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Top 5 Wild Apricot Alternatives to Elevate Your Membership

When it comes to membership management, businesses need to look out for robust solutions to stay organized. And although Wild Apricot is a popular platform in that aspect, there exist other software […]

Jan 17th, 2025

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Guide to Recurring Payments: Online Payment Processing

Sep 11th, 2020

Subscription Management Software uses online payment methods like ACH payments, Debit cards, Credit Cards, Cryptocurrency, Mobile Payments, and other alternative payment methods to process recurring […]

Learn How Automated Recurring Billing Can Help Managed Services Providers to Optimize Revenue Collection

Sep 7th, 2020

Imagine if you are a SaaS startup or SMB with constrained resources, would you opt for developing a whole infrastructure and hiring a team to manage the cloud computing, IT infrastructure, billing […]

Explore ACH Payments: What They Are, How They Work

Sep 2nd, 2020

Customer or vendor—easy, safe, and instant payment processing is all, everyone needs. Using online payment, transfers are of various types, but the most used one is ACH. From online bill payments […]

Subscription Box Business 104—From Picking, Packing, and Kitting to Shipping, Manage Seamless Fulfilment

Aug 28th, 2020

This is the fourth piece of the series. In our last blogs, we already have discussed the subscription business model, the different dynamics of the subscription box business, such as building […]

For small- to medium-sized subscription businesses, recurring billing management is the most difficult part. Even, the most tedious and orchestrated processes of sending out the invoices and offering the online payment processing convenience cannot ensure on-time payments. Payment delays mean financial constrains in managing other standard business operations such as production, employee management, sales, marketing, research, order fulfillment, or others. With the growing competition in the market, subscription businesses of any size cannot rely on manual billing processing. To hold systematic control over recurring revenue management growth, accurate revenue recognition is inevitable. And, the revenue recognition can only be achieved when the recurring revenue stream can systematically flow with automatic billing automation. Before diving into the different aspects of automated customer billing, let’s see what we meant by the terms, “Subscription Billing” and “Automation”. Subscription Billing, also known as recurring billing, is the process of charging a customer, repetitively, for a set period after every defined interval for using the subscription product or services. And, automation is the digitalization of several functions to be operated without assistance or human guidance. Using machine language, it is the use of technology to simplify the complex processes of business by automating the repetitive tasks in a system. Automation with artificial intelligence technology enables businesses to understand natural languages, process unstructured data to form patterns, and based on structured data, identifies different commands, and then performs triggered-based actions. The Science of Automated Sales and Billing In any business, sales are directly related to the billing, and billing is related to the payments, and payments contribute towards revenue. However, the foundation of the subscription business is the recurrence of the needs of the customer. This consistency and recurrence creates the same pattern in ordering, invoicing, billing, payment processing, revenue monitoring, and reporting. It, eventually, results in revenue recognition. So, the idea behind the introduction of the automation in subscription management is to automate the billing of the recurring sales of the products or services that would generate stable and predictable recurring revenue without any delay in the payment charging and payment processing to the merchant’s account. What is Automated Billing System? To auto-manage the billing on a recurring basis, Subscription Businesses can take the assistance of the automated billing system. In other words, it is also called a subscription management system, subscription system, subscription billing management system, or recurring billing system. The automated billing system is, basically, a suite of the stacks or applications that are integrated together to build a coordinated system or platform that can manage the subscription billing. Understanding the Relations between Subscription Management, Recurring Billing and Automation Systems Subscription software in today’s market is no longer serving the recurring billing management only. They are full-fledged SaaS platforms, now, that can also auto-manage contacts, subscribers’ data, inventory, supply chain, quotes, orders, invoicing, payment processing, fulfillment, sales deals management, marketing campaigns, service centers, and all the other business operations in one place. So, the question is how do they do it? The automated recurring billing or subscription management software with their open-source APIs makes it possible to integrate different applications and in real-time, flow the information and sync the data across the apps. This cross-platform data synchronization allows the platform to establish trigger-based automated actions within the system, or, with the permission of the other third-party application, across the stacks. This is how in a comprehensive subscription management system, billing and automation go hands-in-hands. It works as automated recurring billing, payments, and revenue operations management system. Automated Billing System Advantages in Subscription Management Manual billing management is the phenomenon of the bygone era. Due to the dozens of automated billing conveniences and assistance, the automated subscription management platforms have already replaced the traditional billing management practices. From startups to SMBs to enterprises, businesses all over are devising their strategies to take advantage of the innovation of automation and artificial intelligence assistance. SubscriptionFlow is the futuristic, flexible, and faster recurring billing, payment, and revenue management system that accelerates the growth of your subscription business and recurring revenue by providing the personalized subscription management solution as per the size, niche, and resources of the subscription business. Some of the main benefits of changing to the automated system of SubscriptionFlow from the manual billing processing are; • Easy, Instant, and automated invoicing—the invoice automation benefits such as accuracy, transparency, and on-time calculations and charging trigger for the payment modules. This ensures the timely and strictly regulated subscription billing cycle without annoying the customers with refunds and re-calculations due to invoice errors. • Automatic mid of the subscription billing cycle calculations and adjustments such as subscription plan upgrades, downgrades, pause, reactivation, or cancelation. It is called prorated subscription billing. • Automated sending out the invoices, payment status notification, and due-payments reminders to the subscriber’s email or Phone • Automated Order placement, order receiving, and order processing • Automated Scheduled Payment Charging on Subscribers credit card • Automated deductions and payment processing to the merchant’s account • In case of payment failures due to credit card expiry, bank system’s technical glitches, or any error, scheduled auto-retries for the payment for ensured collection and reduced involuntary churn. It is called automated dunning management. • Multiple integrations with or within the standard business applications such as CRM and ERP • Automated streamlining of the production, procurement, billing, fulfillment, sales, marketing, development, and support operations through integrations • Automated sync of data across the integrations and operations in real-time • Automated information update in client portal from the self-service customer portal • Automated and AI-fueled online payments and customer risks monitoring, identification, reporting, as well as mitigation • Automated and optimal support for all pricing and billing models—from flat-rate subscription billing to usage- or consumption-based to hybrid billing The web-based SubscriptionFlow as a SaaS billing software automates the recurring billing cycle and payment processing. It is a solution to industrialize operations and increase productivity without focusing on regular financial and accounting operations. With SubscriptionFlow automated platform, you can help your subscription business to auto-manage the hassle-free recurring billing operations with ease, simplicity, and convenience without being tech-astute or configuring the huge technical stacks.

This is How Subscription Billing Automation is a Game Changer for Subscription Businesses

Aug 26th, 2020

For small- to medium-sized subscription businesses, recurring billing management is the most difficult part. Even, the most tedious and orchestrated processes of sending out the invoices and offering […]

Easy to use subscription management system

Choosing an Easy-to-Use Subscription Management Platform—25 key Features SubscriptionFlow Offers for Seamless Recurring Billing Management

Aug 24th, 2020

Subscription businesses are growing, exponentially. The significance of recurring revenue across the industries, encourage businesses to step up for the subscription-based customer engagement […]

upgrade or downgrade customer subscriptions

Efficient & Instant Management of Upgrades & Downgrades Helps Subscription Businesses to Retain Customers, Learn How

Aug 19th, 2020

Subscription businesses have to come up with all the offers, convenience, and utilities that can hook a customer to their subscription product or services. Because the subscription business is based […]

SaaS Business Model – Facts, Stages and Pros & Cons to Know About

Aug 17th, 2020

With each passing day, businesses are looking forward to adopting innovative solutions in their operational infrastructure. The systems are automated which helps businesses reduce friction in daily […]

Subscription Box Business 103-Market your Subscription Box, Attract the Sales And Grow the Subscriber Base

Aug 12th, 2020

In almost all the industries operating online or offline, subscription box services are becoming crucially important. In the past few years, subscription services and varying subscription billing […]

How to Manage eCommerce Subscriptions with SubscriptionFlow

Aug 10th, 2020

The digital space is revolutionizing at a rapid pace. The industrial landscape is adopting innovative solutions to compete with businesses in this technological world. Among those strategies, […]

A Definitive Guide: Top SaaS Billing Models for SaaS Businesses

Aug 7th, 2020

One of the numerous challenges for implementing billing models in SaaS or Software as a Service product is to maintain a balance between revenue and value. It is crucial for a business entity to […]

AI-Enabled SaaS for Subscription Management—05 Key Areas Where Using Artificial Intelligence Revolutionized the Data-Driven Services

Aug 5th, 2020

With the advent of artificial intelligence, the world has seen a revolution in the landscape of sales. AI reinvented the sales efforts, sales strategies, sales force, and requirements of the skills […]

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Top 5 Wild Apricot Alternatives to Elevate Your Membership

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