed to be modified so some items were deleted and the invoice modified to now be $55.

However the order s still showing the original amount...why - see attached (with a screenshot like that above)

The order record provides a static record of the details at the time of ordering. You can certainly adjust the service First Payment Amount/Recurring Amount values and the invoice directly to change how much the client is actually charged. But the order total will always reflect the total of the order at the time of ordering.

Statement of fact…I want to know why and I am beyond expecting anything rational, so I get off to a good start

That is madness beyond what is typical for WHMCS

Please explain the logic behind an order being changed but the value of the order not being changed.

The value of the invoice or services can be changed, but that doesn’t change the value at the time the order was placed. WHMCS provides a mechanism to track all these values.

Still not answering the unanswerable…I push on

Please explain under what circumstances a person might want to keep track of the value of an order "when it was placed" when the ultimate value of the order was changed?

Because I can't, for the life of me, imagine such a situation.

It is valuable to know the price your customer saw in the shopping cart and checkout pace prior to placing their order, so that you can know their price expectations and how they might react to an increase or decrease vs that price.

WHAT THE F’ING F????

Apart from not really making sense, it doesn’t make any sense at all. Here is where this is at right now…

LOL...that is the most ridiculous thing ever John. THAT is why I would want to not see the true value of an order? You are joking, right?

I know you have to struggle to defend many of WHMCS quirks, but that one is worth sharing.

They are truly bizarre, and can produce a mostly workable product, but seem to have no idea how people run a business.