How agencies bill clients for domain and SSL renewals (and stop absorbing the cost)

Updated 21 October 2026

Renewals are small individually and easy to forget collectively. An agency paying for 80 client domains and a handful of paid certificates out of its own card is quietly giving away margin.

1. Decide your renewal policy

• Pass-through: bill the renewal at cost, monthly.
• Pass-through + admin fee: a flat fee per renewal for tracking and handling.
• Bundled: include renewals in a care plan and price it in.
• Client-paid: the client owns the registrar account and pays directly; you only track and remind.

2. Record who pays for every asset

For each domain and certificate: registrar or CA, account owner (agency/client), who pays, auto-renew on/off, renewal cost and currency.

3. Put it in the contract

State who owns the domain, who pays renewals, how much notice you'll give, and what happens if the client doesn't respond. Have your own lawyer review the wording.

4. Invoice monthly from one report

At the start of each month, list everything renewed or due that month, grouped by client, with cost and who pays. That becomes the invoice line items.

5. Remind clients who pay directly

For client-owned registrar accounts, send the client a reminder in your agency's name before the registrar's own reminders start, so the call doesn't come to you after the site is down.

How RenewRoster helps

Each asset records who pays and the renewal cost. The monthly renewals report (HTML, CSV or PDF) groups renewals by client and totals what to bill. Paid plans add white-label client reminders.

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