Companies with usage-based pricing models can now set up their usage-based billing system in less than an hour without teams of engineers writing custom integrations
Hightouch, the leading Data Activation platform, today unveiled an automated billing solution for B2B software companies offering usage-based pricing. The solution, further solidifying the organization’s “Write Once, Use Anywhere” ethos, makes it easier for finance and business teams to implement or experiment with consumption-based pricing without relying on complex software engineering. Using Hightouch and SQL, customers can now activate usage data directly from their cloud data warehouse and automatically sync it to billing applications like Stripe and NetSuite. Doing so unlocks the automatic generation of invoices with correct usage data, seamless auditing of transactions and changes to business logic, and the ability to create go-to-market strategies based on usage and billing data.
Metering and aggregating usage, keeping customers informed, and ultimately, billing end users correctly and on time is mission critical for most organizations. Many modern organizations offer usage-based pricing models, but legacy billing tools are often too brittle to work with variable consumption data. For the billing system to be a success, finance teams often require the following:
- Accurate metering and aggregation
- Consistent source of truth across systems and applications
- Auditability and access controls at the transaction level
- Flexibility to deal with unique business models, credits, discounts, new pricing, etc.
To achieve this, many organizations need to engage multiple teams and stakeholders from across the company, further expanding the scope. Due to the complexity and broadness of the scope, these companies then rely on outsized engineering resources and custom scripts to implement their billing infrastructure. With Hightouch, customers can set up their usage-based billing system in less than an hour without requiring large teams of engineers. Data and finance teams can now deliver a seamless invoicing experience to their users, all with the product usage data already in their cloud data warehouse.
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“Without Hightouch, we would have had to use valuable engineering time to set up custom endpoints to create financial records,” explains James Ayoub, Data Platform Lead at Dandelion Energy. “Thanks to Hightouch, we were able to automate sales order and utility rebate invoice creation in under 30 minutes, and our accounting team has a few extra hours each week to focus on value-added work.”
Empowered with Hightouch and their cloud data warehouse, organizations offering usage-based pricing can save on engineering’s time and resources while accomplishing the following:
- Meter and aggregate usage data with just SQL
- Generate invoices with accurate usage data in Stripe or NetSuite
- Send consistent billing information to user-facing dashboards
- Set up alerts on billing information in Slack
- Create new go-to-market strategies based on usage and billing data in Salesforce
- Make auditable updates to business models
- Initiate discounts or credits in Stripe or NetSuite
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“Getting usage-based billing right is a big investment. Relying on traditional approaches, companies must invest precious data engineering resources to build custom scripts and business process automation,” says Tejas Manohar, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Hightouch. “Modern teams are using a data warehouse-centric approach to disrupt this pain point. Leveraging Hightouch’s Reverse ETL platform and the warehouse dramatically reduces engineering hours and continual maintenance while offering clarity and auditability on the business logic and underlying data.”