This is more than likely the hosting industry standard of use, What are you thoughts on software?
WHMCS is fantastic because it's so feature rich and customers understand how it works because it's so widely used. However there is something to be said for SaaS billing platforms like BillingServ which are able to role out automatic updates and can have fantastic uptime.
I have been using WHMCS for awhile now and I am not impressed, I do not think it is very user friendly at all.