5 Best SaaS Billing Solutions for Your Business
Software as a service (SaaS) billing solutions has grown in popularity over the past few years, and for good reason. This segment of the software market has exploded with new providers, features, and pricing models. SaaS services allow businesses to offer their customers convenient apps that they can use to manage their company’s finances, track expenses, and more. While there are many different types of SaaS services available today, they all fall into one of five main categories: expense management, subscription billing, recurring revenue, user account management, and others. In this post, we will explore these SaaS billing solutions in depth and identify which might be right for your business.
What is a SaaS billing solution?
SaaS solutions are software applications that you license to your customers on a subscription basis. These solutions can be managed via an online portal, allowing your customers to access their data from any device. The advantages of SaaS billing include the ability to avoid the substantial costs of building and owning your technology, as well as the ability to instantly and easily add new functionality.
Subscription Billing
Subscription billing is the most common type of SaaS billing. It’s used by software as a service provider such as Adobe, Box, Slack, and Salesforce. Customers purchase a subscription to use the provider’s software, and the vendor decides on the price. Subscription billing is popular for larger businesses that need to manage a large number of users. Companies with a large number of employees may find this billing type useful; customers can sign up for a single subscription that covers them all. Other types of subscription billing are cash-based and unbundled.
Recurring Revenue
Recurring revenue (sometimes called subscription billing 2.0) is a type of SaaS billing that’s used by many education and training companies. Instead of selling customers a single subscription, these providers sell subscriptions that automatically renew at the end of the period. This can be useful for businesses that want to make a recurring revenue from customers. Some subscription services use an auto-renewal process that lets customers change the renewal period if needed.
User Account Management Platform
A user account management platform (UAM platform) is a type of software that allows organizations to manage user accounts and permissions for their cloud apps. There are many different vendors in this space, and some specialize in helping midsize and enterprise businesses manage their users. Some UAM vendors focus on managing legacy desktop apps, while others let you manage mobile apps only. UAM platforms generally fall under one of two types: data management and identity management. Data management products focus on helping businesses keep track of their data, while identity management products help users log in to different cloud apps.
Expense Management Service
Expense management services let you create digital “invoice” apps for your customers. You can use these apps to easily create and manage expense reports for your customers from the cloud. Some expense management services let you create expense reports based on specific criteria such as time and location. Some of the more popular expense management services are: – Box – Box is a popular expense management service that’s used by more than 100,000 businesses globally. The Box app is available for both iOS and Android devices. – FreshBooks – FreshBooks is a popular expense management service that’s used by more than 20 million small businesses. The FreshBooks app is available for iOS and Android devices. – ExpenseLogic – ExpenseLogic is a popular expense management service that’s used by more than 1,000 businesses globally. – Podio – Podio is a popular customer engagement platform. The Podio app is available for both iOS and Android devices.
Conclusion
SaaS billing solutions are a great way to bring all your existing technology under one roof and benefit from the convenience of one centralized platform. However, you shouldn’t rely on them as your sole source of revenue, as they do have costs associated with them and are only one aspect of your business. To generate enough revenue from your SaaS solution, you need to focus on customer growth, marketing campaigns, and retention. With a smart strategy and the right marketing software, you can maximize your revenue from your SaaS solution and even build a sustainable business.