Seven Sins of Subscription Billing

April 8, 2023 1

Seven Sins of Subscription BillingSteve Adams – CEO

Saturday, April 8, 2023 2

Speaker Introduction

Steve Adams, [email protected]

www.fusebill.comCall Us at: 1-888-519-1425 Copyright Fusebill Inc. 2013. All rights reserved

3April 8, 2023

Agenda

1. Billing for the subscription economy is challenging

2. Seven Sins of Subscription Billing

3. Fusebill Introduction


4April 8, 2023

Key Takeaways

• Think about your current and future needs

• No ‘one size fits all’ solutions

• The Biblical 7 sins are more interesting than the billing sins…


April 8, 2023 5

BILLING IN A SUBSCRIPTION WORLD


April 8, 2023 6

Fusebill Introduction

Fusebill automates invoicing, billing and collections for subscription based companies.

We pride ourselves on our customer support and service.

We measure our success by our customer’s success.


April 8, 2023 7

Subscription Economy Overview

It’s no longer about selling a product one at a time, but about offering a service.

No matter what your industry, subscriptions are growing by leaps and bounds.

Forrester Research predicts by 2016 subscription licensing models will reach 50% of the total software license market.


April 8, 2023 8

Billing Service Overview

For businesses with products or services billed on a recurring bases, a billing service:

• Reduce costs, • Improve customer response times,• Streamline operations

Automated Billing for Subscription Based Companies:

• Recurring billing and payment solutions, • Invoicing and credit card collections,• Real-time visibility to key subscription metrics


Transactional back office systems fail

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Upsell

Cross-sell

Renew

Recurring Billing

Multiple Concurrent

Subscriptions

Usage Based Charges

Credit CardExpiry, Fraud, etc.

Initial SalesProcess

Traditional transactional systems don’t support recurring


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The Seven Sins

1. Rely on a gateway2. Do-it-yourself systems3. Ignore Security and PCI Compliance4. No Product Catalog5. Limited scope and scale6. Revenue sharing with your vendor7. Insufficient Support and Engagement


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Sin #1 – Rely on a Gateway

• Payment Gateways are needed to process credit cards online– Authorize.net, Beanstream, Chase, Moneris etc.

• Fusebill integrates with over 30 gateways…

• Most have added basic ‘recurring billing’ capabilities

• Easiest solution for a raw startup


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Payment Gateways Limitations

• Billing intelligence: Gateways process charges – don’t determine amounts

• Manage Customers, not transactions• Reduce credit card declines and

chargebacks• Data portability• Insights to subscription business via

reporting and analytics

April 8, 2023

Price

Price Plan

Discounts

Coupons

Taxes

Pro-rating

Add-ons

Free Trials


13April 8, 2023

Sin #2 - DIY Billing Systems

• Startups and Development shops are often tempted to build

• Why is it tempting?– Everyone starts with a simple pricing model– Using existing resources – ‘Free’– How hard can it be?


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“Just” bill by credit card

PCI Compliance Security Fraud

Card Expiry Declines Chargebacks

Fees Volume Prorating

Chargebacks


15

DIY Billing becomes Bottleneck

By automating our billing with Fusebill, we’ve freed up our sales and development team to focus on our business Mélanie Attia, e-signlive

Resource battles:• Core product takes priority• Sales, marketing, finance take

backseat

Manual Processes are band-aids.

Internal demands ignored until critical.


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Sin #3 – Ignore Security & PCI

• PCI – security and process requirements driven by credit cards

• Protecting billing data from:– External risks – hacking, theft, disclosure– Internal risks - misplaced drives, backups, agent access

• Downside?– Business risk – client data disclosure– Unable to process credit cards


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Sin #4 – No Product Catalog

• Some invoicing systems (Freshbooks, Quickbooks) let you define an invoice and set it to recur.

April 8, 2023www.fusebill.comCall Us at: 1-888-519-1425 Copyright Fusebill Inc. 2013. All rights reserved

April 8, 2023 18

Premium

Client B2 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $200

Client A2 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $100

BasicBasic2 @ $100 Client A


April 8, 2023 19

Premium

Client B2 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $200

Client A2 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $1002 @ $100

2 @ $100

Basic

• Clients are setup individually (and manually)• Can’t answer ‘how many clients are on the basic plan’• Can’t change the price easily• Can’t upsell/change with pro-rating


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Product Catalog Needs

• Define / configure products– One-time fees– Recurring– Volume / users

• Define pricing options– Recurrence frequency– Coupons– Discounts– Trial periods– Apply taxes?

Ask:• Can I support my price

plans?• Can I report properly?• What happens when:

• My pricing changes• I have a promotion• I have a new product


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Sin #5 – Don’t address complexity and scale

By automating our billing with Fusebill, we’ve freed up our sales and development team to focus on our business. - Mélanie Attia

Pricing complexity grows exponentially:• Product proliferation• Currencies• Channels• Promotions• Sales models

Manual Processes become error prone

Simple Pricing

Multi Product

Price Models

Invoicing

Price Points


22April 8, 2023

Issues of Scale

• Need for automation increases as customer base grows– New Orders– Customer calls – Collections – and collection failures

• Drive toward customer self-service– Ordering– Manage credit cards, renewals, billing questions

• Integrate to related systems– CRM, Accounting


Sin # 6 – Revenue Sharing

• Many services base their pricing on your revenues (e.g. 2%)

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Billing Cost $0.20 Billing Cost $2000

It shouldn’t cost more to use bigger numbers on the invoice!

Ordering Rating Generation Delivery Online presentation

Payment – Collection


24April 8, 2023

Sin #7 – Insufficient Engagement & Support

• Big or small, there are complexities and quirks in all billing processes

• Most people (and companies) don’t have experience buying billing systems

• Vendors should actively help:– Understand your own needs– Show how systems meet your needs– Help implement, migrate clients


April 8, 2023 25

Fusebill Executive Dashboard


April 8, 2023 26

Track Lifetime Value, Churn


April 8, 2023 27

Fusebill Platform Overview

Scalable Multi-Tenant PCI Compliant Security

API Layer – Customers, Subscriptions, Transactions

PricingProducts

Price PlansUsage TiersDiscountsCoupons

AccountsSubscriptions

InvoicesLedgersReseller Tracking

PaymentsAdjustments

BillingRating

Usage VolumesPro-ratingTaxationCouponsCurrency

Adjustments

PaymentsCredit Card

ACHStorage Vault

GatewaysDunningRetries

Online Checkout

Self-Service Portal

Agent Interface Analytics

External Payment Processing

InvoicingPayment

Terms Date Control

Review, Edit Aging

Adjustments

Swipe & Subscribe

Lifecycle Management


28

Questions or Ideas?

Visit www.fusebill.comCall me 1-888-519-1425

http://www.fusebill.com/

Seven Sins of Subscription Billing

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