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

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Budget

        I have just upgraded to the standard plan in order to be able to utilize the budgeting function and record budget amount
      • Capirec bank Automatic feed update

        Can anyone tell me if Zoho supports Automatic bank feed update from a Capitec bank account in south africa?
      • Free webinar! Accelerate deals with Zoho Sign for Zoho CRM and Bigin by Zoho CRM

        Hello, Paperwork shouldn’t slow you down. Whether you’re growing a small business or running a large enterprise, manual approvals and slow document turnaround can cost you time and revenue. With Zoho Sign for Zoho CRM and Bigin by Zoho CRM, you can take
      • Add Lookup Field in Tasks Module

        Hello, I have a need to add a Lookup field in addition to the ones that are already there in the Tasks module. I've seen this thread and so understand that the reason lookup fields may not be part of it is that there are already links to the tables (
      • Upload own Background Image and set Camera to 16:9

        Hi, in all known online meeting tools, I can set up a background image reflecting our corporate design. This doesn't work in Cliq. Additionally, Cliq detects our cameras as 4:3, showing black bars on the right and left sides during the meeting. Where
      • ZeptoMail API

        Hello Since today, we experience issues with the ZeptoMail API. When trying to send e-mails using: https://api.zeptomail.eu/v1.1/email we receive the error: (503) Site unavailable due to a traffic surge. Please try again shortly. I kindly ask you to identify
      • Sender Email Configuration Error.

        Hello Team, Hope you are all doing well. We are in the process of creating the Zoho FSM environment in the UAE. When we try to add the sender email address “techsupportuae@stryker.com”, we receive the error message: “Error occurred while sending mail
      • Managing user mailbox actions

        An organization often has users with different roles and responsibilities, such as leadership, operations, or support teams. While some users may require full access to email features, others may only need limited functionality. For example, enabling
      • Custom function return type

        Hi, How do I create a custom deluge function in Zoho CRM that returns a string? e.g. Setup->Workflow->Custom Functions->Configure->Write own During create or edit of the function I don't see a way to change the default 'void' to anything else. Adding
      • Using workflows to automatically set classification of new tickets

        Hello, I am trying to use a workflow to set a classification for a new ticket that is created via an email coming into my desk department. The workflow is working fine if I create a ticket from within desk, however if a ticket is emailed in then this
      • Text/SMS With Zoho Desk

        Hi Guys- Considering using SMS to get faster responses from customers that we are helping.  Have a bunch of questions; 1) Which provider is better ClickaTell or Screen Magic.  Screen Magic seems easier to setup, but appears to be 2x as expensive for United States.  I cannot find the sender id for Clickatell to even complete the configuration. 2) Can customer's reply to text messages?  If so are responses linked back to the zoho ticket?  If not, how are you handling this, a simple "DO NOT REPLY" as
      • Default/Private Departments in Zoho Desk

        1) How does one configure a department to be private? 2) Also, how does one change the default department? 1) On the list of my company's Zoho Departments, I see that we have a default department, but I am unable to choose which department should be default. 2) From the Zoho documentation I see that in order to create a private department, one should uncheck "Display in customer portal" on the Add Department screen. However, is there a way to change this setting after the department has been created?
      • What's New in Zoho Inventory | Q2 2025

        Hello Customers, The second quarter have been exciting months for Zoho Inventory! We’ve introduced impactful new features and enhancements to help you manage inventory operations with even greater precision and control. While we have many more exciting
      • "Spreadsheet Mode" for Fast Bulk Edits

        One of the challenges with using Zoho Inventory is when bulk edits need to be done via the UI, and each value that needs to be changed is different. A very common use case here is price changes. Often, a price increase will need to be implemented, and
      • Cloning Item With Images Or The Option With Images

        Hello, when I clone an item, I expect the images to carry over to the cloned item, however this is not the case in Inventory. Please make it possible for the images to get cloned or at least can we get a pop up asking if we want to clone the images as
      • ZOHO BOOKS - RECEIVING MORE ITEMS THAN ORDERED

        Hello, When trying to enter a vendor's bill that contains items with bigger quantity than ordered in the PO (it happens quite often) - The system would not let us save the bill and show this error: "Quantity recorded cannot be more than quantity ordered." 
      • Stock count by bin location

        Is there a configuration to make a stock count by bin or area and not by product. these is useful to manage count by area Regards
      • Server-based Appication API access for Social, Sites, Flow, Pages.

        Hello, I am trying to hook up API access for a number of apps and I have hit a wall trying to add these scopes to the API feed. We cannot find the correct way to list the scope for these Zoho apps; Social, Sites, Flow, Writer. Error on web-page comes
      • Zoho Survey: Bulk Exporting Raw Data (CSV/Excel) from 100+ Individual Survey Projects

        Hi Zoho Community, I am currently managing a 360-degree evaluation process that involves 100+ individual survey projects (one separate survey for each employee being evaluated). I need to download the raw response data (CSV or Excel) for all 100 surveys.
      • ERROR: Product type cannot be changed for Items having transactions.

        I have mistakenly added a product type as goods for an item that was a digital service. Now when HSN/SAC became mandatory, this brought my attention to this error I did. So I tried changing the product type but it displayed this error message Product
      • Combine and hide invoice lines

        In quickbooks we are able to create a invoice line that combines and hides invoices lines below. eg. Brochure design         $1000 (total of lines below, the client can see this line) Graphic Design           $600 (hidden but entered to reporting and
      • Include Notes in email templates for task

        Hi there,  I am setting up some automated email reminders via "setup-automation-workflow" to be send out when a task is being edited. I would like to include the "task notes" in the email. Is that possible? I do not find that field in the dropdown table when setting up the email template. Is it also possible to trigger the workflow rule when a new note is added to the task? In my opinion that should be quite essential, since a task update is often done by adding a new note to the task.... Also i
      • [Free webinar] Custom domains for portals in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

        Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to another edition of the Creator Tech Connect webinar. About Creator Tech Connect The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring in-depth technical sessions designed for developers, administrators,
      • Marking a meeting 'done'.

        I would like to somehow mark a meeting 'done' and placed under the contact's page rather than deleting it and having no record of it. Am I missing a button that does this?
      • Partial payments for retainer invoices

        When a customer does not pay the entire retainer invoice there is no way to apply a partial payment. PLEASE add this function.
      • Can I export to PDF in Zoho Learn

        I have seen help pages where export to pdf options are available but I do not see that option available from the application. I see that exprt is available in my free trial version but that is only to html pages. I need to be able to export my manuals
      • Sending emails via Books

        Anyone else getting similar problems recently ??..... Hi, Your message to the following recipient was not delivered. Please find the details below.  Bounce Details: Bounced Address : someone@google.com Bounce Reason : other ; Status : 5.0.0 (undefined status) ; Daignostic-Code : smtp;542 someone@google.com Rejected ; Bounced Time : Sep 05, 2017 06:37 PM BST Regards, Zoho Team The email addresses were fine only a few days ago but are now being rejected ?
      • PDF Generator Upgrade

        Hi Team, What will happen if I don't make any changes for existing template. Zoho just ask us upgrade but haven't tell the benefit. Zoho Corporation
      • No Need To Fix Something That Is Working

        Zoho Books is a great financial tool which helps businesses to become more efficient and productive with day-to-day operations. As such, every change, upgrade, improvement needs to be carefully thought before implemented in the software and I'm sure Zoho
      • Total Cost in reports showing zero

        The image below shows my issue. The column Total Cost should show the cost to our company based on hours logged and the employee's rate. For instance, if the person working on Subtask 1 is paid 20/hr, then Total Cost should display $160 ($20x8 logged
      • Zoho Books (and other finance suite apps) - Retrospective Linking of Invoice and Sales Orders to Quotes.

        In some cases, Quotes and Invoies may be created sperately instead of using the convert feature. In this feature request I am asking for the Finance Suite team to consider adding a lookup field to reference the quote on Invoices and Sales Orders, or some
      • Bring real app analytics into Zoho Creator apps with Zoho Apptics

        We’re kicking off the year with a release we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. After being in the works for a while, Zoho Creator and Zoho Apptics are now officially integrated, bringing in-depth product analytics directly into the Zoho Creator
      • ZohoMail's outbound webhook sends incorrect folderId and messageId

        I used a webhook (outbound) from within ZohoMail to send message details when a new message arrives that meets specific criteria. I received this data correctly. Now I want to get the attachment from this email message. When I made an api call using folder
      • Use URL field to populate Image in a Email Template

        We have two records Record 1: Appointments (with a Lookup to Doctors module) Related Record 2: Doctors (with a URL field that is an image of the doctor) We would like to populate a CRM email template with the image of the URL field for the related doctor
      • Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

        Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes
      • Zoho Bookings Forge: A hands-on workshop series

        Hello all! We’re hosting a five-part, hands-on workshop series to help you optimize Zoho Bookings for your business. In these sessions, we’ll cover key features, practical use cases, and clear steps to get started or improve your current setup. Here are
      • Delete button

        Hi, The delete button were hide into the three dot button. Can I display outside? why Zoho make this update?
      • Zoho Vault CLI for Developers and Automations

        Hi everyone, If you're managing credentials in scripts, CI/CD pipelines, or automation workflows, Zoho Vault's Command Line Interface (CLI) can help you securely access and manage secrets directly from your terminal. Zoho Vault was launched in 2013 as
      • Zoho Subscriptions -- Zoho Commerce integration

        Is there integration between Zoho Subscriptions and Zoho Commerce? I would like to create subscription plans in Zoho Subscritpions and list them for on my Zoho Commerce store.
      • Synching changes to Stripe when changes are made in Zoho Billing

        We have a situation where we have merged customers in Zoho BIlling and then found out later that the payment in Stripe was not updated and still associated with the old customer record. The card gets updated and billed, but that payment is still associated
      • Next Page