Subscription management and recurring billing platforms are key to Software as a Service (SaaS) companies for several reasons: they provide an automated mechanism for billing and revenue collection, offer flexibility in pricing models, and provide robust analytics and reporting, enabling companies to gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.

In this article, we’ll help you identify if recurring billing software is the right fit for your business and guide you to choose a billing solution that serves your needs.  

Signs you need a billing platform for your SaaS business

Do you need a subscription-based billing platform? Start by asking yourself the following questions:

  • Is your team drowning in spreadsheets just to manage your billing? Managing billing with spreadsheets will give you a hard time getting your company off the ground. While it may seem like billing software is something to get after your company has matured, it makes a big difference from the moment you start a subscription business.

  • Are you losing otherwise loyal customers and can't figure out why? Having visibility on key business metrics like subscriber lifetime value, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), or customer churn rates, helps you monitor business health and identify growth opportunities. 

  • Is your billing model able to flex with what your customers want? If your systems can only support a fixed billing model or it would be challenging to have a flexible subscription-based model, a billing solution could easily offer more options.

While this might be a simple diagnosis, answering yes to one or more of these questions clearly states that a subscription management and billing solution can help you scale your business. 

Three benefits of billing software for SaaS companies

Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, your SaaS company can benefit from billing software. But if you’re still unsure if you need it, here are four reasons why a subscription management and recurring billing platform can be a practical solution:

1. Let your team focus on your core product 

Without an automated system, your staff loses valuable time invoicing and billing customers. And for any company, that can quickly lead to an overburdened staff. For a SaaS company constantly experimenting with new offerings, a subpar solution can force the finance and accounting departments to deprioritize higher-value projects instead of focusing on day-to-day minutiae.

2. Deliver more value to customers

Working with a subscription billing solution helps you to deliver a seamless subscriber experience–from signup to renewal. For example, you can offer free trials and let cautious shoppers try your product before buying. Or offer pausing options to subscribers who need a break from your service, but still want to enjoy it in the near future. 

3. Easily expand globally

As a software company, there’s a good chance that you are expanding your offerings or geographic coverage. SaaS billing platform can help you enter new markets with multiple currencies and payment methods, customizable invoice and receipt formats, myriad billing terms, and variable contract details. All of these, while simplifying recurring billing across plan purchases, renewals, and adjustments using a variety of flexible options. 

4. Reduce churn & get a better ROI

There may be no bigger source of financial ROI than reducing churn. According to Recurly’s subscriber retention benchmark report, 7.5% of SaaS subscribers are at risk of involuntary churn–one of the highest potential consumer losses out of all industries studied. Automated billing software allows SaaS companies to save many of those at-risk subscribers.

How to choose a SaaS billing platform

Your tech stack can help you automate countless routine tasks, and for subscription companies, there may be no part of the tech stack that is more important than recurring billing software. When evaluating SaaS billing software, consider the value provided by the solution and how long it will take to get a return on that investment.

Review how a particular platform integrates with your existing tech stack–so you should ensure that it seamlessly works with your other software, like your accounting and CRM tools. If it doesn’t integrate, your staff could be forced to manually migrate data between platforms.

Speaking of seamless processes, consider time-to-value. What good is SaaS billing platform if you have to wait months before you’re up and running? Look for a typical time to launch of weeks, not months. 

Recurly is the best billing system for SaaS businesses because it was designed with B2B and B2C companies in mind–allowing you to: 

  • Implement and manage various B2B SaaS billing models, such as usage-based pricing, tiered pricing, and one-time charges.

  • Ensure accurate and compliant revenue recognition, helping you automate and optimize your revenue streams and financial reporting.

  • Gain insights into key subscription metrics, customer behavior, churn rates, and revenue trends, powering data-driven decision-making.

  • Integrate with various payment gateways, CRM systems, accounting software, and other business tools, ensuring a smooth and cohesive workflow.

  • Scale your operations globally, easily managing SaaS subscriptions and payments across different markets with multi-currency and multi-region support.

  • Protect customer data and ensure compliance with regulations like  PCI DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR.

Our in-depth understanding of the challenges facing SaaS companies, helps us deliver management and billing software that not only works well but also generates quantifiable results, such as a 15% average increase in revenue and a 12.3x average ROI for our customers. 

Looking for a subscription billing partner?

Choosing a subscription billing software is just one of the many key business decisions a subscription business must make. Check out our guide, Technology transformation: How to scale subscriptions, to learn the key considerations and advantages of a packaged solution instead of building one in-house.