Automated BillingOps for Complex Parent/Child Relationships

With Billing Hierarchies, software vendors can meet the requirements of mid-size and enterprise customers with complex parent/child account relationships.

Key takeaways:

• m3ter’s Billing Hierarchies give businesses configurable billing capabilities that enable them to meet the requirements of customers with complex org structures.
• Flexible options include billing at child level, billing at parent level with a breakdown by child, and billing at parent level with summarized line items.
• This functionality takes into account not only the billing requirements of parent/child scenarios, but also requirements around account management in the CRM and payments integrations. This allows data to flow end-to-end throughout the quote-to-cash stack.

When it comes to buying software – or procurement of any kind, really – complex structures involving parent entities with multiple child entities become more common as companies get larger. The “parent” is the ultimate “owner” or bill payer (directly or otherwise). The “child” can be a subsidiary, department, team, or individual. 

Alternatively, software vendors themselves might engage third parties to sell products on their behalf, such as Value-Added Resellers (VAR) or Managed Service Providers (MSP), which create similar billing hierarchies. 

So as software vendors move up the food chain from smaller to larger customers, and/or embrace VAR or MSP as routes to market, the ability to manage complex billing hierarchies  becomes a necessity to win deals and keep customers happy. 

We built flexible and robust Billing Hierarchy capabilities in m3ter to enable this.

Billing with m3ter Billing Hierarchies

m3ter gives businesses flexible options for Billing Hierarchies, which are easily configurable and automate billing operations for any way you want to bill. Below are some use cases, which can be mixed even within the same hierarchy:

• Bill at child – Child accounts are billed and invoiced for their own usage directly.
• Bill at parent (breakdown by child) – Child accounts are billed and invoiced at the parent level with a bill line item per child per product consumed.
• Bill at parent (summarized line items) – Child accounts are billed and invoiced at the parent level with a single bill line item per product where all child usage is combined together. This is great for pricing scenarios where aggregate child usage is used to calculate volume or stair step tiers.

m3ter also simplifies billing operations in Billing Hierarchies, because calculating the bill for the parent account automatically recalculates the usage and drawdowns for all child accounts. These child accounts can also have their own individual Balances independent from each other. 

Other solutions can require businesses to run billing on child accounts individually prior to calculating the parent's bill. m3ter simplifies this and handles it for you.

This functionality takes into account both the billing requirements of parent/child billing scenarios and also requirements around account management in the CRM and accounts receivables integrations. This allows data to flow end-to-end throughout the quote-to-cash stack.

See for yourself and schedule a demo →

Advantages of managing complex Billing Hierarchies in m3ter

Using m3ter to manage complex parent/child relationships offers a number of benefits. Here's a detailed look:

1) Centralized billing management

Parent/child relationship: m3ter allows you to define clear parent/child relationships between accounts, or even devices if you have an IoT business. This means that usage data from multiple child accounts can be aggregated and billed under a single parent account, simplifying invoicing and payment processes.

Consolidated billing: With hierarchical management, you can generate a single invoice for a parent account that includes all the usage details of its child accounts, reducing administrative overhead and providing a clear view of total usage costs.

2) Flexible pricing models

Custom pricing for child accounts: m3ter supports the application of different pricing models to different child accounts within the same parent entity. This flexibility means you can tailor pricing based on the specific needs of different departments or subsidiaries while maintaining an overarching parent/child structure.

Shared discounts and thresholds: m3ter enables the implementation of shared discounts, volume thresholds, or usage caps across a parent and its child accounts, making it easier to offer volume discounts or enforce limits on usage across the entire organization.

3) Improved reporting and analytics

Detailed usage tracking: m3ter provides detailed reporting capabilities that allow software vendors to track and analyze account usage at both the parent and child levels. This granular insight helps in understanding usage patterns and making informed decisions about pricing, resource allocation, and customer management.

Aggregated data views: For businesses managing multiple child accounts, m3ter offers the ability to aggregate data. This provides a holistic view of usage across all related accounts – an essential piece of strategic planning and resource management.

4) Sales and Billing Ops enablement

Sales: Configure how a customer's account and their subsidiaries are billed without additional engineering support. Hierarchies can be directly imported along with account information from your CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and reflect the deals and quotes you've configured.

Billing Operations: Stress no longer about complex parent/child deals and billing scenarios where both child and parent accounts have different billing rules. m3ter handles it automatically.

5) Efficient resource allocation

Dynamic resource management: Managing parent/child relationships in m3ter facilitates efficient allocation of resources for your customers, ensuring that usage is tracked and billed accurately according to the organizational structure. This is particularly useful in environments where resources are shared across departments or business units, and it allows you to provide something valued by your customers.

Cost control: With clear visibility into usage at different levels, you can implement better cost control measures, preventing overuse or misuse of resources by individual child accounts.

6) Simplified customer experience

Unified billing experience: For software vendors that have customers managing multiple sub-accounts or departments, m3ter's ability to handle parent/child relationships simplifies the customer experience by offering unified billing and account management. The vendor’s customers can easily see their total usage and costs in one place, reducing confusion and boosting transparency.

Detailed transactional information: Generate bill items with detailed usage breakdown reflecting the configured billing hierarchy, which are then pushed into your accounts receivable for invoicing.

7) Scalability

Handling complex structures: m3ter is designed to scale with your business, allowing you to manage increasingly complex parent/child relationships as you start targeting mid-market and enterprise customers. This scalability is critical for businesses that anticipate expanding their usage-based pricing models to more clients or internal departments.

8) Compliance and security

Data security: m3ter ensures that data related to usage, pricing, and billing is handled securely with robust compliance measures in place to protect sensitive information – especially when dealing with multiple accounts within a hierarchical structure.

Audit trails: The system provides comprehensive audit capabilities that help businesses maintain compliance with regulatory requirements, particularly when managing billing and usage data across multiple accounts.

How to use Billing Hierarchies in m3ter

Getting started with m3ter Billing Hierarchies

Any business that wants to win larger accounts will need Billing Hierarchies and billing visibility. With m3ter, parent/child accounts are easily adaptable and scalable for any way you want to bill and any end-customer you want to work with.

Schedule a demo and see how the powerful m3ter platform can seamlessly manage your complex billing.