Billing & Subscriptions

The billing system in AI-native ERP provides two complementary approaches for managing customer billing: customer special pricing for negotiated rates, and recurring contracts for full subscription and automated billing management. You can use either independently or combine them for sophisticated billing scenarios.

Customer Special Pricing#

When a customer negotiates a price different from your standard catalog, you create a customer-specific price entry. This entry answers the question "What price does Customer X pay for Item Y?" and is automatically applied whenever you create an invoice for that customer and item combination.

The pricing engine evaluates multiple layers in priority order. Customer-specific prices override promotions, which override volume tiers, which override entity prices, which override master catalog prices. This layered approach lets you run promotions, offer volume discounts, and honor negotiated rates without conflicts.

Recurring Contracts#

For subscription businesses, recurring contracts automate the entire billing cycle. You define the contract terms -- items, quantities, pricing, billing frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual), start date, and end date -- and the system generates invoices on schedule.

Contracts support both fixed-price and usage-based billing. Fixed-price contracts bill the same amount each period. Usage-based contracts track consumption metrics (seats, hours, API calls, storage) and calculate the billing amount based on actual usage at the contracted rate.

Mid-Term Changes#

When a customer needs to upgrade, downgrade, or modify their subscription mid-term, the system handles proration automatically. It calculates the unused portion of the current billing period, applies credits or charges as appropriate, and adjusts future billing to reflect the new terms. Contract amendments preserve a complete history of changes for audit and dispute resolution.

Prepaid Wallets#

For credit-based business models, the prepaid wallet system lets customers pre-purchase credits that are drawn down as services are consumed. When a customer buys a $10,000 credit package, the system creates a wallet balance. As usage is metered and invoices are generated, the wallet balance decreases. You can track wallet balances, top-up history, and consumption rates to forecast when customers will need to replenish.

Integration with Revenue Recognition#

Billing and revenue recognition work hand-in-hand. When a recurring contract generates an invoice, the system can automatically create a revenue recognition schedule that spreads the revenue over the service period. This ensures your billing operations and financial reporting are synchronized, with deferred revenue properly tracked on your balance sheet.