Billing Management: #1 Billing a Universal Business Routine

Billing Management: #1 Billing a Universal Business Routine

Hello,

As the saying goes, "Do the hardest job first." We started with the complex subject of finance and revenue management, which is considered the backbone of any business. Now, let's shift our focus and take a deep dive into this Billing Management, which is equally more challenging than revenue management. In short, billing is the practical side of how revenue actually flows.

Any business's main source of revenue lies in its sales. You may hail from any country, but selling a product or service doesn't really work without an invoice or a payment receipt. Billing is not merely a task during sales; it is proof of value exchanged and the starting point of reliable cash flow. In this opening post, we will look into the common methods of billing that prevail.

One-Time Billing 

One-time billing is the simplest model. In this model, a single payment is made for a product or a service, and the transaction ends there.

 Think of walking into an electronics store, buying a laptop, and paying for it at the counter. You leave the store with your purchase, and the deal is done.

Similarly, A freelance consultant might charge a flat fee for a two-hour training session.  

Once the product is sold or a service is delivered, payment is made, and neither side is expected to do anything else.

This model is widely seen across industries. In retail, every checkout is a one-time bill. In hospitality, booking a hotel room for a single night works the same way. You stay, you pay, and the transaction closes. It's quick, clear, and efficient, though it doesn't guarantee steady revenue unless the customer returns for repeated purchases.

Project-Based Billing 

Project billing works by linking payments to the milestones or deliverables rather than charging all at once.

 A web development company designing a new website might structure the payment in stages: 20% during design, 40% during development and the remaining 40$ upon launch.

Likewise, an IT service form might bill after migrating data, again after testing and finally after deployment.  

Industries like construction and engineering rely heavily on this model. A builder might charge after completing the foundation, again after raising the structure, and finally after finishing the interiors. This approach ensures the client pays as value is delivered while the service provider maintains healthy cash flow throughout the project duration.

Expense Billing 

Reimbursing the actual cost incurred on behalf of the client is all we do in expense billing.

 Imagine a law firm, for instance, adding court filing fees, travel expenses, and documentation charges to its professional fees.

A construction company also shows the client the real cost of cement, steel, or tiles, in addition to labour charges.  

Expense billing is also common in industries like consulting or advertising. An ad agency, for example, might charge its service fee separately but pass through the media buying cost directly to the client. This approach keeps things fair and open. Clients know exactly what they are paying for, and businesses avoid absorbing expenses that rightly belong to the project.

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Recurring billing charges customers at a regular interval, such as weekly, monthly, or annually, accounting for continuous access to a product or service.

 A Video streaming company charges your card every month, and as long as you keep paying, your streaming access continues without interruption.  

But the story changes when you upgrade mid-month to add more screens, downgrade to a cheaper plan, or cancel halfway through your cycle. Should you be charged full price, half, or something in between? That's where things get interesting.


There is no universal rule in subscription billing. A gym membership works differently from a SaaS license, which differs from a magazine subscription. The complexity even lies within the same industry type, as the demand varies from one subscriber to another.

In addition, other entities like trials, addons, pay-per-user, and mid-cycle changes all demand unique billing logic. That's why subscription businesses often rely on an API-driven billing system or a more automated method to manage these complexities dynamically.


Bill beyond boundaries
Each billing model serves a distinct purpose, and businesses are now ready to experiment with different billing methods by blending one-time with subscription-based, project-based with subscription, and so on. Hybrid billing is becoming the order of the day, and businesses should choose the right tool that stays flexible, powerful, and handles complexity.

Zoho Billing is empowered to deliver everything in one place. Whether one-time, project-based, expense-based, or subscription-based, Zoho Billing is the one-stop solution for all your billing requirements. It doesn't stop with just billing; it digests the complex workflow you propose and provides a hands-free solution through its automated billing approach.


Do you agree? Yes?

NotesIn the next post, let's examine the biggest challenge in subscription billing: Prorated Billing, which decides how to charge fairly when customers join, upgrade, downgrade, or cancel mid-term.

Stay Tuned! 

    • 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's

    • Community 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 you

    • Community 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 most

    • Introducing: 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

    • Zohomail does not support additional fields in mailto links

      Hello, I set up Zohomail as default composer in Firefox according to manual here: https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/defaultcomposer.html#alink2 Later, I wanted to use this functionality to answer in a Linux mailing list thread using mailto link: mailto:xxxxx@kernel.org?In-Reply-To=%3C727o0521-q24p-s0qq-66n0-sn436rpqqr1p@example.com%3E&Cc=xxxxx%example.org&Subject=Re%3A%20%5BPATCH%20v2%28%29

    • Is it possible to set a customer context variable in Zobot

      Hi, I want to use a context variable to route users down different paths in my Zobot chat flow. I know I can do this when the user enters data. But I want to know if I can use a variable that is 'hard coded' on the card, that the user is unaware of. Use

    • Cannot change Blog Title

      There is nowhere to change the blog title. You can change the blog URL but that is making no difference to the text "Enter Your Post Title" am I missing something?

    • Kaizen #203 - Answering Your Questions | Handling API Limits and Error Responses

      Hi Everyone, Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series! We appreciate your keen participation in the 200th milestone celebration of the Kaizen series. We will continue to answer the queries we received through the feedback. When working with

    • How to verify website ownership with google search console

      Hi, I am having a free .in domain provided by Zoho I have created a website on it now I want to verify my ownership to google webmaster. Can you please help me how to do that.

    • Kaizen #89 - Color Coding using Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. Today let us see how you can apply color codes to the List and Detail Pages of Zoho CRM using Client Script. Need for color code in Zoho CRM When you mark things with different colors as a

    • "SPF record exceed the allowed limit of 10"

      Hi, I was wondering if there were a "universal Zoho SPF record" that would allow all my configured Zoho services that email things to meet this limitation ? or do I have to have an entry for mail, com, billing, etc?

    • Zoho Mail android app update: Block & reject future emails, Report phishing, Spam alerts, Suspicious URL detection

      Hello everyone! In the most recent Zoho Mail Android app update, we have brought in support for the following features: Block & reject future emails Report Phishing Spam alerts in the mail details screen. Suspicious URL detection. Block & reject future

    • Animated GIF Images in Chat

      I know this seems to be a small feature request but in a recent Cliq update Zoho disabled autoplay for animated GIFs posted in Cliq conversations. We think this was not a good change. In our organization, animated GIFs in a chat play a role in expressing

    • I can't seem to login in to Mail Apps of MacOS /IOS

      Hi, i'm having trouble in signing in to mail apps from IOS. It's always come back to wrong passwords. But i already changed my password like 3 times. But still it says wrong credentials

    • Profile Image Showing Incorrectly in Zoho Mail

      Hi everyone, I’m facing a serious issue with Zoho Mail. The profile image showing for my email address is incorrect — it’s not my image. When I send an email to my Gmail account, it displays someone else’s image. This looks very suspicious and can make

    • I need access to my old email

      I need access to my old email bromzeman@zoho.com to verify it for forwarding. I can’t access the inbox to get the confirmation code. Please assist with recovery or forwarding. as you might already know, they made alot of the email addresses to have that

    • Set Defaults for Email Groups

      Is there a way to set defaults for all of the groups that I establish as a moderator? For example, I want every group I establish to have the following settings: 1. Moderator is <user> 2. User is <user>, <user> 3. Notifications for new group turned

    • LOGS FOR RECEIVED MAIL ( READ DATE & TIME)

      In Zoho mail we can extract the read logs of received mails so that we can see when we have read the mail and at what time & we have read it.

    • Domain verification probem

      Hello, i use a domain from Namecheap with hosting from Cinfu when i try to verify my domain on zoho i get "TXT Verification failure" i even tried the HTML verification and the code appears but also giving me the verification failure error.

    • Switching to Cloudflare email routing from Zoho Mail

      Hello, I'm currently working on migrating from Zoho Mail to Cloudflare's email routing solution. This requires changing MX and TXT records for our custom domain - when we do this, will our users still be able to log into their accounts and access an archived

    • Un Subscription Button

      How can i Add the Un Subscription Button in Zoho mail

    • Documents unable view and need to downlad

      I can't view .doc files in Zoho mail unless I download them, but I can view PDF files without downloading.

    • we encountered a problem while sending your email. please try again later.

    • Adding and removing people from groups

      We're having problems adding people to a group. Apparently Zoho has one email address and will not recognize a different email address.

    • MAIL SEARCH IS NOT WORKING

      THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN BUGGING ME SINCE MORNING, PLEASE RESOLVE THIS AT THE EARLIEST

    • URL Parameter on Help Center SIgn in link

      Is it possible to add a url parameter to the sign in link on the Help Center?

    • migrating from HelpScout

      I am attempting to import a conversation file from helpscout into desk and am receiving size errors. What is the current file size restriction. Does anyone have any tips for a successful migration?

    • Layout Rules Don't Apply To Blueprints

      Hi Zoho the conditional layout rules for fields and making fields required don't work well with with Blueprints if those same fields are called DURING a Blueprint. Example. I have field A that is used in layout rule. If value of field A is "1" it is supposed to show and make required field B. If the value to field A is "2" it is supposed to show and make required field C. Now I have a Blueprint that says when last stage moves to "Closed," during the transition, the agent must fill out field A. Now

    • Article Name Sorting in Zoho Desk Knowledge Base (agent / admin side)

      Dear Zoho Desk Support, We are writing to request an enhancement to the Knowledge Base management feature within Zoho Desk. Currently, there is no option to sort articles by their name, which significantly hinders efficient article management, especially

    • How to parse JSON data with SQL in Zoho Analytics?

      Hi all, I have a column with JSON data. I want to show this column in a chart, but it is very messy, and no JSON parsing function is supported on Zoho Analytics. data example: {"id": 5, "status": "false", "date": "15/10/22"} what I want to do in SQL is

    • Ability to turn off "Would you like this amount to be reflected in the Payment field?" message

      Team, Is there any way to turn off the message" Would you like this amount to be reflected in the Payment field?" when I make a payment? This is so annoying. This happens EVERY TIME I put an amount in the Payment Made field.

    • Add an Equation Field (Or update the Formula Field)

      Hi, I would like to be able to have one field as a Text Field with QR Code, and then have multiple Equation/Formula Fields that then take parts of that fields data with LEFT, MID, RIGHT, REGEX, etc. Thanks Dan

    • How to parse column having JSON data using SQL?

      We have a daily sync from a PostgreSQL database that brings data into Zoho Analytics. Some of the columns store raw JSON data. We need to build SQL queries on top to parse data from JSON and store them in discrete columns. There is no option for "Data

    • Enable report button based on the current user role

      Greetings  i have a report that contains action buttons, i want these buttons to appear as enabled only when the current logged in user has a certain role, for example only CEO role users will be able to use this button. but when setting the conditions

    • 500 Internal Error In Mail API

      I'm getting 500 Internal Error when using mail API. I'm getting this error for this one account, it works fine for other Account IDs which I have in my system.

    • Piss poor service in Support in Domains and email

      Srijith Narayanan B contacted me today. Very pleasant fellow. Just didn't want to tell him how bad your support service is. You help the person, but you leave before we can finish the next stage. Which causes a lot of frustration. It's been 8 days now

    • Zoho live chat widget in React Js

      I am trying to test Zoho live chat widget code in react js, below is the sample code void(0)} onClick={()=>window.$zoho.salesiq.floatwindow.visible("show")}>LIVE CHAT window.$zoho = window.$zoho || {};window.$zoho.salesiq = window.$zoho.salesiq

    • Are there any plans to add Triggers for Subform edits?

      By The Grace of G-D.  Hi, How are you? Can you tell me if you have any plans to support subform edit as a workflow trigger? And what about have them trigger an "onChange" client script?

    • Zoho commerce

      i am facing issue with order summary emails.i am getting 1 continuous email for order received yesterday and today.ideally 1 email should be received for a particular date ie for 02/08 i should received 1 email from 12.01am till 11.59pm but it is being

    • Feature Request: Improve Category Page Sorting for "Out of Stock" Products

      Hi there, I'm writing to request a new feature that I believe would significantly improve the user experience in my online store. Currently, on category pages, products are sorted by popularity. However, when a popular product goes "Out of Stock," it

    • POSTMAN - There was an error in evaluating the Pre-request Script:Error: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'json')

      I am beginning the journey to learn how to use the API for Zoho Sign. I am getting the following error when I try to use postman. To walk you through how I am getting this error... I wanted to start with a simple GET and expand my learning from there.

    • How do i integrate shipstation with zoho inventory

      Wanting to set up my own delivery driver in ship station so we can get real time tracking of where the package is but then i want it to automatically update zoho inventory packages/shipments how can i do this

    • Invalid value passed for salesorder_id

      Hi, I am using sales return API, details are given below: API: https://inventory.zoho.com/api/v1/salesreturns?organization_id=700571811 Post Json Data: { "salesreturn_number": "", "date": "2020-11-12", "reason": "Testing from API", "line_items": [ { "item_id":

    • Create Invoice and Invoice Items from Sales Order via API

      Currently, when creating an Invoice associated with a Sales Order via the API, it appears that I must manually include all of the items (line_items) even though they are already part of the Sales Order. My question is this: is it possible to raise an Invoice via the API based on all of the information associated with a Sales Order--such as the  items? In other words, do I always have to manually include the items (line_items) when raising an Invoice via the API when the Invoice is associated with

    • Next Page