Whether you plan to launch a new electronic commerce project or want to update your existing telecom business model to make it more cost-efficient and user-friendly, picking the right recurring billing software that matches your objectives neatly and works in your company's favor is critical. Recurring billing is among the most trending invoice management techniques available now, handy for subscription businesses looking to streamline and optimize their invoicing process.
Let us see what recurring billing means and how employing a trusted and reliable subscription billing service can facilitate your company’s growth and increase the satisfaction of your customers.
Recurring Billing: What It Is and How It Works
Recurring billing is a payment mechanism preferred by many online subscription businesses that use it to charge their clients at regular intervals, i.e., once a week/month/year. Having a fixed amount deducted from one's banking account automatically and periodically is handy for both customers and provider companies. Subscribers do not have to worry about missing their payment and getting disconnected, while the provider can manage their financial transactions with more efficiency and ease.
Here are the types of organizations that can benefit from integrating recurring billing solutions into their workflow the most:
· Telecommunications companies that use a metered billing pricing model.
· Companies offering subscriptions to periodicals and journals.
· Gyms and fitness companies that sell memberships.
· Growing SaaS businesses looking to drive in more cash and improve customer retention.
Recurring billing comes in two different forms – regular and irregular recurring billing. The former is also referred to as fixed billing, and it is when the same fixed amount is deducted from the user’s account at equal intervals. It is a convenient method of handling your gym or newspaper subscription payments.
Irregular or variable recurring billing is when the amount collectible from the user changes from one billing cycle to another and depends on how much product or service the customer uses during a specified period. Such users can be charged for anything that exceeds the coverage of their base subscription plan or the agreed quantity of the product or service provided within one billing cycle.
Both types of recurring billing help handle periodic payments in a fast, efficient, and reliable manner.
Benefits of Using Recurring Billing Software
A well-chosen recurring billing software solution may completely change how you run your company, making sure your invoices are created and sent to customers timely, professionally, and with as much ease as possible. Here are the most prominent advantages that your business can derive from using a trusted and adapt automated subscription billing system:
1. Elimination of revenue loss issues. When doing the billing manually, there is a good chance you will make an error at some point. Besides, due to a heavy workload, you are sometimes late to send out invoices to the customers and thus risk losing your money. Modern recurring billing software with auto-reminders will help eliminate these issues and recover funds lost to negligence or typos.
2. Reduction of the number of manual invoice adjustments. If the customer changes their billing plan in the middle of the billing cycle, a clever and agile automated subscription billing system will help formalize the adjustments quickly and accurately. You do not have to worry about omitting any crucial information.
3. Improved business decision-making process. A recurring billing platform with reliable reporting and analytics features will assist you in making more precise revenue forecasts and more informed business decisions.
4. Increased scalability and flexibility. As long as you pick the correct billing tool perfectly suited for your business needs, introducing additional and customized functions to your recurring billing software shouldn't be hard. Your automated billing software can grow as your business grows and be as versatile as you need it to be.
Not every billing software product has the same outstanding functionality, so if you want to enjoy the best of what modern recurring billing systems can offer, look for one that provides the majority, better yet, all of the above benefits.
What Recurring Billing Software to Use?
A recurring billing system helps simplify the billing process and automate the handling of regular payments, making life a little easier for both company owners and their customers. The trick is to find the perfect recurring billing software that offers just the features you need. These primarily include top-grade security, simple CRM integration, handy account management tools, automated and customizable payment processing, auto-reminders, and auto-collections.
Luckily, if you are in the ISP, telco, or digital service business, you will not have to look too far, as there is already a reliable and robust billing system you can set up and start exploiting within minutes. Hydra billing is a rapidly expanding cloud-based billing solution well suited to match the needs of SMEs. Among its most prominent features, there is billing & invoicing, user-modifiable billing, customer accounts management tools, provisioning, and more.