Billing Management: #2 Fair way of Billing- Prorated Billing
Hello,
From speaking about the traditional ways of billing in the previous post, we are moving into the deep sea of billing. We are now in a zone to break out the most complex yet, I would call it the fairest way of billing, the Prorated Billing.
Prorated Billing ensures that customers pay only for the exact portion of a service they consume. Whether they join mid-cycle, switch plans, or cancel early, proration guarantees transparency and fairness.
What is Prorated Billing?
In short, prorated billing involves splitting charges according to the length of service used within a billing cycle. Instead of charging the customer for the entire month regardless of when they sign up or amend the subscription, businesses calculate charges accurately based on time or usage. This directly enhances customer trust and satisfaction and eliminates disputes over charges.
In this post, we will understand how proration works in different industries by examining the major industry types that need/must have proration in their billing strategy.
In this post, we will understand how proration works in different industries by examining the major industry types that need/must have proration in their billing strategy.
Scenario: SaaS
A SaaS customer starts the month on the Basic plan, which costs $30/month. Midway through the billing cycle, on the 15th, they realise they need additional features and decide to upgrade to the Pro plan, which costs $60/month.
Without proration, businesses might charge the full $60 or keep them on Basic until the next cycle, which is unfair. With proration, this can be solved by splitting the bill into the part that will be used and the period that has elapsed.
In this scenario, part of the month is charged at the Basic plan cost, and the remaining is charged at the Pro plan cost.
Old Plan | New Plan |
Basic Plan: $30 | Pro Plan: $60 |
Charges per day: $30/30=$1 | Charges per day: $60/30=$2 |
No.of days remaining: 15 | No.of days to be charged: 15 |
Credits Remaining: $1x15=$15 | Amount to be charged: $2x15=$30 |
Net Payable: Amount to be charged- Credits Remaining: $30-$15= $15 | |
The Final Invoice Amount must be charged on the 15th, and the customer's subscription will be moved to the Pro Plan.
Scenario: Telecom
Imagine a customer activating a mobile plan costing $60 on the 20th of the month. The company has a standard billing cycle of 30 days. Some businesses might activate the plan for the full plan amount and allow it to be charged again on the set billing cycle. However, that's not the ideal approach.
With Proration, the days before the activation date are excluded, and charges are made only for the exact number of days used.
Plan Amount: $60
Charge per day: $60/30= $2
No.of days to be billed: 10
Final Payable Amount: $20
The Final Payable Amount will be charged on the plan activation date, and the next charge will occur after 10 days, aligning with the billing cycle.
Scenario: Streaming Service
A streaming subscriber who is active in the $120/month Premium plan decides to switch to the $60/month Standard plan after 10 days of usage in the current billing cycle.
Without proration, the customer might feel overcharged for unused Premium days. So, to balance the charges between the higher-priced plan and the lower one, credits will be added to the customer account, which can either be refunded or adjusted for the next invoice cycle.
Old Plan | New Plan |
Premium Plan: $120 | Standard Plan Cost: $60 |
Charges per day: $120/30= $4 | Charges per day: $60/30= $2 |
No.of days used: 10 | No.of days remaining: 20 |
Charges for used days: $4x10= $40 | Amount to be charged: $2x20=$40 |
Remaining Credits: $80 |
|
Net Credit: Remaining Credits- Amount to be charged for 20 days: $80-$40= $40 | |
The Net Credit will stay with the customer account and will be applied to the next invoice, or it can be refunded.
Proration Across Industries
While SaaS, Telecom and Streaming services are the most common businesses where prorated billing happens quite often, other industries need this,
Logistics Companies operate with standard shipment charges. They might need proration when the volume of the consignment changes in the middle of the cycle.
Internet Service Providers use this when there is a change in plan within the billing cycle.
Fintech and Payment Apps prorate service fees when accounts are opened or closed in the middle of the billing cycle.
Zoho Billing has the finesse to handle these contract amendments effortlessly across industry types. Whether it's a mid-cycle upgrade, a partial cancellation, or a new customer subscribing during the middle of the billing cycle, Zoho Billing ensures invoices are adjusted seamlessly. Proration can be enabled in Zoho Billing with a simple toggle, and the application automatically takes care of all the math in the backend.
Proration Billing is not a burden but a gift wrapped in a hard cover.
Offering fair charges based on usage during billing increases confidence and provides businesses with a reputation for being fair and transparent. But what about usage that happens before it hits the bill? Even with proration in place, there are scenarios where usage happens before it's billed. For instance, a customer may request an add-on, consume additional resources, or make a one-time transaction in the middle of the billing period. These often fall into the category of unbilled charges.
In the next post, we will explore how businesses manage these unbilled charges and why keeping them in check is critical for accurate billing.
Stay Tuned!
Topic Participants
Hari Hara Sudhan. S
Sticky Posts
Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020
Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here'sCommunity Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020
Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly youCommunity Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020
Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate mostIntroducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020
Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides
Recent Topics
Subject character limit increase
We have an occasional user case where subject lines exceed 500 characters which is the ZeptoMail imposed limit. While I understand long subject lines are not "best practice", these are particular notification emails with specific information for clientAccount blocked
Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websitesNested notebooks
Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to know if it is possible to nest notebooks. It would be very helpful when there are too many, as it would improve organization. Thank you for your response. Best regards.Cannot see correct DNS config for mail after moving domain to another provider
I have moved my domain from one provider to another and after that zoho mail stopped working (expected). Problem is, zoho mail admin panel still shows (10 hours after move) that all records are correct while I haven't changed anything in my domain DNSProactive Alert for Existing Open Tickets per Contact / Account
Hello Zoho Desk Team, Greetings, and hope you’re doing well. We would like to submit a feature request aimed at improving agent awareness and efficiency when handling tickets in Zoho Desk. Use case When an agent opens a ticket (new or existing), it isAdd the ability to Hide Pages in Page Rules
Hi, We have Field Rules to show and hide fields and we have page Rules, but we can't hide a page in Page Rules so it isn't completed before the previous page (And then have the Deny Rules to prevent submitting without both pages completed), we can onlyTicket resolution field - can you add links, video, and images?
Seems like the ticket resolution fields is just a text field. Any plans to add the ability to add links, images...the same functionality in the problem description box? I would like to send the customer a link to a KB article, a link to our Wiki, embedTicket Resolution - Add rich formatting, screenshots and attachments
The resolution field only allows plain text at the moment. Many of our resolutions involve posting screenshots as evidence, it would be great for us to be able to have rich text formatting, be able to paste screenshots and add attachments in the solutionDeprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026
I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,Deleting a memorized email address
How can I delete a memorized email address? Even though the address has been deleted from Contacts, Zoho mail still auto suggests the address when typing it into the TO field. Thanks!CRUD actions for Resources via API
Hello, is it possible to perform CRUD actions through the API for Resources? We want to create a sync from Zoho CRM Car record to Bookings resources to create availabilities for Car bookings. For Test drives, not only the sales person needs to be available,Kaizen #140 - Integrating Blog feed scraping service into Zoho CRM Dashboard
Howdy Tech Wizards! Welcome to a fresh week of kaizen. This week, we will look at how to create a dashboard widget that displays the most recent blog post of your preferred products/services, updated daily at a specific time. We will leverage the potentialConvert Lead Automation Trigger
Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetchedI'm getting this error when I try to link an email to a deal inside the Zohomail Zoho CRM extension.
When I click "Yes, associate," the system displays an "Oops!! Something went wrong" error message. I have attached a screenshot of the issue for reference.Zoho Sheet - Desktop App or Offline
Since Zoho Docs is now available as a desktop app and offline, when is a realistic ETA for Sheet to have the same functionality?I am surprised this was not laucned at the same time as Docs.ZOHO add-in issue
I cannot connect ZOHO from my Outlook. I am getting this error.Marketing Automation
L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyedWhat's New in Zoho Analytics - January 2026
Hello Users! We are starting the year with a strong lineup of updates, marking the beginning of many improvements planned to enhance your analytics experience. Explore the latest improvements built to boost performance, simplify analysis, and help youTranslation from Chinese (Simplified) to Chinese (Traditional) is not working. It randomly translated. Google Translate accurately but zoho translate is not working at all
Hi friends, The newly added language for translation. https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html "zh" - Chinese "zh-CN" - Chinese (Simplified) "zh-TW" - Chinese (Traditional) my original text: 郑这钻 (and it is zh-CN) translated traditionalThe Social Playbook - January edition: Getting started with content creation
Social media isn’t just about posting some random content. It’s about why certain content works, how brands stand out, and what makes people pause mid-scroll. The Social Playbook is a monthly community series where we break all of that down. Through realSupport for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal
Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While theseAdding bank details to the contact through API
How to add bank-related information to the contact while creating it using API? The account number needs to be encrypted before sending it through API but not sure how to encrypt and get those values. Please guide me in this.Font breakage in Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac
Dear Zoho Mail and Workplace Community, With the latest update of macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, there has been font breakages in the email preview of Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac. This breakage is due to the corruption of the System fontsFeature request - image resizing on sales orders
I need to be able to show the items on the sales orders, currently the item image shows really small and no way to resize it, need the ability to make the image larger to showcase the product on the pdfsWhat's new in Zoho Sheet: Simplify data entry and collaboration
Hello, Zoho Sheet community! Last year, our team was focused on research and development so we could deliver updates that enhance your spreadsheet experience. This year, we’re excited to deliver those enhancements—but we'll be rolling them out incrementallyNueva edición de "Ask The Expert" en Español Zoho Community
¡Hola Comunidad! ¿Te gustaría obtener respuestas en directo sobre Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk u otra solución dentro de nuestro paquete de CX (Experiencia del Cliente? Uno de nuestros expertos estará disponible para responder a todas tus preguntas durante nuestraAutomation Series: Auto-Notify External Users on Issue Closure
Hello Folks! In Zoho Projects, you can notify external issue reporters via email when an issue is marked as Closed. This helps the users avoid manual follow-ups and keeps the reporter updated. In this post, we’ll walk through a simple setup using a WebTurn chat conversations into real action with Integration Blocks in Guided Conversations
When a Guided Conversation fails, it's usually not because the logic is wrong. They fail because the conversation stops moving. A customer starts a chat with a clear goal: report an issue, check a status, or confirm something. At first, the flow doesBasic Mass Update deluge schedule not working
I'm trying to create a schedule that will 'reset' a single field to 0 every morning - so that another schedule can repopulate with the day's calculation. I thought this would be fairly simple but I can't work out why this is failing : 1) I'm based inclick to call feature
I've Zoho CRM and in that i want click to call feature.We Asked, Zoho Delivered: The New Early Access Program is Here
For years, the Zoho Creator community has requested a more transparent and participatory approach to beta testing and feature previews. Today, I'm thrilled to highlight that Zoho has delivered exactly what we asked for with the launch of the Early AccessFrom Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View
Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world withCan the Product Image on the Quote Template be enlarged
Hello, I am editing the Quote Template and added ${Products.Product Image} to the line item and the image comes up but it is very tiny. Is there anyway that you can resize this to be larger? Any help would be great! ThanksCreating Parent Child relationship in Accounts
We have customers with multiple locations, I setup the HQ as an account, then I setup the different sites marking the HQ as the parent to that location. If I then do a Deal for one of the locations, is there a way to show by looking at the parent accountLearner transcript Challenges.
Currently i am working on a Learner Transcript app for my employer using Zoho Creator. The app is expected to accept assessment inputs from tutors, go through an approval process and upon call up, displays all assessments associated with a learner inClient and Vendor Portal
Some clients like keeping tabs on the developments and hence would like to be notified of the progress. Continuous updates can be tedious and time-consuming. Zoho Sprints has now introduced a Client and Vendor Portal where you can add client users andneed a packing list feature
In our business, goods listed on an invoice are packed in separate boxes and shipped off. for e.g. an invoice may have 10 items. each item could then be packed in different boxes depending on qty of each item. this packing list is as important as the invoice for purposes of shipping documents. Request you to add this feature asap.Recording the deducted TDS on advance received from Customer (Zoho Books India)
Hi, How can we record the tds that has been deducted by my customer for the advance that he has paid to me. 1) My customer has paid Rs 10000 to me as advance (Rs 9800 as cash and deducted Rs 200 as TDS). I am not able to record the tds that has been deducted#7 Tip of the week: Delegating approvals in Zoho People
With Zoho People, absences need not keep employees waiting with their approval requests. When you are not available at work, you can delegate approvals that come your way to your fellow workmate and let them take care of your approvals temporarily. Learn more!Admin Tip: Manage sub-domain emails using sub-domain stripping
As an admin, you may need separate domains for different departments such as sales, support, and marketing. While this approach offers flexibility, creating and managing multiple domains can quickly become overwhelming, especially since each domain requiresNext Page