In a Nutshell
pros
- Supports multiple billing models
- Enables customer-specific subscriptions
- Enables automated changes to subscriptions
cons
- Too expensive to use only for invoicing
- Real-time reporting deemed weak by customers
NetSuite at a Glance
Best for: Businesses with complex subscription models
Price range: $99 per user per month. Additional costs depend on configuration and contract length.
Apps: Android and iOS
Features and Add-ons
SuiteBilling supports transaction, subscription, usage-based and hybrid billing models, all while ensuring your business remains ASC 606-compliant. In this section, we’ll focus on what SuiteBilling can do for subscription billing—which is the greatest strength of this software.
-
Supports 3 billing models
Flat model charges customers the same amount each billing cycle. Volume model is based on consumption or entitlement, where the highest-volume tier-unit rate reached is applied to the entire invoice. Tiered model is where the rate for each unit of consumption is applied to a given range (whereby the total end-rated value is comprised of varying per-unit rates).
-
Supports 2 rating models
SuiteBilling gives your business a choice between billing subscriptions as 1-time charges or recurring fees, in-advance or in-arrears. The alternative, multiple rating models, lets your business create subscriptions that capture setup fees, license counts, and variable consumption all at once.
-
Subscription management made easy
Subscription types range from evergreen to traditional time-based (e.g. one year, three years). Changes to subscriptions such as upselling, downselling, suspending and terminating can be easily managed from the software. Also gives you the ability to turn on automated renewals.
-
Enables scheduled and automated changes to subscriptions
Your business can schedule an immediate or future-dated change to pricing and/or quantities on subscriptions. This eliminates the need to manually monitor and track customer subscription changes.
-
Supports customer-specific pricing and discounting
Custom subscriptions enable your business to create specific pricing and contract for individual customers, including specific discounting rules per item.
Payment Options
NetSuite is integrated with PayPal, allowing you to securely accept payments in multiple currencies with the following payment types:
-
Visa
-
Mastercard
-
American Express
-
Discover
-
Bank transfer
-
PayPal balance
The usual PayPal transaction fees of 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction apply. There are no setup fees or monthly fees. Your customers don’t need a PayPal account to pay.
Additionally, various third-party payment companies have add-ons for NetSuite, most notably Stripe. The official Stripe Connector for NetSuite lets you automatically send Stripe data to NetSuite in real-time, helping automate cash reconciliation and accept payments on invoices.
Pricing/Costs & Fees
The price of NetSuite is highly variable. The cost per user starts at $99 per user, per month. Ultimately, the price of your business’s NetSuite subscription by configuration, contract length, number of users, and other factors. Will you be subscribing exclusively to SuiteBilling? Or will you be using other tools, such as payroll, CRM, and budgeting and forecasting? Your answers to these questions will determine how much your business ends up paying for NetSuite.
Usability
Overall, NetSuite is very intuitive. The main challenge when it comes to usability is that there is a steep learning curve. NetSuite is a comprehensive suite of software tools, and your business should be prepared to spend weeks or even months setting it up and training employees. For that reason, we recommend using SuiteBilling in conjunction with other NetSuite tools rather than as a stand-alone product.
Conclusion
SuiteBilling supports a range of billing models, but it is really designed for companies with complex subscription-based billing requirements. If your business uses volume and/or tiered subscriptions, and it if regularly customizes subscription contracts to suit individual customer needs, then SuiteBilling is one of the best billing tools on the market.
