Zoho Launches Flexible Billing Platform

Zoho has introduced Zoho Billing, an expanded version of its current application, Zoho Subscriptions.

The new Zoho Billing is designed to provide growing businesses with greater flexibility in their billing operations, allowing them to experiment with pricing strategies and quickly enter the market, the global technology company said in a Tuesday (Sept. 12) press release.

The increasing adoption of subscription models by businesses of all sizes has brought about various challenges, including managing recurring billing and tracking new metrics, according to the press release. Zoho Subscriptions was initially developed to address these challenges. 

However, as businesses have become more flexible and experimental in their billing approaches, the need for a comprehensive billing solution that can support constantly evolving strategies has become apparent, the release said.

Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist at Zoho, noted the importance of flexibility in billing platforms, stating that businesses get creative when it comes to business models, but are often handicapped by the lack of flexibility of their back-end systems.

“Whether a business goes with a subscription-based business model, or with a one-time billing model; whether it is project based or time based; no matter how a business chooses to mix and match their pricing and business model, the billing platform should adapt to that business, instead of the business adapting to their billing platform. This flexibility is where Zoho Billing stands out,” Vegesna said in the release.

Zoho Billing offers a user-friendly interface with versatile billing functionalities, including estimates, retainer invoicing for advance payments, one-time or flat-fee billing, project billing, expense billing and Quote-to-Cash (Q2C), according to the press release.

It also provides subscription management capabilities such as trial management, prorated billing, customer lifecycle management, retention and revenue recovery, the release said. Businesses can take advantage of features like consolidated billing, metered billing and online payment collection. 

For businesses selling mobile app subscriptions through app stores, Zoho Billing allows for seamless integration, maintaining a unified backend across selling channels, per the release. 

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that in the competitive retail subscription space, offering flexible plan options is strongly linked with merchants’ success.

For example, 97% of top-performing retail subscription players offer the ability to make plan changes to delivery frequency, according to “How Retail Subscription Merchants Can Win and Retain High LTV Customers,” a PYMNTS and sticky.io collaboration.