Tips To Streamline You Subscription Billing

By Susan Bapsnill


Are you familiar with the term recurring billing? Have you ever thought of using it in the context of your business to increase payment for the products and services you provide? Most small business owners don't know what recurring billing can do for their business. So let's take a look at what subscription billing is and then - what it can do for your business.

So, recurring billing, what is it? Recurring billing will charge an amount more than once to your credit card or bank account. The amount is usually the same and recurs on the same date each month. But recurring billing can also happen for variable amounts on any term or frequency on any date. Subscription billing is great for charges that never change in amount, for example: A monthly subscription to your favorite magazine.

So now that we have seen what it is, let's find out how subscription billing can benefit your business:

Keeping your cash-flow healthy

If like many other small business owners and freelancers you think that recurring billing is solely for enterprise or corporate entities, you will be surprised to learn that recurring billing can work wonders for your SMME as well. You can quite simply and very cost effectively implement subscription billing in your own small business.

Debiting payment via subscription billing means improved cash-flow for businesses. When getting paid only via wire transfer or direct deposit only you are haphazardly receiving small, unscheduled payments that each have bank changes to you and your customer. These once off payments can be sporadic so you are never sure when or even if your customers will pay you.

This means you are unsure of your cash-flow. This in turn leads to you not being able to plan ahead. Not being able to project what your income will look like over the next few months will prevent you from being able to schedule your own debits and plan the growth of your business.

Don't forget to remember

Customers who forget to pay their invoices on time can seriously affect your business. Waiting for late payment is very unproductive. Recurring billing eliminates the need to wait for late payment and because it happens automatically means the client does not need to remember to actually pay you each month. It's a great way to collect hassle-free on time payments.

Spend less on payment collection & administration

Ensuring the bulk of your customers pay via subscription billing translates to less administration tasks for you and your clients. Administration is less on the client's side because payment is automatic. The customer no longer needs to go into a bank to make a direct deposit or login to Internet banking to manually make a wire transfer. Administration is also reduced on your side because you do not have to reconcile hundreds of small individual payments. Gateways that facilitate subscription payments usually offer automated account recon or provide bulk recon files that allows easy and accurate consolidation.

Sounds awesome! Sign me up! Find the best resources for subscription billing systems online or ask fellow business owners for recommendations. We suggest signing up with a gateway that automates subscription billing and a payment facilitator that enables automatic account reconciliations.




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