Advanced Usage Billing: Prepaid with Drawdown
Picture yourself at your favourite coffee shop, Bean & Brew. You come by every morning for your usual cappuccino, and occasionally you get an extra cold brew and a muffin or two in the afternoon. Interestingly, Bean & Brew has a new idea of offering a Coffee Pass. You can pay $50 in advance for 25 drinks. Each time you purchase a coffee, the system automatically deducts one drink from your prepaid balance. The goal is to have no wait time at the counter.
Some weeks, you go there every day. You might skip a few mornings at other times. No matter what, you've already paid in full, and you're just taking money out of your balance/credit as you go.
You can immediately add money to your balance if it gets low or runs out. If you have extra drinks at the end of the month, you can even roll them over to the next month. The payment process seems straightforward and clear while giving you full control.
That's the simplest way to explain Prepaid with Drawdown.
The New Reality
Prepaid with Drawdown is quietly gaining ground because people need it in today's world. Businesses that offer AI, machine learning, and cloud services have a unique problem as they slowly move into consumption-based billing. They can't predict how their services will be used. A customer might make a few API requests one week, and the next week, they might process millions of data points or hours of video.
Traditional monthly billing is difficult to maintain. Customers often receive bills they weren't expecting, and businesses have to wait longer for money and take on more credit risk.
That's when Prepaid with Drawdown comes into play.
Customers pay in advance for a set number of credits or usage units. The system automatically takes credits from the prepaid balance every time they use the service, whether it's transcription minutes or an API call. Customers can always see what's left, add more when they need to, and, depending on the provider's policy, roll over unused credits.
It's a model that combines predictability and flexibility. It lets customers control costs while businesses keep a steady flow of cash.
Prepaid with Drawdown in Zoho Billing
Zoho Billing has built-in support for Prepaid with Drawdown billing, which makes it easy for businesses to switch to this new model quickly and easily. This prepaid drawdown will change the game for setting up fair and real-time cash flow if you work in AI services, SaaS, cloud computing, or any other business model that relies on consumption.
Create prepaid plan or add-on: Define prepaid products so that customers pay for usage credits in advance.
Drawdown Addon: Link usage lets services automatically take credits out of prepaid balances.
Real-time usage tracking: Track usage through Zoho's API or admin console and see the balance change right away.
Manage Overage and Rollover: Set up how overage usage is billed and how unused credit can be rolled over.
Top-Up and Overrides: Let customers add credits in the middle of a billing cycle or change the number of credits when they sign up for a subscription.
Statement and Invoicing: Statement shows the number of credits/units consumed, and it can be invoiced instantly or with the upcoming cycle along with overage charges.
Scenario:
Let's say a cloud storage service offers a safe place for startups and content creators to store and back up their data.
The service provider offers a Prepaid Storage Plan because file uploads and downloads can vary a lot from month to month. Every customer pays in advance for a certain amount of data credits, like 5TB. Zoho Billing keeps track of how much they use every time they upload or download files and takes the same amount out of their prepaid balance.
The service provider also offers a Compression Service, where each GB of compressed data users receive 0.5 GB worth of credit.
Anna subscribes to the prepaid storage plan.
She consumes 800 GB of data on the first day.
Zoho Billing takes 800 GB off their prepaid balance right away, leaving them with 4200 GB.
Anna consumes 100 GB of compressed data, which Zoho Billing seamlessly handles through a drawdown rate and reduces the credit by 50 GB.
Again, on day 10, another 1000 GB was used, leaving Anna with a balance of 3150 GB in credit at the end of the month.
When usage tracking is connected to Zoho Billing in real time using APIs, all of this happens in real time.
Suppose, the balance credit reaches zero, Zoho Billing automatically starts tracking any extra usage as overage. This extra usage will be charged at standard rates on the next invoice or right away if the business chooses to "Charge Now." Also, The service provider rolls over the credits to the next billing cycle to make it flexible and fair.
Note: The prepaid with Drawdown billing model is currently in early access. Reach out to support@zohobilling.com to enable it for your business. Then, go through our Prepaid with Drawdown in Zoho Billing help document to configure it in your organization. For Customers | For Business |
Pay in advance to avoid surprise bills or missing payments. | Getting paid before services are used will improve cash flow. |
Keep an eye on the credits you use and your remaining balance right away. | Keep unpaid bills and late payments to a minimum. |
Buy more units whenever you need them to handle a spike in use. | Track how people use your service in real time to optimize service delivery. |
Unused credits can be carried over when policies allow them, so there is no waste. | Overage can be tracked and monetized easily without service interruption. |
I am confident that the next time you use your coffee pass at Bean & Brew, or any other prepaid service, you will realize it is more than just a convenience. It's a small, everyday reflection of how many big data-driven companies are changing how we pay for technology.
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
Almost all Flows are being queued
A few days ago I saw one of my Flows status was Queued. This was the first time this had ever happened. Now, almost every Flow that triggers is Queued for at least a few minutes. If I re-trigger the Flow (which causes separate problems) they sometimesEmployment Contract / HRMS Documents - Zoho People
How do I create customized HR documents for disbursal from Zoho People ? Example, say offer letters ? appointment letters ? Memos ? We want to be able to preset these in one or ther other form and issue them to employees who are in Zoho People.Live webinar: Craft and deliver impactful slides with Show’s desktop apps
If you love the comfort of working on your desktop and want a setup that keeps you focused and uninterrupted, this session is made for you. We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar: "Craft and deliver impactful slides with Show's desktopEnhancements to Bigin's forms
Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to Bigin's forms. We'll go over each one in detail. Merge field support in auto-filled forms The auto-fill option in Bigin's forms lets you predefineTable dimensions
I try changing the dimensions of the table on my computer but it doesn't change. Do I have to be a premium member or does it only work on the app?Direct link to Record Summary
Hi everyone, In one of my reports, I have built a Record Summary template to display the details of one record. I would like to be able to link directly to this Record Summary once I submit a new record, without having to go to the list of records first and click on View. Is there a possibility to do so ? Should I use the URL by passing some parameters ? Thank you very much for your help ! GuillaumeVerifying Zoho Mail Functionality After Switching DNS from Cloudflare to Hosting Provider
I initially configured my domain's (https://roblaxmod.com/) email with Zoho Mail while using Cloudflare to manage my DNS records (MX, SPF, etc.). All services were working correctly. Recently, I have removed my site from Cloudflare and switched my domain'sAPI Support for Creating Invoices with Batch-Tracked Items
Hi Zoho Community, I am working on an integration where we create invoices in ERPNext and push them to Zoho Books. I need to send batch-tracked items (batch numbers) when creating invoices. I could not find any reference in the Zoho Books API documentation.Amendment effective date
Hi everyone, I noticed that the amendment effective date mentionned in my amendment is not right. Indeed, when a contract is amended several times, it states the previous amendment and their effective date. However, the effective date stated is alwaysShow both Vendor and Customers in contact statement
Dear Sir, some companies like us working with companies as Vendor and Customers too !!! it mean we send invoice and also receive bill from them , so we need our all amount in one place , but in contact statement , is separate it as Vendor and Customer,STOCK history in zohosheets
is it possible to get historical stock value using stock function in zoho sheets? i could not see from and to period in the helper document.Auto sync Photo storage
Hello I am new to Zoho Workdrive and was wondering if the is a way of automatically syncing photos on my Android phone to my workdrive as want to move away from Google? ThanksAgent password reset
Hi Zoho support, I would like to ask if there is a way the admin can reset a password of an agent? RegardsCan receive but not send messages in Zoho Mail
Hello! I was able to configure my email client successfully in that I can receive messages just fine. However, when I send messages out, they seem to go out fine (I don't receive any errors or anything), but the recipient does NOT receive those messages.Mail is sent twice!
Been using Zoho for a while now. Installed Zoho for someone else and some weird things are happening. Mails are being sent twice. He is using Thunderbird as an email client. I already read about email being duplicated in the sent folder. But in my caseCan't login IMAP suddenly
Since this evening I'm getting the error: You are yet to enable IMAP for your account. Please contact your administrator... IMAP always been enabled in my account and was workign fine for the past 7 years. Already tried turning IMAP off and on again.Sending of username did not succeed: Mail server pop.zoho.com responded: User already specified
I am having issues receiving emails from Zoho in Thunderbird. I am getting the above error. The first error tells me Authentication failed, and prompts me to enter in my password. Then I get the above error. I can receive emails when I log in online toBug tracking
Hi, does anyone know how to track errors during picking or packing? This way I can keep track and see how to improve and prevent errors in this area.Migration of corporate mail environment from Yandex 360 to Zoho mail
I have to migrate a corporate mail environment with an existing domain from Yandex 360 to Zoho mail. It is vital to migrate all users with all the data. I have read the article on this topic using MacMister Email Backup Software just now and have someI'm unable to send mail pthrough Zoho SMTP programmatically
This has been working for years, but today it's been offline all day long. I see nothing anywhere on your site about this. I'm not the only one experiencing this. Downdetector has a spike of reports todayCan no longer send email via Django site
This was working fine as of 11/7/25. Now I am unable to send user verification emails from a Django site on a AWS lightsail sever. When a user attempts to register the following error occurs. I have also attempted to send a test email via the shell andunable to send email but able to receive email
my email address is info@securityforceservices.caLogin to server failing
When trying to retrieve my mail, I am getting this error message -- Login to server pop.zoho.com with username (my email address) failed. It gives me the option to retry, enter password, or cancel. Then I get this message -- Sending of username did notConfiguration failed: 200 response not received for POST request.
Hello, I am trying to set up a webhook to connect with an Salesforce but I receive the following error from Zoho: Configuration failed: 200 response not received for POST request I have tried testing it on webhook.site as well and receive the same errorZoho Migration Assistant not working
Hello, I am trying to use you Migration assistant to migrate emails from Rediff to Zoho. I am stuck in the first step. After downloading the migration tool, I copied the link to verify user credentials, however, after pasting the link in the browser,Paid Support Plans with Automated Billing
We (like many others, I'm sure) are designing or have paid support plans. Our design involves a given number of support hours in each plan. Here are my questions: 1) Are there any plans to add time-based plans in the Zoho Desk Support Plans feature? TheScheduled Reports - Do not send empty report
Hello, We are intensively using reports in the CRM, especially for sales managers. When data is empty, they still receive an email. Can you add an option to avoid sending the report when data is empty?Contacts Missing — PeopleSync/Zoho Mail
English: In our company we use ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager (MDM), Free edition, to manage corporate mobile devices. Our usage policy does not allow personal Google accounts on these devices; therefore, Google account sync is blocked through MDM.Best way to integrate Zoho with mobile app for managing customer requests with real-time notifications?
Hello, I'm building a solution for a travel company where customers submit requests through a website, and the sales team manages these requests through a mobile app. The Requirement: Customers fill a form on the website (name, email, number of children,Kaizen #57 - Mass Update API in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone! Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen series. This week, we will discuss the Mass Update API in Zoho CRM. In this post, we will cover the following: 1. Introduction 2. Mass Update Records API 3. Schedule Update and Get StatusGetting Attachments in Zoho Desk via API
Is there a way to get attachments into Zoho Desk via an API? We have a process by which a zoho survey gets sent to the user as a link in a notification. The survey has several upload fields where they can upload pdf documents. I've createdMultiple currencies - doesn’t seem to work for site visitors / customers
I am trying to understand how the multiple currency feature works from the perspective of the website visitor who is shopping on my Zoho Commerce site. My site’s base currency is US Dollars (USD) but my store is for customers in Costa Rica and I wouldPincode based Product Restriction
we have different types of products. 1) Very bulky items like plywood. 2) Too delicate items like glass These type of products we want to sell to local customers. Other products we want to supply all over India. There should be an option to restrict productsCan multiple agents be assigned to one ticket on purpose?
Is it possible to assign one ticket to two or more agents at a time? I would like the option to have multiple people working on one ticket so that the same ticket is viewable for those agents on their list of pending tickets. Is something like this currentlyRelated Lists filter
I have Contacts showing in our Accounts module. I customized the Contacts module with an Employment Status field, with the following picklist options: "Primary Contact", "Secondary Contact", "Active Staff(not a main contact)", and "No longer employed".Standalone custom function not generating logs
Why dont't standalone custom functions generate logs when the're called from another function? I have some functions (workflow, buttons and blueprint) that have common parts, so I put that part in a standalone function which is called from the others.Add "Reset MFA" Option for Zoho Creator Client Portal Users
Hello Zoho Creator Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement related to Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for client portal users in Zoho Creator. Currently, Creator allows us to enforce MFA for portal users,Support Bots and Automations in External Channels
Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channelsUrgent Security Feature Request – Add MFA to Zoho Projects Client Portal Hello Zoho Projects Team,
Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit an urgent security enhancement request regarding the Zoho Projects Client Portal. At this time, as far as we are aware, there is no Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) availableCreator HTML page refresh
Hi, I have added around 5 different html snippets in single creator page. I understand, I can refresh the entire page from page script using Navigational URLs https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/creator/developer-guide/others/url-patterns/articles/navigational-urlsNext Page