Inefficient billing processes are a major source of revenue losses and cash delays. Billing software that doesn’t communicate well between your front and back offices compounds the problem because your financial data isn’t in one place. Customers are also frustrated by billing portals that make it hard to pay invoices or ask questions.
But we have good news: FinancialForce includes a solution to fill these gaps in your billing cycle from closing Salesforce opportunities to sending invoices and renewing contracts on time.
What can you achieve with FinancialForce’s subscription and usage billing software? The following 6 capabilities of Billing Central will help you increase revenue and give customers a positive experience — even while paying their bills!
1. Unify your front and back offices.
Billing software that doesn’t communicate between your front and back offices leaves your company vulnerable to profit losses. Since FinancialForce is an application on the Salesforce platform, you’ll be able to unify your front and back offices with Billing Central, centralizing even the most complex billing contracts.
A unified billing system like Billing Central decreases the margin for error and increases profits. In fact, FinancialForce users reported a 33-50% improvement in days sales outstanding (DSO) and 50-100% improvement in close times.
2. Optimize billing for different pricing models.
Products, services, and subscriptions require different billing structures. Billing Central allows you to optimize and automate billing processes for product, subscription, and usage-based billing.
You can also use Billing Central for tiered pricing. Imagine you’re a cup manufacturer. You sell 1-10 cups at $10 per cup and 11-21 cups at $9.50 per cup. With Billing Central, you can automate invoicing per tier and track how many cups you sell over a period of time.
3. Consolidate multiple invoices into one.
Do you offer a variety of products and services that require product, subscription, and usage-based billing? What if a customer has several invoices based on different pricing models?
Billing Central makes it easy to consolidate several invoices into one! You can pull billing information from FinancialForce professional services automation (PSA) to combine billing for subscriptions and services. You’ll be able to invoice a customer only once per billing cycle for multiple billing contracts.
4. Create and update contract terms and conditions.
You need a system that can keep up with the evolving needs of your business and your customers. Billing Central allows you to create contracts for product, subscription, and usage-based billing. You’ll be able to adjust or update pricing structures, terms, and conditions quickly and easily for new or existing customers.
Billing Central also makes target invoicing easy so you can create, automate, and send invoices based on a customer’s contract agreement to monthly, quarterly, or yearly payments.
5. Automate taxation rates with Avalara.
Tax rates are always changing. Manually researching and calculating tax rates for billing is error-prone and costs you time and money you don’t have. But you can avoid these pitfalls with Avalara, an application that works with FinancialForce and automates tax compliance rates for your industry and tax type!
With Avalara and Billing Central working together, you’ll rest easy, knowing your tax rates are up-to-date with the latest sales and use-tax jurisdictions on every invoice. Avalara also makes it easier to report and file taxes every year.
6. Provide customers with a user-friendly billing portal.
Good customer relationships are crucial to growing your business. Billing portals that are error-prone and difficult to use are a major pain point for your consumers.
The Customer Billing and Payments Community in Billing Central provides customers with a user-friendly experience when paying their bills. Customers can access account activity, view and print invoices, and make payments — all in one place! The billing portal also works with Salesforce Chatter so you can communicate and collaborate with customers.
These capabilities in Billing Central have made life easier for our clients, increasing their revenue while slashing the time it takes to create and send invoices. Customers are happier too when paying invoices is a streamlined, transparent process from start to finish. Need help optimizing Billing Central for your company’s billing needs? Schedule a call today, and we’ll show you how to make FinancialForce work for your billing structure.