Why Building Billing Systems Is So Painful (2024)
18 days ago
- #billing-systems
- #revenue-management
- #saas
- Billing systems are deceptively complex, especially as products scale.
- Common pricing models include subscriptions (good-better-best), per-seat, and usage-based billing.
- Usage-based billing introduces challenges like real-time tracking, high event volume, and flexible data models.
- Billing is critical infrastructure, impacting revenue, compliance, and customer trust.
- Billing systems must serve multiple stakeholders: finance, sales, product, engineering, data science, and end users.
- Building a successful billing team requires technical and financial domain expertise.
- Clear priorities are essential due to competing demands from different teams.
- A well-defined domain model and single source of truth are crucial for accuracy.
- Avoid grandfathering old pricing plans to prevent complexity and maintenance overhead.
- Billing is a strategic asset that drives business growth and operational efficiency.