Billing Management: #5 Usage Billing

Billing Management: #5 Usage Billing

After understanding the nuances of Advance Billing and Retainers, we will explore one of the booming billing models.

​Long ago, villagers drew water from a shared well in a small village. The well was a lifeline for the entire community. Ravi, the well keeper, spent his days making sure the water stayed clean, the walls stayed strong, and the rope was firm.

At first, he allowed everyone to take water freely. But Ravi soon realized that maintaining the well required effort; if no one contributed, the well would eventually fall into disrepair.

​So he gathered the villagers and proposed something simple,
​
 "You don't have to pay me a fixed amount every month. Instead, pay me for the water you take."
​
The rule remained simple and fair. Families that took one or two pots paid less, and large households paid more. No one was overcharged, and Ravi always had enough to keep the well in good condition.
​
Ravi invented the earliest form of usage billing without even knowing it. It is a model built not on flat fees but on fairness: pay for what you consume, nothing more, nothing less.

 What is Usage Billing? 

​Usage billing is a billing model in which customers are charged based on how much of a product or service they actually use. Unlike traditional flat subscriptions, which apply the same fee regardless of consumption, usage billing creates a direct link between value received and price paid. For customers, it ensures fairness, and for businesses, it unlocks scalable revenue growth.
​
As stated above, usage billing is not new. Utilities, telecom providers, SaaS companies, IoT, and several others highly rely on it. In recent times, however, it has become a strategic move by industries that thrive on flexibility.

Why Businesses Adopt Usage Billing? 

​Usage-based pricing nowadays is considered a growth driver. Recent reports highlight,

  • 85% of SaaS companies have adopted some form of usage-based pricing, according to the State of Usage-Based Pricing 2025 Report by Metronome & Greyhound Capital.

  • 63% already practice it,, and 74% expect to expand usage billing further, notes as study by Chargebee in collaboration with OpenView.

  • Hybrid pricing models, where a flat subscription fee is combined with usage-based elements, are booming, with nearly half of the SaaS firms adopting them, according to the 2025 SaaS Pricing Trend Report from Maxio.

  • The same Maxio report adds that companies using usage-based pricing often report faster revenue growth (median 21%+) and stronger net dollar retention compared to peers.

 Simplifying the Complex 

​Conceptually, usage billing is simple. But executing it well requires precision. Two main challenges in usage-based billing are:

  • Tracking consumption with accuracy.

  • Turning usage into an invoice transparently.

Zoho Billing provides both. It enables businesses to combine flat-rate subscriptions with usage-based billing, supporting hybrid pricing models that suit modern industries.

​A subscription in Zoho Billing can be marked as a usage subscription just by a simple checkbox. Renewal invoices will include all the usage that is added and invoiced during the next billing period to ensure accurate billing. Zoho Billing supports multiple ways to record usage. Users can manually record usage individually by accessing the application. It can be uploaded in bulk using import options, and the most popular way is through APIs to push usage data automatically from your system to Zoho Billing.

Wisdom to Strategy 
​Paying only for what you use has made customers feel valued for ages. By charging based on consumption, businesses ensure sustainability and growth. From ancient water pots to today's gigabytes, transactions, and compute cycles, the principle hasn't changed, just that the scale and sophistication have changed. And with solutions like Zoho Billing, companies can turn this age-old wisdom into a modern growth strategy.

Alright, this is just a beginning. In the coming posts, we'll dive deep into how usage billing plays out across industries from SaaS to telecom to IoT, showing how businesses can apply it to stay competitive and loyal. 

    • 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

    • Billing Management: #4 Negate Risk Free with Advances

      In the last post, we explored how unbilled charges accumulate before being invoiced. But what happens when businesses need money before service begins? Picture this: A construction company takes on a $500,000 commercial building project expected to last

    • Is there an equivalent to the radius search in RECRUIT available in the CRM

      We have a need to find all Leads and/or Contacts within a given radius of a given location (most likely postcode) but also possibly an address. I was wondering whether anyone has found a way to achieve this in the CRM much as the radius search in RECRUIT

    • Zoho CRM Inventory Management

      What’s the difference between Zoho CRM’s inventory management features and Zoho Inventory? When is it better to use each one?

    • Cannot Enable Picklist Field Dependency in Products or Custom Modules – Real Estate Setup

      Hello Zoho Support, I am configuring Zoho CRM for real estate property management and need picklist field dependency: What I’ve tried: I started by customizing the Products module (Setup > Modules & Fields) to create “Property Type” (Housing, Land, Commercial)

    • Get Workflow Metadata via API

      Is there a way to get metadata on workflows and/or custom functions via API? I would like to automatically pull this information. I couldn't find it in the documentations, but I'm curious if there is an undocumented endpoint that could do this. Moderation

    • Zoho Projects - Q2 Updates | 2025

      Hello Users, With this year's second quarter behind us, Zoho Projects is marching towards expanding its usability with a user-centered, more collaborative, customizable, and automated attribute. But before we chart out plans for what’s next, it’s worth

    • FSM setup

      So we have been tinkering with FSM to see if it is going to be for us. Now is the time to bite the bullet and link it to our zoho books and zoho crm. The help guides are good but it would really help if they were a bit more in depth on the intergrations.

    • Upcoming Updates to the Employees Module in Zoho Payroll (US)

      We've made a couple of updates to the Employees module in Zoho Payroll (latest version of the US edition). These changes will go live today. While creating an employee Currently, the Compensation Details section is part of the Basic Details step, where

    • Possible to Turn Off Automatic Notifications for Approvals?

      Hello, This is another question regarding the approval process. First a bit of background: Each of our accounts is assigned a rank based on potential sales. In Zoho, the account rank field is a drop-down with the 5 rank levels and is located on the account

    • ZOHO Creator subform link

      Dear Community Support, I am looking for some guidance on how to add a clickable link within a Zoho Creator subform. The goal is for this link to redirect users to another Creator form where they can edit the data related to the specific row they clicked

    • Allow Resource to Accept or Reject an Appointment

      I have heard that this can be done, is there any documentation on how?

    • Create new Account with contact

      Hi I can create a new Account and, as part of that process, add a primary contact (First name, last name) and Email. But THIS contact does NOT appear in Contacts. How can I make sure the Contact added when creating an Account is also listed as a Contact?

    • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

      Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if

    • Python - code studio

      Hi, I see the code studio is "coming soon". We have some files that will require some more complex transformation, is this feature far off? It appears to have been released in Zoho Analytics already

    • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

      Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:

    • How To Insert Data into Zoho CRM Organization

      Hi Team I have this organization - https://crm.zoho.com/crm/org83259xxxx/tab/Leads I want to insert data into this Leads module, what is the correct endpoint for doing so ? Also I have using ZohoCRM.modules.ALL scope and generated necessary tokens.

    • Where can I get Equation Editor por Zoho Writer?

      I need to use Math Formulas in my document. Thank you.

    • How can I get base64 string from filecontent in widget

      Hi, I have a react js widget which has the signature pad. Now, I am saving the signature in signature field in zoho creator form. If I open the edit report record in widget then I want to display the Signature back in signature field. I am using readFile

    • Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

      Hi everyone, Hope you're all good! Thanks for continuing to make this community engaging and informative. Today we'd like to share with you our plans for the near future of Creator. We always strive to strike a good balance of features and enhancements

    • Filtering repport for portal users

      Salut, I have a weird problem that I just cannot figure out : When I enter information as administrator on behalf of a "supplier" portal user (in his "inventory" in a shared inventory system), I can see it, "customer" portal users can see it, but the

    • Zoho Inventory. Preventing Negative Stock in Sales Orders – Best Practices?

      Dear Zoho Inventory Community, We’re a small business using Zoho Inventory with a team of sales managers. Unfortunately, some employees occasionally overlook stock levels during order processing, leading to negative inventory issues. Is there a way to

    • Zoho One - Syncing Merchants and Vendors Between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books

      Hi, I'm exploring the features of Zoho One under the trial subscription and have encountered an issue with syncing Merchant information between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books. While utilizing Zoho Expense to capture receipts, I noticed that when I submit

    • Is Zoho Sheet available for Linux ?

      Is Zoho Sheet available for Linux ?

    • Zoho Sheet for Desktop

      Does Zoho plans to develop a Desktop version of Sheet that installs on the computer like was done with Writer?

    • BUTTONS SHOWN AS AN ICON ON A REPORT

      Hi Is there any way to create an action button but show it as an icon on a report please? As per the attached example? So if the user clicks the icon, it triggers an action?

    • Dropshipping Address - Does Not Show on Invoice Correctly

      When a dropshipping address is used for a customer, the correct ship-to address does not seem to show on the Invoice. It shows correctly on the Sales Order, Shipment Order, and Package, just not the Invoice. This is a problem, because the company being

    • RFQ MODEL

      A Request for quotation model is used for Purchase Inquiries to multiple vendors. The Item is Created and then selected to send it to various vendors , once the Prices are received , a comparative chart is made for the user. this will help Zoho books

    • Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

      title

    • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | August 2025

      Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this August. Zoho Mail Delegate Email Alias Now you can let other users send emails on your behalf—not just from your primary

    • Notebook audio recordings disappearing

      I have recently been experiencing issues where some of my attached audio recordings are disappearing. I am referring specifically to ones made within a Note card in Notebook on mobile, made by pressing the "+" button and choosing "Record audio" (or similar),

    • Unable to send message; Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked

      Hi, I sent few emails and got this: Unable to send message; Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked And now I have few days since I cant send any email. Is there something wrong I did? Also can someone fix this please

    • Want to use Zoho Books in Switzerland. CHF support planned?

      Hi, We're a Swiss company using other Zoho suite software and I discovered Zoho Books and other accounting SaaS when looking for an accounting tool. Do you intend to cover Switzerland and CHF based accounting anytime soon? Roy

    • Zoho sheet desktop version

      Hi Zoho team Where can I access desktop version of zoho sheets? It is important as web version is slow and requires one to be online all the time to do even basic work. If it is available, please guide me to the same.

    • Weekly Tips : Teamwork made easy with Multiple Assignees

      Let's say you are working on a big project where different parts of a single task need attention from several people at the same time—like reviewing a proposal that requires input from sales, legal, and finance teams. Instead of sending separate reminders

    • Best way to share/download presentation files in Zoho without losing formatting?

      Hello Zoho Community, I often work with PPT/PDF files in Zoho Docs and share them with colleagues. While PDFs usually give a direct download option, I’ve noticed that PPT/PPTX files sometimes only open in the viewer without a clear download link. Is there

    • Celebrating Connections with Zoho Desk

      September 27 is a special day marking two great occasions: World Tourism Day and Google’s birthday. What do these two events have in common (besides the date)? It's something that Zoho Desk celebrates, too: making connections. The connect through tourism

    • What is Resolution Time in Business Hours

      HI, What is the formula used to find the total time spent by an agent on a particular ticket? How is Resolution Time in Business Hours calculated in Zohodesk? As we need to find out the time spent on the ticket's solution by an agent we seek your assistance

    • How use

      Good morning sir I tried Zoho Mail

    • Adding Overlays to Live Stream

      Hello folks, The company I work for will host an online event through Zoho Webinar. I want to add an overlay (an image) at the bottom of the screen with all the sponsors' logos. Is it possible to add an image as an overlay during the live stream? If so,

    • Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted. - WHMCS Not sending emails due to this error

      I have been trying to figure out a fix for about a week now and I haven't found one on my own so I am going to ask for help on here.  After checking all the settings and even resetting my password for the email used for WHMCS it still says: Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted.  I have no clue how to fix it at this point. Any insight would be lovely. 

    • Next Page