Over half of business leaders say they are extremely or somewhat likely to change or replace their subscription billing solution in the next 12 months.* Selecting the right billing provider can help you efficiently manage your user base and reduce subscriber churn, while the wrong one could lead to manual guesswork and your subscribers being locked out of their accounts without an explanation. This guide underscores the importance of evaluating billing software providers through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, tailored to address top concerns.
An effective billing system should be designed for scale, helping you streamline back-office operations,
meet complex reporting and compliance needs, and expand into new markets. As your business grows,
it will inevitably require more flexibility, including the ability to experiment with new pricing models and
support a variety of payment methods.
To find a billing software provider that meets your needs, you may start an official procurement process.
When writing a RFP, you should define what you need from a billing system in order to understand
providers’ capabilities and easily compare potential providers.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to evaluate providers and which criteria to include in your RFP. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach, we’ve included what to consider for key capabilities of any billing software
- Selling and accepting order
- Managing billing, subscription lifecycles, and provisionin
- Collecting payments and reducing cost
- Retaining customers and growing revenu
- Reporting and reconciling revenue
Selling and accepting orders
The right billing software provider should support your current sales trajectory and any future go-to-market strategies. You’ll prioritise different billing features depending on whether you have a sales team or an automated, self-serve sign-up flow on your website. For businesses that use both, it’s necessary to have an integrated billing system that can onboard a customer when your sales team closes a deal and also manage prorations when the same customer upgrades or downgrades on their own.
Customisation for sales teams
What to look for in a billing provider:
- Customer relationship management (CRM) integration. Look for a billing software provider that makes it easy to close deals and bill customers in one place. By integrating directly with your CRM system, for example, a billing provider can allow your sales teams to automatically convert a signed deal into an invoice or a subscription and manage contract updates when they come up.
- Custom contracts. Because of the negotiations inherent in sales deals, it’s also important that a billing system can handle custom contracts, including advanced-billing scenarios such as instalments, prepayments, or scheduled usage increases.
Optimised checkout for self-serve businesses
What to look for in a billing provider:
- Frictionless checkout experience. The checkout flow should make it easy to order online, in person, or on a mobile device; reduce cart abandonment; optimise payment acceptance; securely store card information; and successfully identify and block fraudulent charges.
- Subscription capabilities. Customers should be able to easily start a subscription online, in person, or on a mobile device.
- Fraud mitigation and security. Fraud logic to detect and block illegitimate payments should be built in, and customer payment information should be securely stored for accurate recurring charges.