The billing process as well as Subscription Administration: Full Review of Five Options

Most billing and subscription management tools allow:

• Develop a range of model of trial or subscription (e.g. either a free or paid trial , or usage-based or fixed price subscriptions).
• Manage active subscriptions (e.g. upgrade or downgrades, as well as moving or removing items).
• Invoices or payment notification notifications can be sent.
• Give your customers a self-serve portal where they can manage their account.
• View reports on the key metrics that affect revenues.

But, many businesses discover that they need to use additional software for various aspects of the lifecycle, such as:

• Payment processing
• The collection of VAT and sales tax
• Find Translations
• Currency conversion
• Chargebacks
• Plus...

If you require some of these functions then you'll have to make sure that these features are available through the any billing software you select (or easily connect to other software applications).

In this tutorial, we compare five options by examining the subscription management and billing features they provide and the additional options they provide -- starting with an in-depth look into our service that caters to SaaS companies, .

 Table of Contents

1.   Chargebee
2.   Recurly
3.   Chargify
4.   Zoho Subscriptions

1.  1. Subscription Management Payment Processing and More for SaaS Companies

There are a variety of options available for the management of subscriptions (which we'll discuss in the following), however, it's not just a subscription management platform -- we're an Merchant of Record (MoR) for software firms.

 In our capacity as MoR, we assume the responsibility for transactions on behalf of you, meaning we:

• Take and pay the correct amount of VAT, sales tax, and GST for you.
• Be sure that the appropriate processes and documents have been put in place to ensure you are in compliance with transaction law for each location where that you offer to sell.
• We take the lead on audits.

 Plus offers comprehensive solutions for the entire cycle of payment, including:

• The localized checkout (i.e., currency exchanges, translations of languages Custom designs, currency conversions as well as more)
• International payment processing (for many payment methods)
• Fraud detection
• Chargebacks
• Analytics and reporting
• And many More...

In the sections below We will explore the various highlights and services in greater in depth.

Custom Subscription and Recurring Billing Models for B2C or B2B

It is easy to create nearly every subscription type in just a couple of clicks. It is possible to set up the majority of subscription types without any codes, but you may develop more complicated subscription logic using our API or webhooks library.

Here's a summary of your options:

 Trials

Some subscription management tools require payment information at the time potential customers sign-up for trial periods, or even trial periods. This can cause some prospects to get cold feet and fail to complete the sign-up process. lets you decide whether or not to collect payment details for each trial.

You can also:

• Make trials of any length.
• Make free, paid or usage-based trials.
• You can choose to bill users after their trial ends or wait for them to manually start a paid subscription.
• Reactivate subscribers' account that have been cancelled.
• Select the time when you send reminders about ending trials (e.g. 3 days prior to the time when trial is scheduled to end).
• Automatically detect when one user attempts to sign up for several trials. You can only permit just one trial account.

 Subscriptions

Each business and each product within a business may see better results from different subscription plans. As an example, lower-end products might be more effective if they are sold as a monthly subscription, whereas top-tier products may benefit more if they are sold in an annual contract.

Additionally, what was effective at one point in time might not be the most effective solution in the future.

We'll let you know:

• Choose the subscription frequency and dates for billing (or let your customers decide).
• Make subscriptions auto-renewable, require an manual renewal (i.e. clients have to re-enter payment information each time they're charged) Or, you can have your team initiate the charge via API API (this is an excellent choice for billing on the basis of usage).
• Coupons and discounts are available.
• Let prorated billing be used if a customer wants to downgrade or upgrade or even pause the service midway during the billing process.
• Include one-time purchases on the first bill, but do not include regular billings.
• Create cross-sell or upsell options at checkout.
• Give customers the option of whether or not to store details about their payment (or let them decide on behalf of every customer).
• Automate the renewal of certain subscriptions and other subscriptions (e.g. in the event of retiring the service or product).

 Recurring Billing and Invoicing

can allow you to manage B2B orders along with B2C purchases with Digital Invoicing.

Digital Invoicing allows you to:

• Customize and manage quotes in real-time (including personalized tags coupons, discounts and more).
• Set expiration dates for quotes.
• Include notes to your customer or potential customer.

Fully Branded Self-serve Features for Your Customers

provides a self-serve portal where your clients can:

• Subscription renewals
• Manage billing periods
• Change payment information
• View payment history
• and many and more ...

We handle all the maintenance of the backend for this portal which means that you don't need to.

As your MoR As your MoR, we will take care of your customer's questions regarding billing, such as cancellation requests, billing problems and questions regarding the subscription they have, and so on. The platform comes with a customer portal that allows your customers to control their subscriptions.

The image below shows the basic design of the self-service portal. However, to ensure a smoother user experience, the whole portal can be customized to reflect your brand.

It is also possible to enable customer-generated quotes. This feature allows customers to make a quote using the items in their cart without contacting your sales team. This feature is very helpful to attract potential buyers who need approval before making a purchase.

Local Transactions as well as Indirect Tax Compliance Made Simple

Two main areas of conformity when it comes to transactions with recurring nature:

1. Transaction compliance (i.e. the technology that you are using to collect payment).
2. Sales tax, VAT, and GST compliance (i.e., how you pay and transfer taxes that are indirect).

In order to avoid penalties and fines To avoid penalties and fines, it is important to think about both transaction laws and tax laws applicable to each jurisdiction you do business within. The following sections will help you understand: we will cover:

• Examples of transaction laws which affect subscription-based businesses.
• If software firms must collect sales tax, VAT or GST.
• What is the best way to handle all this for you.

Transaction Compliance

Each country, state as well as province have their specific laws and regulations regarding how businesses can collect payment and keep customer details. The majority of businesses know about privacy laws like GDPR. However there are other transactions regulations that aren't widely recognized.

For example, in some countries, such as Canada and Korea, customers are eligible under the law to get the prorated amount of their refunds if they cancel their subscription before the end of their payment term. This is just one example for one aspect of the lifecycle of subscriptionswhich is why these law and regulations are continuously changing.

In the case of most subscription management software it's your own to learn about rules and laws governing transactions, and to follow the required processes. Furthermore, some platforms won't offer the necessary alternatives to meet the requirements of rules and laws (e.g. certain platforms don't support rebates that are prorated).

The other side, handles all of the above all of this for you. Our team of legal experts is up-to-date on all relevant transaction laws as well as regulations. We assist you adopt the appropriate procedures to ensure compliance. also supports all necessary models of subscription to ensure compliance.

Revenue Taxes, VAT and GST Compliance

Software companies didn't always have to collect taxes on sales, VAT, and GST, and in many jurisdictions, that's still the case. However, tax laws for digital products and services are changing fast in many countries.

Many countries are mandating software companies to collect some form or indirect tax. Some nations are now requiring companies that use digital technology to fill out tax forms regardless of whether they qualify for tax exemption.

Finally, remitting sales taxes is often more involved than filling out a tax form and wired the cash. More and more nations are imposing more requirements in order to be compliant.

Example:

• Countries such as Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Serbia, and others need representation locally, meaning you have employ someone who has a physical presence in that country to be responsible for the tax liabilities. The cost can vary from $5k-$15k each year.
• Countries such as Serbia, United Kingdom, Taiwan, and others require electronic invoices for any business that sells in their country. The EU is rolling out worldwide electronic invoicing by 2028.
• States like Taiwan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, and others are requiring you to declare the tax on your income in addition to indirect tax.

handles the entire process of collecting and paying sales tax, VAT and GST to you .

We make sure that the right amount (and the correct type) in indirect taxes is paid at the time of the time of checkout (including tax-exempt transactions in the US and no reverse charges for transactions that are permitted internationally).

Our team then remits the tax for you, and will ensure that the proper procedures are in place for total tax compliance.

If a nation or state comes to you with questions regarding tax compliance, we will advise you on how to respond -- even by providing copies and paste responses.

International Pay Processing with Dozens of payment methods

Most payment processors focus their efforts around a particular location, while all payment processors have a finite number of payment methods they can accept. For example, some payment processors aim to support transactions that are accepted in the U.S. They'll therefore only accept the payment methods that are popular within the U.S. (e.g., Mastercard or Apple Pay) and they will not support anything similar to UnionPay that is widely utilized in China.

Furthermore, many payment processors accept payments only within certain currencies and countries. For example, they may accept Amazon Pay but will not accept payments made coming from Turkey.

SaaS businesses that wish to accept payments around the world must be connected to and control multiple payment processors. This can be an overwhelming task.

The  SaaS businesses automatically gain access to a variety of payment processors that specialize in international payments. maintains relationships with multiple payment processors and dozens of card networks so that there is no need to. Turn off our localized payments option and start accepting international payments right away.

Also, it offers a range of options to make sure that payments are successful and decrease involuntary churn including:

• Payment gateways that are local: Transactions are more likely to be approved when the gateway used for payment is located at the same place that the purchaser (e.g., a transaction originating from Germany is processed through a payment gateway located within Germany). automatically routes payments through the payment gateway with the best authorization rates in that region.
• Payment gateway rerouting: When a payment is unsuccessful at the first try, the system immediately retries to make the payment again by using a second gatewaywith no need for either you or any other member of your support team having to get involved. The process is usually able to resolve payment issues because of connectivity or system issues.
• Payment reminders that are proactive. If a customer's credit card is due to expire, you should notify the cardholder in advance ofthe deadline so that they are able to make changes to the card's information. Use our ready-to-use notice template, or design the message you want to send.
• Multiple follow-up messages. If a recurring payment is declined it is possible to schedule multiple payment failure notifications to be sent out two, five, seven, 14, and 21 days after the initial failure. After sending out every reminder, you will attempt to make the payment.

Custom-Made Checkouts to Reflect Your Personal Corporate

Most payment solutions offer a checkout module that offers a variety of options for customization such as adding your logo and choosing the colors. These customization options do not always show your branding, create a seamless experience for your customers, and make your checkout more efficient for the highest conversion rates.

 provides custom branding tools as well as CSS-overrides to ensure that you have extensive customizations options to control the look and experience of your online checkout.

You'll also have access to the Store Builder Library -- a JavaScript library which allows customers to modify the process leading to checkout.For instance, you can create a cross-sell or upsell funnel. It allows you to optimize your customer experience to increase conversions.

The checkout is offered in three forms three ways: pop-up, embedded or as a web storefront. The web storefront redirects your customers to a separate page hosted by .

With any of these options (including the online storefront), you'll be able modify the checkout experience using branding tools and CSS overlays to fit the visual style of your brand.

There are many other options that can assist you to improve your checkout experience

• localized checkout:Let customers choose their preferred language and preferred currency or let them choose the right currency and language based on the buyer's location. supports 19+ languages and over 23 currencies.
  
• Support for developers that is personalized:Our team is always happy to help you build the best checkout experience for your company. Certain companies provide only individual support to their most important clients and practically ignore small firms. At our company, we believe that each business deserves the same level of attention and care.

Analytical and Comprehensive Reporting

• Where are the majority of my most profitable clients located?
• What are the products that generate the highest amount of revenue?
• What discounts generate revenues in comparison to. the revenue draining ones?
• And numerous others...

Reports are split in two main dashboards: Revenue Overview and Subscription Overview.

If you don't find the report you require, you can customize the report you want and put it on your dashboard. Our support team is there to help you design customized reports and get the information you require.

Our webhooks and API for data enable you to quickly connect revenue and subscription data into any CRM or business intelligence tool that you employ. Any report can also be downloaded in CSV PNG, CSV, or XLSX files.

All-in-One Pricing (No Hidden Fees)

Many payment system providers will provide a fixed price for processing payments and some of the core features like the ability to embed checkout. But, typically, you'll have to pay extra for other features such as the conversion of currencies or the detection of fraud. Very few payment platforms are fully-featured, which means many companies have to put on additional software. This makes it difficult to scale globally as your company grows, as costs will rise as you require more features and software.

is a complete solution to pay that is ideal for SaaS firms that comes with everything as a one-time fee determined by the amount of transactions . In addition, you'll only be paid when transactions occur.

Then, we cover four additional payment options for businesses with subscriptions.

2. Chargebee

Here are some points of Chargebee features:

• Usage-based billing, automated invoicing, proration, and many more
• Automated process for the processing of accounts receivable
• Subscription and revenue recognition models that are compliant with the law. model
• Support for in-app purchases
• Self-service portal for customers
• Smart dunning

You can use the Chargebee platform at no cost for the first $100k in revenue earned. Following that, they provide different pricing plans for different ranges of monthly earnings.

3. Recurring

Recurly is a recurring billing platform designed for optimising your growth strategy. Recurly is a simple integration with a variety of merchant accounts and payment gateways, however, you still have to manage and cover these additional services on top of your Recurly account.

There are more highlights of Recurly's features.

• Customizable subscription models
• Automated recurring invoicing
• Tools for revenue recovery
• Intelligent retention
• Customer subscription analytics

Recurly has three pricing plans but you must contact the team to inquire about pricing.

4. Chargify

Chargify is a subscription billing program that's currently in the process of merging with SaaSOptics, a revenue management platform. This merger will let you automate subscription management as well as expense and revenue recognition as well as SaaS metric tracking from the same revenue management software.

Here are a few highlights of the features Chargify provides:

• Usage-based and global billing
• Tools for billing and recognition of revenue tools
• System of billing analytics and metrics
• Built-in integrations with various other programs (e.g. accounting software like QuickBooks as well as Xero)
• International payment gateways

The pricing structure of Chargify is that allows companies to earn $75k per month in billings, but, if you are earning more or you want access to all features you'll have to contact the team.

5. Zoho Subscriptions

Zoho Subscriptions is a component from Zoho's Zoho platform (a suite of software that can be used for all aspects of your company, e.g., CRMs and ERPs). If you already use the Zoho platform, it could be a good alternative. But, those who are new to the platform typically find it has an arduous to learn curve.

The advantages of Zoho Subscriptions comprise:

• Multiple pricing models
• Invoices with tax-compliant customization
• Conversions to multiple currencies
• 30+ pre-built reports to monitor each step of the lifecycle of subscriptions
• Cash and check payments (in addition to payment via credit card)
• In-the-box integrations that integrate with different billing services (e.g., Stripe, PayPal or others.)
• Toolkits to build specific workflow rules

Every aspect of the Zoho system is purchased individually -- including Zoho Subscriptions. This can make it difficult and expensive to create an end-to-end payment solution.