# Manual Provisioning for Hetzner Resellers: What to Automate and What to Keep Human

*Hetzner · Operations workflow · September 3, 2026 · 8 min read*

For a small hosting reseller, “customer pays and a server appears” is not always the best service. A reliable model is often: review, provision, bill and document. Automate repeatable work; keep commercial approval, exceptions and destructive actions with a responsible person.

## Three operating models

| Model | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Fully manual | Complex migrations, managed systems and one-off projects | Administration becomes slow if it is not documented |
| Review then provision | Small B2B teams with standard services and client-specific terms | Needs a clear handoff from approved order to operations |
| Fully automated catalogue | High-volume, fixed products | Exceptions and risk controls must be designed in advance |

For many Hetzner resellers, review then provision is the practical choice.

## What to automate

Hetzner Cloud can programmatically manage servers, Volumes, Firewalls, Floating IPs and Load Balancers. Standard build settings can include location, image, server type, SSH key, network, volume, firewall and backups.

Good automation candidates are:

- creating a client and service record after an approved order;
- recurring invoices, payment reminders and overdue follow-up;
- an approved baseline build: image, SSH key, label and firewall;
- provisioning checklist and client handover email;
- standard recurring items for servers, backups and agreed storage;
- documented one-off setup and migration charges.

## What should stay human

Keep an explicit owner for new-client approval and payment risk, custom prices and support terms, architecture and non-standard sizing, firewall exceptions, migrations, data access, cancellation, deletion and snapshot retention.

Hetzner’s own project permissions support this idea: a Restricted member cannot create or delete servers and is limited around backups and snapshots. Limit increases are also reviewed manually by Hetzner.

## A review-then-provision workflow

1. Receive the order and define the client-facing service.
2. Review the client, price, payment terms, technical scope and setup work.
3. Approve a standard build or document the exception.
4. Provision in Hetzner manually or through a controlled template.
5. Verify access, firewall, backup scope and readiness before handover.
6. Activate recurring billing and add one-off work where agreed.
7. Before cancellation, review payment status, volumes and snapshots.

## Where BillOps fits

BillOps manages the commercial layer: client records, recurring and one-off charges, per-client prices, invoices, payments, reminders and the client portal. Hetzner remains the infrastructure control plane. BillOps does not claim a default native provisioning or synchronization integration with Hetzner; custom API work is separately reviewed and scoped.

Supplier references: [Hetzner API overview](https://docs.hetzner.cloud/), [creating a Cloud server](https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/servers/getting-started/creating-a-server/), [Cloud project roles and limits](https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/general/faq/) and [Robot Webservice](https://robot.hetzner.com/doc/webservice/en.html).

[See BillOps pricing](/#pricing) or [book a 30-minute demo](mailto:info@billops.app).