Okay, it’s true. Billing isn’t sexy. But if you’re a SaaS or subscription-based business, recurring billing is practically baked in your DNA. And while you may think that it’s “just billing,” it’s actually so much more than that.
While manual billing might make sense in the very early days of your startup or business, as you expand, you’ll quickly see that it leads to involuntary churn, human error, and wasted time—all serious issues that can make or break your business. That’s why, when done right, recurring payments are all about efficiency, as they impact so many parts of your organization: admin load, customer retention, time management, and even cash flow.
With the right all-in-one subscription management software, you can streamline your subscription billing workflow, leading to company-wide benefits and freeing up more time to focus on improving your business and driving growth. If you’re not sure where to get started with finding the best recurring invoice software for your SaaS business, look no further: today, we’ll cover everything you need to know on selecting the best recurring billing software to set you up for success.
TL;DR
- Recurring invoicing software solutions help SaaS businesses automate repetitive tasks and manage the subscription plans that they offer to their customers. Their benefits include time savings, stronger collections assurance, PCI DSS compliance, and customer satisfaction.
- Key features to look for include automation, customization and flexibility, integration with your fintech stack, and scalability.
- Carefully evaluate your business needs to find the best recurring billing provider for you, and ask critical questions to providers to ensure the right fit.
The Key Features of Recurring Invoicing Software
Recurring invoicing software solutions help SaaS businesses automate the repetitive and manage the subscription plans that they offer to their customers: that includes sign-ups, upgrades, downgrades, renewals, and cancellations, but also all customer data and recurring revenue. It can also handle all things subscription billing, like revenue recognition. Not sure what the top features you should be looking for are with recurring invoicing platforms? Here are our top 4.
- Automation: Find an agile, automated solution that reduces the time your subscription business spends on billing workflows: think optimizing dunning management, payment retries, or auto-updated billing information.
- Customization and flexibility: Your recurring invoice solution shouldn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach: can you customize invoice templates or self-service portals to offer a white-labeled solution to your clients? Do they accept multiple payment methods and currencies?
- Integrations: Take efficiency to the next level by finding a solution that integrates into your entire fintech stack (eg, your CRM or ERP), allowing you to scale your processes. Whether you want to connect Quickbook or Hubspot, find out if your future provider offers an API for easy integrations.
- Scalability: When you find a provider, make sure they can grow alongside you: do they offer an integrated payment gateway? If you want to expand internationally, can you automatically create invoices in multiple languages?
By keeping track of these features for your future recurring billing platform, you can ensure you end up with the right solution.
Benefits of Using Recurring Invoice Software
Now, let’s take a closer look at just some of the ways recurring billing software can help you meet your goals.
- Time savings: Did you know that automating manual processes has been shown to result in savings of up to nearly 50% per department impacted? With automated billing operations, you can say goodbye to human error and hello to consistent quality and more time to improve your business.
- Stronger collections assurance: Recurring invoicing software means no more manual dunning management, so with automated credit card retries and customer communications, as well as improved reporting capabilities, you can reduce the risk of involuntary churn.
- Stronger compliance: If you accept credit card payments, you must ensure compliance with Payment Card Index Data Security Standard (PCI DSS); failure to do so could lead to fines as high as $100,000/month. By opting with a PCI-compliant recurring billing solution, most of the PCI requirements will be offloaded to the provider.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction: With a self-service portal and an improved billing experience, your customers are more likely to experience fewer pain points in the billing process. If they’re empowered to handle easier problems themselves, your team can provide more resources and time to complicated issues, which means shorter wait times, more dedicated responses, and better customer service.
Evaluating Your Business Needs To Find the Right Pick
Okay, so you’re convinced. You’re ready to start reaping the benefits. But there’s just one question in the back of your mind: where to begin?
It all starts with looking inwards. You need to know your business, and we mean really know it. What’s your business model, your strategy? Where do you want to be in one year, five years? Who are your customers, what are their pain points?
Then think of the technical, quantitative requirements: how many invoices are you sending out on a monthly basis? What integration requirements do you need? What’s your budget for investing in software, and what kind of ROI are you looking for? A deep understanding of these questions will help you find the best recurring invoice software to fit your needs.
Top Questions to Ask Providers During Selection
Once you have an idea of your requirements, start researching possible vendors: using Google and getting word-of-mouth recommendations are a good way to get started. Use the features we mentioned above to narrow it down to a shortlist, and don’t forget to look at independent/third-party sites, like G2 or Capterra to see what real people have to say.
When you’ve settled on your top two or three picks, have a “get to know you” session with them to see how it feels—and don’t forget to ask them the tough questions, including:
- What levels of customer support are available? If it’s not clear that you can easily speak to a human being (like via live chat or through a dedicated account manager), then it may be difficult to get the level of support you need, especially during onboarding and earlier days.
- How secure is the platform, and does it comply with data protection regulations? Ideally, you’ll be able to work with a provider that has a PCI Level 1 Certified billing system so you can rest easy knowing your cardholders’ data is safe.
- Are there any hidden fees or long-term contracts? Make sure you have a clear understanding of the total cost of ownership up front, so you know exactly what you’re signing up for. If you’re not sure what hidden fees to be on the lookout for, we cover some popular ones here. At Stax Bill, we use a transparent, subscription-based pricing model that offers all the services you need with no hidden fees.
Implementation and Onboarding Tips
When you’ve settled on the final pick, make sure your future recurring billing provider will get you set up for success. Clearly map out how you’ll transfer all existing processes and data to your new platform (and see if they’ll offer services for this). Then, make sure your provider offers comprehensive onboarding resources and trainings so your team can utilize all features and quickly learn best practices. And finally, set up all templates and automation rules in line with your branding, and say hello to stress-free billing!
Wrapping Up
Automated recurring invoicing and billing processes are a must-have for your business, and a full-scale subscription management provider like Stax Bill offers collections assurance, real-time data analytics and reporting features, and customer empowerment, all in-house. If you want to optimize your revenue streams with a recurring invoicing solution that goes beyond billing, look no further than Stax Bill.
Recover more revenue and collect more on your invoices today. Contact Stax Bill for a demo.
