In today’s fast-paced business landscape, efficient and seamless payment processing is paramount to your bottom line. However, staying focused on the big picture can be challenging if your business is bogged down by repetitive payments and intricate billing procedures—both common hurdles for a billing system with inadequate functionality.
As industry leaders in billing software, our mission is to help our customers work more efficiently, recover more revenue, and effortlessly collect invoices.
In this article, we’ll explore the significance of billing platforms in contemporary business, delve into the features that set Stax Bill apart, and guide you through the process of selecting the right billing solution for your unique needs.
TL;DR
- A billing platform is a comprehensive system facilitating subscription management, recurring billing, revenue recognition, payment gateways, analytics, and dunning processes.
- Choosing the best billing solution involves a strategic evaluation of your business needs, scalability, vendor reputation, and pricing models.
- Subscription-based billing platforms ensure accurate billing cycles, efficient invoicing, and seamless customer subscription handling.
Stax Bill simplifies invoice and subscription billing management by automating manual financial processes. This subscription billing platform helps businesses improve accountability with clean and accurate books by eliminating the need to manually handle complex tasks. Additionally, the platform automates the dunning process to reduce customer churn and revenue leakage. Stax Bill offers increased accuracy and payment consistency during the payment collection cycle, allowing businesses to maximize financial health and subscription growth.
“The customization and advanced financial insight provided by Stax Bill firmly separates it from other subscription and invoice platforms available in the U.S.,” said Suneera Madhani, founder and CEO of Stax. “Not only does the solution provide the metrics needed to spur growth, but it has also proven to help subscription-based businesses reduce time spent on billing operations by about 80 percent so they can focus on what matters most.”
What is a Billing Platform?
A billing platform is a comprehensive system facilitating subscription management, recurring billing, revenue recognition, payment gateways, analytics, and dunning processes.
There are several billing platform types, and depending on your business type some may be more useful than others. For the purpose of this article, we’ll cover the specifics of subscription-based and usage-based billing models, but there are others including project-based billing, one-time billing and tiered pricing models.
Subscription-based billing platform
Ideal for businesses with recurring revenue models, subscription-based billing platforms automate the management of subscriptions. These platforms ensure accurate billing cycles, efficient invoicing, and customer subscription handling.
Usage-based billing platform
Tailored for businesses with fluctuating usage patterns, usage-based billing platforms provide flexibility in billing customers based on their actual consumption. This model is well-suited for industries where usage varies from month to month.
Key Features of Billing Software
Recurring billing and automated subscription management and payment processing
One of the main benefits of a subscription business model is revenue forecasting and product flow predictability. With Stax Bill, you can automate repetitive subscription billing tasks, ensuring timely and error-free invoicing, and enhanced cash flow predictability.
Your accounts receivable department will be thrilled when human error is reduced and the subscription and transaction process has payment processing built in. Efficiently manage payments and invoicing processes, reducing manual errors and enhancing overall operational efficiency.
Recurring revenue recognition—ASC 606-compliant
ASC 606 is the revenue recognition standard all businesses must comply with if they are entering into contracts with customers—so when we’re talking about subscription-based relationships, maintaining compliance with this standard is key. Ensure your billing platform is compliant with accounting regulations, particularly ASC 606, for accurate revenue recognition for subscription-based businesses.
Payment gateway and management
For subscription-based businesses, integrating with your payment gateway ensures a smooth experience and easy auditability by having all purchases consolidated in one place. Because Stax Bill is part of the Stax family of payment processing solutions, our customers enjoy a simplified experience, increased payment collection rates, full visibility into transaction fees, and ultimately cut down on costs for payment processing.
Subscription management and analytics
Insight into the lifecycle of subscriptions and real-time metrics to help you predict future business is crucial. Stax Bill is customer-friendly, empowering your customers to self-register and manage their own subscriptions in the self-service portal, saving your team time and giving subscribers a better customer experience, thus reducing churn.
Dunning management
Dunning, the practice of attempting to collect payments is usually time-consuming and laborious. Minimize revenue leakage by efficiently managing failed payments and subscription renewals with proactive dunning management in your billing platform.
Customization and integration capabilities with other business systems foster retention
Your payments ecosystem should be able to be customized to your specific needs, ensuring a seamless integration with existing business processes. No two businesses are the same, so choose a payment and billing platform that meets your current and potential future needs.
In the thriving SaaS landscape, application programming interface (API) capabilities are crucial to ensure smooth business operations. Stax Bill offers unparalleled integration capabilities, ensuring smooth coordination with your existing systems for a unified business operation. Stax Bill has native integrations to leading software your business probably already uses, including Salesforce, HubSpot, NetSuite, QuickBooks and more.
How to Select the Best Billing Solution for Your Business
Choosing the best billing solution involves a strategic evaluation of your business needs, scalability, vendor reputation, and pricing models. Here are a few key points to consider when selecting your billing platform solution.
Assessing your business needs
Identify your unique billing requirements, considering factors such as the nature of your products or services, customer base, and growth projections. For example, combining the functionality of a payment gateway with your billing platform creates a seamless experience for you and your customers (and Stax Bill is designed to do just that!)
Opt for a billing platform that can scale with your business, accommodating future growth and adapting to evolving market trends.
Evaluate vendor reputation and support services
Part of onboarding any new supplier or software solution includes due diligence—especially if we’re talking about finances and payments. Make sure you choose wisely by partnering with a company that upholds your values and operates with integrity.
Comparing pricing models
Understand the pricing structures of different billing platforms, ensuring they align with your budget constraints and offer value for money. Many companies pay more than they need to for their payment processing and billing solutions software.
Not sure if it’s worth the switch and want to learn more about the real costs? Check out the Stax Bill ROI calculator to see how much you could save.
Implementing Your Billing Platform
Once you’ve selected the right billing platform, the implementation process is critical for a smooth transition. Below is a basic overview of the steps you’ll need to take to successfully implement your billing platform.
Needs assessment: Identify specific business requirements and choose your billing platform provider.
Customization: During implementation, tailor the platform to match your unique needs (assuming you’ve chosen a platform that can be customized to your business needs).
Integration: Integrate with existing systems with API capabilities so your systems are connected and data can be analyzed in real-time.
Training: When implementing any new technology, training all users is the key to adoption and usage across your business. Stax Bill provides comprehensive training and ongoing support, ensuring your team is well-equipped to leverage the full potential of the platform.
Testing: Thoroughly test the system before full deployment and ensure everyone from your accounts payable team to your CFO is comfortable with the new software.
Ongoing monitoring and management: Regularly monitor the platform’s performance, address any issues promptly, and stay updated on new features and updates.
How Does it Work in the Real World?
When it comes down to “how well does this solution work”, the proof is in the reviews and customer case studies. Stax Bill has 4.2 out of 5.0 stars on the software review site, G2 and several case studies on our website that speak to the real-world impacts of our innovative billing solutions. Let’s examine some examples of successful billing platform implementations.
When it comes to simplified billing automation, one of our G2 reviewers couldn’t have said it better, “Stax Bill is super easy to use. It is customizable to suit your billing needs and has a great customer support team to help you when there are challenges.”
Another one of our customer reviews speaks volumes about the cost savings, “We were using a much more expensive billing solution when we found Stax Bill. The transition was very well supported, and we have been highly pleased with our Monthly Recurring Revenue collections since day 1. Later, we were able to shut down our other gateway and save additional fees for processing credit cards. On top of that, we are also able to add “auto-updating” for expired credit cards – a feature that would have been much more costly through our former gateway!”
Stax Bill helped our customer, The Covenant Group, redistribute 80% of their billing efforts to higher-level business operations by implementing recurring billing. The Covenant Group automated its lengthy recurring invoicing and payment process and customers are able to use the self-service portal to update their own information. Not only that, the delayed dunning process was eliminated entirely by using automated notifications about payments being due, payment failures, and outstanding payments.
Another valued Stax Bill customer, Avionica, was able to automate billing functionality and reduce time spent on billing-related processes. The team at Avionica now has access to granular reporting, better revenue and churn predictability and more transparent and accurate billing. The Stax Bill self-service portal also allows their customers easy access to their accounts to ensure they’re accurately charged and able to make changes when needed.
Ready to learn how Stax Bill can revolutionize your billing processes, streamline revenue management and contribute to revenue growth? Get in touch to learn more!
FAQs about Billing Platforms
Q: What is a billing platform?
A billing platform is a software solution used by businesses to automate the process of invoicing and billing. It typically includes features for generating invoices, tracking payments, managing customer accounts, and reporting financial data.
Q: How do you create a billing system?
Creating a billing system involves: defining billing processes, selecting appropriate software, customizing it to fit business needs, integrating it with other systems (like CRM or ERP), and setting up secure payment processing.
Q: What are the capabilities of a billing platform?
A billing platform typically includes capabilities like invoice generation, payment processing, subscription management, customer account management, reporting, and integration with other business systems.
Q: What is a recurring billing platform?
A recurring billing platform is a system designed to handle repeated billing cycles, commonly used for subscription-based services. It automates the process of charging customers on a regular basis.
Q: What is the difference between a billing system and payment system?
A billing system focuses on generating and managing invoices and accounts receivable, whereas a payment system is designed to process monetary transactions, like credit card payments and bank transfers. While they often work together, they serve different functions in the financial process.
