Described as software that enables companies to, at its most basic level, generate and send invoices, collect payments, and calculate taxes – billing software is now capable of so much more. Regardless of whether you run a small and-medium sized business (SMB), a large enterprise, or something in between – implementing the right billing solution enables you to drive operational efficiencies, reduce errors, and boost profitability. However, with the number of billing systems now available, how do you know which one is right for your company?
This blog details why billing software is essential, the benefits of a billing software, the types of billing solutions currently on the market, considerations on selecting billing software, and how to overcome industry-specific billing obstacles.
Even though some of the tasks are tedious, accurate and timely billing is critical to the profitability and ongoing success of your company. Are you a SMB or mid-sized company that believes billing software is only for large enterprises? Or perhaps you’re a larger organization that has been on the fence when it comes to implementing billing software.
If so, here are 10 consequences of going without:
Now that we’ve covered the classic problems companies encounter when billing is handled manually, let’s talk about data.
For most industries, a significant amount of data is needed to accurately bill for products purchased or services rendered. If your data is spread across multiple systems, trying to manually consolidate it results in billing process delays. Further to the point, inaccurate or incomplete data hinders your ability to make intelligent financial decisions based on acquired data.
How can you resolve these and other billing issues? Simply put, turning billing obstacles into billing advantages requires an overarching, integrated billing solution.
That adds up to a lot of disadvantages, so what are the benefits of deploying billing software?
Billing software enables you to automate many of the time-consuming and error-prone tasks such as collecting usage data, ensuring all data is recognized across the billing processes, transferring billing data to other systems, confirming billable items and pricing, linking contract information, pricing, and usage data together, managing contracts to ensure accurate invoicing, and combining or splitting invoices – saving you time and money.
Here are more benefits you can expect to receive by implementing billing software.
When considering the type of billing software currently available, they’re first categorized by on-premise or cloud-based. However, determining which billing solution is right for your business requires a bit more thought and planning.
Selecting the right billing software for your company requires you to look at many factors. To put you on the right track, we’ve provided tips that will help you narrow the selection and choose the billing software that will best meet your current requirements and future needs.
This may sound fundamental but without having a clear understanding of your needs you may purchase a system that is lacking the features and functionality needed or conversely deploy a system that provides more functionality than you’ll ever use. Since billing software needs vary depending on company size, number of customers, billing complexity, and volume of transactions, your requirements may be different from your competitors.
Evaluate several billing software packages and compare the features and functionality offered to your requirements. Be sure the billing software allows for seamless integration to your other systems, as well as provides the scalability needed as your business grows. Additionally, consider other factors such as customer support, task automation, and ease of use.
With an understanding of your requirements, will an on-premise billing software solution provide what you need or do your requirements require cloud-based software. On-premise billing software has a one-time initial payment which is usually quite high. Additionally, overtime you may pay for software upgrades, as well as incur costs to keep the system operational. On the other hand, cloud-based billing software provides subscription plans that can be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, and upgrades/maintenance is typically handled by the software vendor.
While predefined invoice templates are a standard deliverable, the billing software should also enable you to configure the invoice to meet your specific needs and deliver a personal touch. Additionally, design elements need to provide the ability to create unique invoices by business unit, reseller/distributor, or geography.
The solution should have the ability to automate revenue management and manage the complete quote-to-cash and revenue recognition processes.
In today’s market, data security is non-negotiable. Be sure the billing software offers robust security measures and adheres to the strictest privacy and data policies – ASC 606, IFRS 15, SOC1/SOC2/PCI, GDPR, DKIM, and FIPS 140-2 encryption Level 2 and Level 3 standards.
The software should support localized billing, multiple currencies, multiple languages, and regional taxation – sales tax/VAT/GST, etc.
Before making a financial commitment, the vendors of your top billing software choices should not only offer a demo, but provide a free trial so that you can better evaluate the software.
When it comes to billing software, there’s not a one-size fits all solution. This is especially true when it comes to industry-specific requirements.
Let’s look at four diverse industries, their specific billing issues, and how billing software enables them to overcome challenges.
While not deliberately overlooked, many communications service providers (CSPs) continue to rely on legacy billing software that doesn’t provide the features and functionality needed for today’s 5G digital era. Challenges encountered due to billing software that is beyond its prime include inaccurate invoices that can result in revenue leakage and billing disputes, which many times leads to customer dissatisfaction/churn, lost revenue, and damage to the CSPs reputation, payment fraud which can also result in lost revenue and damage to their reputation, as well as legal liabilities, regulatory non-compliance which will result in penalties, fines, and again damage to the brand.
Overcoming these obstacles requires billing software that has been developed to meet the increasing and intensifying needs of today’s CSPs. An automated billing solution enables CSPs to:
The finance industry is rapidly evolving with technological innovation despite having to rely on legacy systems. Meanwhile, FinTech start-ups are disrupting the industry and bringing solutions that offer better customer service and greater convenience at a lower price. To combat these disruptors, financial institutions are exploring ways to serve customers more effectively through analytics and digital banking technologies.
When a secure, cloud-based billing solution is deployed, financial institutions gain the ability to flex to any business model and adapt to global, regional, and local compliance standards, as well as:
Historically, the media and entertainment industry has been dominated by recurring and one-time revenue models. While still relevant, the space is expanding to offer the types of innovative pricing packages that keep consumers engaged. Now, enterprises must be able to handle massive volumes of transactions and manage complex scenarios involving usage, bundles, and subscription pricing for a variety of streaming platforms, from movies and music to educational content, and more.
With billing software that supports endless configurations for media products and entertainment platforms, these companies can easily:
A key requirement for success, organizations in the travel, transportation, and logistics industry need to be able to streamline operations. For example, airports need to manage revenue collection for many activities, including flight movements, aircraft parking, ground power, retail, and more. Logistics companies must manage vast inventory and shipping databases, as well as leverage data, such as distance traveled and weight or speed of delivery to accurately account for services.
Transportation companies that utilize a complete billing solution to automatically rate, invoice, and collect payments gain the ability to:
Regardless of the size of your business or your industry, a primary objective of yours is probably to accelerate revenue growth. This requires a flexible billing solution that enables you to bring innovative products and services to market faster than the competition, cut operational expenses, and build profitable customer relationships. BillingPlatform provides everything you need and much more.
With BillingPlatform you get billing software that not only meets the needs of your business today and into the future, but your industry-specific requirements. With us you get a complete billing and revenue management solution that supports the entire quote-to-cash lifecycle – from product setup and quoting through billing/invoicing and revenue recognition through payment and collections. All built on a secure, next-generation cloud platform that seamlessly integrates to your other systems. Reach out to our team today to see if BillingPlatform is the solution you’ve been looking for.