Modern Invoicing for Modern Pricing
Today, we're unveiling OpenMeter Invoicing, a real-time billing solution that provides detailed breakdowns for multiple line items, accurate totals, and up-to-date invoice previews throughout the billing period. Whether using tiered pricing, usage-based models, or complex discounts, OpenMeter Invoicing offers the clarity and confidence both you and your customers need.
Increased Customer Visibility
Modern pricing structures can have many moving parts. Tiered rates, commitments, discounts, and other adjustments create complexity that can lead to confusion if not managed properly. OpenMeter's real-time invoicing brings increased transparency for both businesses and customers:
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Detailed Breakdown: Each cost component is displayed separately so customers can see exactly how their usage and commitments contribute to the total invoice. This is particularly important for cloud computing services where companies charge based on compute hours, storage, and API calls.
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Dynamic Invoice Previews: Customers can track current and projected charges throughout the billing cycle, reducing end-of-month surprises. For example, a company providing AI API services can help customers predict their upcoming costs and adjust their usage accordingly.
Simplified Adjustments
Handling adjustments and special cases should not require manual intervention. OpenMeter makes it easy to:
- Add Line Items for new charges at any time. A SaaS company may need to add onboarding fees for new enterprise customers.
- Apply Discounts to specific invoice lines or the entire invoice. A data analytics platform might provide discounted rates for high-volume customers.
- Set Minimum and Maximum Spend to automatically cap or secure invoice totals, ensuring predictable billing. For example, a marketing automation tool could enforce a minimum spend to guarantee revenue while offering capped pricing for startups.
This level of flexibility helps businesses manage evolving customer agreements without recalculating totals manually or introducing errors.
Progressive Billing to Minimize Risk
One of the most powerful aspects of OpenMeter Invoicing is its ability to bill in real time. Instead of waiting for the end of a billing cycle, businesses can:
- Continuously Calculate Upcoming Invoices See in-progress totals at any time, allowing for better financial forecasting. This is especially valuable for AI companies and infrastructure providers that incur high operational costs and need to manage cash flow efficiently.
- Auto-Issue Invoices at Thresholds When customers reach a set usage or cost threshold, invoices are automatically issued, reducing outstanding balances and mitigating financial risk. AI platforms, for example, use progressive billing to cap customer invoice liability by billing incrementally as compute usage grows.
This progressive approach to billing minimizes revenue risk while also helping companies cover the cost of infrastructure and other expenses as they scale.
Seamless Integration with Payment Systems
Unlike traditional invoicing solutions that lock businesses into a single provider, OpenMeter is built for flexibility. While our platform currently integrates with Stripe, our open APIs allow businesses to build custom integrations with other payment processors as needed.
For example, an AI platform with high compute costs might use OpenMeter's APIs to sync real-time usage data with its internal billing system, while a SaaS company could develop a direct integration with its preferred enterprise invoicing software, such as NetSuite or SAP, for streamlined reconciliation.
Built for Flexible Pricing and Growth
OpenMeter Invoicing seamlessly integrates with our product catalog and subscription management system, allowing businesses to:
- Adjust pricing structures dynamically in response to customer usage patterns.
- Offer hybrid models that combine flat fees with usage-based billing.
- Provide customers with a clear, real-time view of their billing status.
Extend OpenMeter with Third-Party Applications
Today, we are also announcing the OpenMeter Marketplace, a hub for extending the capabilities of OpenMeter Invoicing with third-party integrations. Our open-source framework allows any business to expand its invoicing and payment ecosystem by installing apps to:
- Calculate Tax: Ensure compliance with tax regulations across different regions. A SaaS company expanding to Europe may need to integrate VAT compliance tools.
- Deliver Invoices: Send invoices directly to customers or sync them with external systems like accounting platforms. A legal software provider may need to send invoices to corporate clients through an automated document delivery system.
- Collect Payments: Automate revenue collection through the payment provider of your choice. A subscription-based productivity app may want to enable recurring payments through multiple gateways.
Because OpenMeter's invoicing engine is fully open-source, integrators can review the expected interfaces and customize integrations to meet their unique needs.
Start Invoicing with Confidence
With OpenMeter Invoicing, businesses can:
- Provide real-time invoice previews to keep customers informed.
- Support dynamic pricing structures, including tiered, usage-based, and hybrid models.
- Reduce financial risk through progressive billing.
- Automate tax calculations, invoice delivery, and payment processing with third-party applications.
Say goodbye to manual spreadsheets, guesswork, and billing surprises. OpenMeter brings real-time invoicing, automation, and transparency to your revenue operations, helping you grow with confidence.
Tomorrow, we will introduce our first application to automate revenue and financial operations.
