Billing Management: #9 Usage Billing in IoTs

Billing Management: #9 Usage Billing in IoTs

We live in a world where connectivity has become a lifestyle rather than a luxury. From smart thermostats that adjust your home's temperature to GPS trackers monitoring end-to-end fleets and sensors that optimize energy grids, the Internet of Things has woven digital intelligence into everyday life.


Billions of devices are constantly talking to us, to each other and to the cloud, providing an avalanche of data every second. This data fuels smart decisions, greater efficiency and an entirely new business model.

But for IoT providers, it also introduces a complex financial question: "How do you turn constant, variable device activities into clear, fair, and scalable revenue?"

Many providers start with flat-rate or subscription-based billing. It's simple to launch, but it quickly becomes misaligned with reality. A simple example is a household sensor that transmits a few readings per day shouldn't be billed the same as an industrial gateway streaming live data 24/7. Static pricing models cause imbalance and make heavy users overconsume, and light users overpay.

As the IoT ecosystem expands, the real challenge becomes monetizing data usage accurately without manual intervention or considering different data sources.

With Zoho Billing, businesses capture real-time device activity and transform it into transparent automated invoices. Let's explore how it works across three popular IoT services.

Scenario 1:  

A utility provider offering smart water and gas meters to homes and offices. Each meter transmits consumption data hourly to the cloud. Residential customers expect fair pricing that reflects their consumption patterns. It's simple, user who uses less pays less and heavy users pay more. Instead of a flat per litre rate, the provider uses volume-based pricing:

  • Up to 25,00 litres: $0.002 per litre

  • 25,001 to 75,000 litres: $0.0015 per litre

  • Above 75,000 litres: $0.001 per litre

 This model rewards conservation and scales naturally across different customer types.

  • If a household uses 30,000 litres, it pays: 30,000 x $0.0015= $45

  • A small business uses 90,000 litres, pays: 90,000 x $0.001= $90

 The IoT platform transmits usage data via Zoho Billing API, and Zoho Billing automatically applies the right price to each customer based on total consumption. The combination of automated data capture, volume-based billing, and clear invoices builds trust with consumers while scaling effortlessly for utility.


Scenario 2:  

A fleet management company offering GST tracking, route analytics, and driver monitoring for logistics firms. Clients pay a fixed fee per vehicle for access to the tracking system and addon charges if their data usage exceeds the plan limit. The base plan is $20 per vehicle per month, including 1GB of data. For usage over 1 GB, the additional cost per MB is $0.05.


A logistics company with 50 trucks uses 65 GB in total. The average usage is 1.3 GB per truck. So it pays,

Item

Value

Base Fee for 50 trucks (50x20)

$1000

Overage per truck (0.3x 1024 MB x  $0.05)

$15.36

Total Overage ($15.36x50 trucks)

$768

Total Invoice Value ($1000+$768)

$1768

 
The service provider exports usage logs as a monthly CSV file and imports them into Zoho Billing. The billing system applies the base plan inclusions, calculates the overage automatically, and generates a detailed invoice showing per-vehicle consumption.

The model delivers predictable revenue for the business while giving customers full visibility into what they are paying for. This is almost a win-win situation for both clients and the service provider.

Scenario 3:  

A small home security provider offering connected cameras, sensors and cloud video storage to a residential complex. House owners are billed based on multiple metrics, namely, the number of active devices, the number of motion events captured, and the minutes of video stored in the cloud.

The base price for a camera is $5 per month and $0.01 per motion event recorded. For video stored in the cloud, the charges are $0.002 per minute.

If a user has four cameras, 800 motion events, and 15,000 minutes of video pay,

Item

Value

Cameras 4x $5

$20

Motion event 800 x $0.01

$8

Video Storage 15,000 x $0.002

$30

Total Invoice Value

$58

 
The system integrates directly with Zoho Billing's API, transmitting daily usage updates for each customer. Each metric is defined separately, and Zoho Billing aggregates and applies the relevant pricing for each before generating a consolidated invoice.

This ensures billing accuracy and flexibility, even as the business scales to millions of active devices.

Every Connection Counts; Every Count Pays 

In the connected economy, devices never sleep and do not produce data. For IoT providers, success is translating the constant data flow into dependable, transparent revenue.


Zoho Billing makes it effortless. It supports different pricing models and usage-based billing, allowing IoT businesses to bill accurately without the burden of complexity. Whether managing smart meters, connected fleets, or home automation systems, Zoho Billing ensures that every byte, event, and interaction is captured, calculated, and billed accurately.

Usage billing is complex, but not when you use Zoho Billing anymore.

Notes
The next post will summarise what we have covered so far, as we cover usage billing and other billing that Zoho Billing offers. Most importantly, we will see the common mistakes businesses make while billing. 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

    • How to change the text in WhatsApp Zobot integrated to Zoho Booking?

      I have integrated Zoho Bookings into Zoho SalesIQ, I want to change the text in WhatsApp when creating a booking in Zobot how to change those text?

    • Updating Subform Record from other Form

      Just wanted to ask how to properly approach this. I have 2 forms and would like to trigger an auto update on the subform once record submitted. block below only updates 1 row for each recordRow in input.AV_System { AssetRecord = Site_Asset_Services[SOR_No

    • Zoho Books - Hide Convert to Sales Order if it can't be used.

      Hi Books team, I noticed that it is not possible to convert a Quote to a Sales Order when a Quote is not yet marked as accepted. My idea is to not show the Convert to Sales Order button when it is not possible to use it, or show it in a grey inactive

    • How do I bulk archive my projects in ZOHO projects

      Hi, I want to archive 50 Projects in one go. Can you please help me out , How can I do this? Thanks kapil

    • Cross-Data Center Collaboration and / Or allowing users to choose DC

      Dear Zoho Cliq Support Team, We are writing to request a significant enhancement to Zoho Cliq that would greatly benefit our geographically dispersed development team. Current Challenge: Currently, Zoho Cliq automatically routes users to specific data

    • New Mandatory One-Click Unsubscribe Link Overshadowing Custom Unsubscribe Link

      I was recently informed by Zoho CRM Support that they are now mandated by the large email service providers like Google and Yahoo to provide a one-click unsubscribe option in the header (not the body) of all mass emails. I have a custom unsubscribe link

    • Send / Send & Close keyboard shortcuts

      Hello! My team is so close to using Zoho Desk with just the keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts really help us to be more efficient -- saving a second or two over thousands of tickets adds up quickly. It seems like the keyboard shortcuts in Desk are only for

    • Is it possible to register webhooks in Zoho CRM using API?

      Hello, I am trying to register a webhook in Zoho CRM programmatically (using the API). Specifically, I want to register a webhook that is fired when new Contacts are created in the CRM. I was able to setup a webhook using the UI, by creating a rule that

    • Calls where the local audio is shared, have echo

      When another user is sharing their screen with audio, I get echo from my own voice. We tested this with multiple users, with different audio setups, and there's no obvious way to fix it. Is this a bug you could look into, or are we missing something?

    • Update application by uploading an updated DS file

      Is it possible? I have been working with AI on my desktop improving my application, and I have to keep copy pasting stuff... Would it be possible to import the DS file on top of an existing application to update the app accordingly?

    • Markdown support, code cells...

      Hi Zoho I'd like to vote for a feature that markdown is supported with: Headings Code highlighting Quoteblocks ... Furthermore a inline card(like inline sketch card) for special text like Code would be great. And just to add my vote as well for "Tags"!

    • Minimise chat when user navigates to new page

      When the user is in an active chat (chatbot) and is provide with an internal link, when they click the link to go to the internal page the chat opens again. This is not a good user experience. They have been sent the link to read what is on the page.

    • Zoho Projects app update: Voice notes for Tasks and Bugs module

      Hello everyone! In the latest version(v3.9.37) of the Zoho Projects Android app update, we have introduced voice notes for the Tasks and Bugs module. The voice notes can be added as an attachment or can be transcribed into text. Recording and attaching

    • zurl URL shortener Not working in Zoho social

      zurl URL shortener Not working in while creating a post in Zoho social

    • In the Zoho CRM Module I have TRN Field I should contain 15 digit Number , If it Contain less than 15 digit Then show Alert message on save of the button , If it not contain any number not want to sh

      Hi In the Zoho CRM Module I have TRN Field I should contain 15 digit Number , If it Contain less than 15 digit Then show Alert message on save of the button , If it not contain any number not want to show alert. How We can achive in Zoho CRm Using custom

    • Zoho Bookings know-how: A hands-on workshop series

      Hello! We’re conducting a hands-on workshop series to help simplify appointment scheduling for your business with Zoho Bookings. We’ll be covering various functionalities and showing how you can leverage them for your business across five different sessions.

    • Custom report

      Hello Everyone I hope everything is fine. I've tried to To change the layout of the reports, especially the summary page report, and I want to divide summary of each section in the survey but I can't For example: I have a survey containing five different

    • Zoho Journey - ZOHO MARKETING AUTOMATION

      I’ve encountered an issue while working with a journey in Zoho Marketing Automation. After creating the journey, I wanted to edit the "Match Criteria" settings. Unfortunately: The criteria section appears to be locked and not editable. I’m also unable

    • Custom Fields in PDF outputs

      I created a couple of custom fields. e.g Country of Origin and HS Tariff Code. I need these to appear on a clone of a sales order PDF template but on on the standard PDF template. When I select "appear on PDFs' it appears on both but when I don't select

    • How to create a Service Agreement with Quarterly Estimate

      Hello, I'm not sure if this has been asked before so please don't get mad at me for asking. We're an NDIS provider in Australia so we need to draft a Service Agreement for our client. With the recent changes in the NDIS we're now required to also include

    • Change Currency symbol

      I would like to change the way our currency displays when printed on quotes, invoices and purchase orders. Currently, we have Australian Dollars AUD as our Home Currency. The only two symbol choices available for this currency are "AU $" or "AUD". I would

    • Zoho Social - Post Footer Templates

      As a content creator I often want to include some information at the end of most posts. It would be great if there was an option to add pre-written footers, similar to the Hashtag Groups at the end of posts. For example, if there is an offer I'm running

    • Allow to pick color for project groups in Zoho Projects

      Hi Zoho Team, It would be really helpful if users could assign colors to project groups. This would make it easier to visually distinguish groups, improve navigation, and give a clearer overview when managing multiple projects. Thanks for considering

    • Zoho Books - Quotes to Sales Order Automation

      Hi Books team, In the Quote settings there is an option to convert a Quote to an Invoice upon acceptance, but there is not feature to convert a Quote to a Sales Order (see screenshot below) For users selling products through Zoho Inventory, the workflow

    • Can't find imported leads

      Hi There I have imported leads into the CRM via a .xls document, and the import is showing up as having been successful, however - when I try and locate the leads in the CRM system, I cannot find them.  1. There are no filters applied  2. They are not

    • Custom Button Disappearing in mobile view | Zoho CRM Canvas

      I'm working in Zoho CRM Canvas to create a custom view for our sales team. One of the features I'm adding is a custom button that opens the leads address in another tab. I've had no issue with this in the desktop view, but in the mobile view the button

    • The connected workflow is a great idea just needs Projects Integrations

      I just discovered the connected workflows in CRM and its a Great Idea i wish it was integrated with Zoho Projects I will explain our use case I am already trying to do something like connected workflow with zoho flow Our requirement was to Create a Task

    • Zoho Projects MCP Feedback

      I've started using the MCP connector with Zoho Projects, and the features that exist really do work quite well - I feel this is going to be a major update to the Zoho Ecosystem. In projects a major missing feature is the ability to manage, (especially

    • email template

      How do I create and save an email template

    • Enhancements in Portal User Group creation flow

      Hello everyone, Before introducing new Portal features, here are some changes to the UI of Portals page to improve the user experience. Some tabs and options have been repositioned so that users can better access the functionalities of the feature. From

    • Can I add Conditional merge tags on my Templates?

      Hi I was wondering if I can use Conditional Mail Merge tags inside my Email templates/Quotes etc within the CRM? In spanish and in our business we use gender and academic degree salutations , ie: Dr., Dra., Sr., Srta., so the beginning of an email / letter

    • email moderation issue when email is sent in the name of a mail group

      Symptom: an email that is sent by a mail group moderator in the name of a moderated mail group is held back for approval. Reproduction: Create a moderated mail group with members and moderators. Allow that mails can be sent in the name of the group (extended settings). Send an email to the group as a group moderator, but in the name of the group. This mail is held back for moderation which is unexpected. Expected: A mail sent by group moderator to a moderated group are not held back for moderation

    • blank page after login

      blank page after logging into my email account Thanks you

    • Always display images from this sender – Is this feature available?

      In Zoho mail, I had my "Load external images" setting set to "Ask me", and that's fine. That's the setting I prefer. What's not fine though is I always need to tick "Display now" for each email I get, regardless if I've done that multiple times from several

    • Function #9: Copy attachments of Sales Order to Purchase Order on conversion

      This week, we have written a custom function that automatically copies the attachments uploaded for a sales order to the corresponding purchase order after you convert it. Here's how to configure it in your Zoho Books organization. Custom Function: Hit

    • Free webinar: Security that works: Building resilience for the AI-powered workforce

      Hello there, Did you know that more than 51% of organizations worldwide have experienced one or more security breaches, each costing over $1 million in losses or incident response? In today’s threat landscape, simply playing defense is no longer enough.

    • Zoho Notebook Sync problem

      I'm facing a problem with syncing of notebook on android app. It's not syncing. Sometimes it syncs after a day or two.  I created some notes on web notebook but it's not syncing on mobile app. Please help!!!!

    • Cant Save Gauge on Creator Page

      How to Save Gauge on Creator Page see movie https://vimeo.com/1116410860?share=copy#t=0

    • Apply Advance option not shown in report

      We are facing an issue in Zoho Expenses. While approving an Expense Report, the "Apply Advance" option is not appearing under the three dots (More Options). Details: Module: Expense Reports Issue: "Apply Advance" option not visible Status of Report: Awaiting

    • Auto Capitalize First Letter of Words

      Hi I am completely new to ZOHO and am trying to build a database. How can i make it when a address is entered into a form field like this: main st it automatically changes is to show: Main St Thank You

    • Next Page