Recurring Charges: Counters

Learn how to set up Counters in m3ter for recurring charges and subscription-based product pricing. Using Counters, follow a seat-based pricing example and a hybrid pricing example.

Many providers of SaaS products and services want to charge their end-customers for product consumption using a subscription or recurring charge pricing model, one where end-customers are charged based on the numbers of product units, seats, or user licenses subscribed to within a given billing period. For example:

• User-Based Licensing: A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) provider might charge $30 per user per month. Any of their end-customers with fluctuating staff numbers can adjust their subscriptions monthly, ensuring they pay for exactly the number of active users.
• Resource-Based Billing: A cloud storage service provider might charge based on the number of units of storage used, such as $10 per TB per month. As any of their end-customer’s data storage needs grow, their monthly charge can be scaled accordingly.

The Recurring Charges feature in m3ter allows you to implement this type of product pricing in using Counters:

• Create a suitable Counter for any Product that you want to charge for in this way.
• Use the Counter as a metric to set up a Pricing for a Product Plan.
• Attach the priced Plan to end-customer Accounts that have signed-up for the Product.
• Create Counter adjustments against the Account for the number of units the Account has subscribed to - such as seats or user licenses.
• At billing, the Account will be charged in accordance with the subscription charge rates you have set up using the Counter.

In this way, Counters in m3ter enable you to quickly implement a wide-range of unit-based pricing models for your products:

• Set up recurring subscription charges for your products with a quantity or number of units as the pricing metric.
• Offer your end-customers a flexible subscription model to help them optimize their subscription costs and easily manage their billing as their level of product consumption changes.
• Implement hybrid pricing models for products or services that you want to charge your end-customer for in a mixed way - partly on this kind of subscription basis and partly based on metered product usage.

Using a seat-based pricing example, this section explains how to create Counters for recurring charge pricing for products, price Product Plans using Counters, create Counter adjustments against Accounts for their subscription quantities on Products, and review Bills generated against Accounts for Counter-based charges due:

• Creating Counters and Pricing Plans
• Understanding and Creating Counter Adjustments on Accounts
• Recurring Charges Billing: Seat-Based Pricing

A final topic gives a worked example for setting up hybrid pricing, one where the overall pricing for a product or service combines recurring subscription charges with usage-based charges:

• Recurring Charges Billing: Hybrid Pricing

Initial Release: Recurring Charges billing for Parent/Child Accounts is not supported. If you price a Plan using a Counter to apply recurring subscription charges and attach the Plan to a Parent or Child Account, Parent/Child billing is not supported in this initial release.