Subscription businesses have enjoyed great growth in recent years. The advantages of predictable revenue and recurring revenue have encouraged all kinds of businesses to deploy the subscription business model.
In order to successfully grow and scale a subscription business, it is essential to have the right tools.
Introduction to Subscription Management Software
Subscription Management Software manages subscriber sign-ups, their billing, invoicing, and payments. It empowers businesses with the flexibility to manage their subscribers while providing a positive subscriber experience.
As businesses start to grow, they realize that subscription management and billing related processes become unwieldy. While simple spreadsheet-driven processes may have helped manage a handful of customers, trying to handle thousands of customers with such inefficient methods can be a nightmare.
Therefore, what should you look for in subscription management or recurring billing software?
Features
We compiled the following checklist of features you should look for in a subscription management software. These features can help facilitate accuracy in your bookkeeping and much more.
Feasible to Change Pricing Plans
Subscription business become successful by offering what their customers need. The customer demands are always changing, and the business will always need to adapt to their changing expectations.
Using the right subscription management software can help you tweak your pricing plans quickly. The software should allow you to make these changes easily and seamlessly such that your marketing, sales, and accounting departments have to do the least amount of changes to their processes to adapt to the pricing changes.
Handles Coupons, and Discount Offers
Discounts and coupons are an excellent way to promote your product. But the change in the price-pints price can be hard to track if you manage price reduction manually. You need to remove expired discounts to prevent revenue loss. At the same time, removing the discount prematurely will result in a dissatisfied customer.
You can also experiment with your pricing with volume and tiered discount. The subscription management software should help you deploy these discounts quickly and tracks these offers and your revenue.
Corporate Branding and Invoices
Branding adds professionalism and credibility which helps build a strong bond with clients. Corporate bonding helps you to relate to a brand. If done right, it can increase your profits. 89% of B2B Marketing considers brand awareness more important than lead generation and sales.
Strategic branding is implemented throughout a company’s material from sale literature to pamphlets and business cards But, what about the invoice? It is an important point of contact with the customer.
A good recurring billing software allows you to place branding on invoices. The branding reinforces the value of the customer’s relationship with your company.
Bulk Operation Support
Maintaining a successful business is nothing short of a challenge; you have to add and remove products constantly while adjusting their price to cater your overhead expenses or production costs. For instance, shipping costs change due to higher fuel costs.
If you don’t have a billing system that is flexible enough to accommodate to these subtle changes, your business might run into a serious loss. The right subscription management software will allow you make these changes in a matter of seconds and help you keep track of your finances.
Supports Different Payment Methods
People are very selective in their financial transactions. You will need to support your customer’s choice of different payment methods including:
- Mobile Wallet
- Apple Pay
- Paypal
- Google Pay, etc
PCI Compliant Subscription Management
Payment Card Industry Standards took off in 2006; it promised everyone there financial information is protected against theft.
Before someone buys something online, they need to be assured their information is protected. If you are in the subscription e-commerce landscape, PCI compliance is important for you as it offers high standards of security. PCI compliance has become a legal requirement for many businesses today. Your subscription management software should be PCI compliant.
Takes Care of Deferred and Earned Revenue
GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) recommends accurate revenue recognition. However, differentiating between deferred and earned revenue can complicate things.
Software as a Service (SaaS) business charges you at the start of the billing cycle. At the end of the cycle, the income becomes earned revenue once the service has been utilized.
Your subscription management and recurring billing software needs to be able to support revenue recognition. Accurate revenue recognition is emerging as a major accounting compliance necessity with the introduction of standards like ASC 606.
