Billing profiles contain the settings for billing and control invoice generation. An organization can have multiple billing profiles. This is useful when you have different billing needs for different customers.

For example, you might want some customers to be billed via Stripe and others via bank transfer.

Billing profiles can be managed in the Billing Settings accessible from the Settings menu or via API.

#Customer Overrides

For assigning customers to different billing profiles please see the Customer Overrides section.

#Example

For example, an organization might require two different billing profiles:

Default SaaS billing profile:
- Payment method: Charge automatically via credit card
- Payment due after: 3 days
Enterprise customer billing profile:
- Payment method: Send invoice for bank transfer
- Payment due after: 30 days

#General settings

A billing profile is linked to a specific App. This association is established during the billing profile's creation and remains immutable. When transitioning to a new app, organizations must create a new billing profile (see Migration section).

Each OpenMeter organization maintains precisely one Default billing profile. All newly created customers, as well as those without an explicitly assigned billing profile, automatically inherit this default profile.

Notable exception: When modifying the default billing profile from Sandbox to a production app, customers with outstanding invoices are automatically retained on the Sandbox-based billing profile to prevent unintended charges from test data.

#Collection

When future billable items exist due to an active subscription, they are aggregated into a Gathering Invoice.

The Collection settings control how gathering invoices become draft invoices. Two parameters affect this process: Collection Alignment, which sets the timing rules for invoice creation, and Collection Period, which adds a buffer interval before invoice generation.

To maintain data integrity and prevent late-arriving events from affecting draft invoices, OpenMeter captures snapshots of all relevant meters upon draft invoice creation. The Collection Period should be configured to accommodate the maximum expected latency between event occurrence and transmission through the ingest API.

For instance, if you send usage data in hourly batches, we recommend setting a Collection Period of several hours to ensure comprehensive data capture.

Currently, OpenMeter supports only Subscription alignment mode, where the Rate Card's billing cadence parameters govern invoice creation timing. A gathering invoice line (derived from a subscription rate-card for each billing cycle) becomes eligible for billing under the following conditions:

For In Advance rate cards: when the line's billing period start date has elapsed
For In Arrears rate cards: when the line's billing period end date plus the Collection Period has elapsed

Notable exceptions:

When a subscription starts, all In Advance Flat Fees are billed immediately, since they don't depend on meter readings
- For subsequent periods, In Advance Flat Fees are consolidated with any usage-based items from the previous billing period on the same invoice
Progressive billing generates interim invoices during the billing period to enable Threshold Billing

#Invoicing

This section defines the invoice creation process and lifecycle management parameters.

Progressive Billing generates partial invoices during an active billing cycle. It is enabled by default in the default billing profile - please refer to the documentation for detailed limitations and considerations.

Auto Advance Invoice determines whether invoices automatically transition from draft to issued state after the draft period expires. For streamlined automated invoicing workflows, we recommend enabling this setting with a 0 draft period (immediately issue).

Common scenarios for disabling Auto Advance:

Initial Billing Configuration Validation: Lets you manually verify charges before they reach the customer
Emergency Control Mechanism: Gives you immediate invoice control during system integration issues or event reporting anomalies
External System Integration Requirements: Supports scenarios that require synchronization with external systems before invoice finalization

Strategic applications of Auto Advance with extended draft periods:

Lets support and sales teams review invoices internally before they reach customers
Enables quality assurance checks on high-value accounts

Default Tax Behavior establishes the standard tax handling for invoice line items, unless overridden by subscription-specific Rate Card settings. Available options:

Inclusive: Price amounts include applicable taxes
Exclusive: Tax amounts are calculated and added to base prices

Tax Code (Stripe integration only) sets the default tax classification code for invoices processed through Stripe.

#Payment settings

Payment method determines the invoice settlement process. OpenMeter currently supports two payment methods:

Charge automatically: Processes payment immediately using the customer's stored payment card.
Send invoice: Issues an invoice to the customer for payment via their preferred method (credit card, bank transfer, or other supported payment options)

Invoice due after/Payment due after (period) specifies the duration allowed for invoice payment after finalization. This grace period applies to all payment methods, including credit card payments which may be declined. If payment is not received within this timeframe, the invoice status will transition to overdue.

Overview