Inquiries Series #1: Transactions, Agile Recurring Billing Software, and Currency Talk

by | Nov 20, 2020 | Billing Systems

Recurring Billing Software

The Kill Bill team receives tons of questions, and since we want to answer all the ones we haven’t already tackled in our FAQs, this series aims to shed a light on our features and processes.

Don’t be shy and fire yours away on our forum!

Is your Recurring Billing Software robust enough to support hundreds of storefronts processing thousands of transactions per day?

Yes, we have worked with many public and private projects in the course of 10 years, performing tests before, during, and after deployment, to avoid compromising the quality and responsiveness of our project code. You can read here our experience working with Groupon, a major US-based company that features 43.6 million active customers and billed $1.2 billion globally in just a quarter.

Through its various plug-ins, Kill Bill’s recurring billing software can communicate with major payment processors (for example, Stripe), plus track offline payments like wire transfers. We can also help you handle taxes via third-party plugins as well as trial periods, coupons, and discount plans.

And most importantly, you have full control of your data, all time, every time. Isn’t that amazing?

How can you emulate thousands of transactions in a test environment?

To test or try out Kill Bill, check out our Kill Bill Cloud environment. Kill Bill in the cloud provides users with a free sandbox in which to get familiar with the technology – no setup required! 

We have written tests in the past to test load/performance, and we have them on GitHub. However, if you need help with a particular test you want to set up and run in your own environment, you can contact us.

Also, there’s this blog post we wrote about the results of several scenarios we tested to challenge ourselves through a number of critical issues. Not to brag, but we were able to pull through all of them, surpassing even our own expectations.

Do you support different currencies?

Yes, we do! We support any type of currencies, even cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Each Kill Bill account, representing a specific customer, will be able to specify its own currency since our invoice module understands and respects localization rules and time zones (ideal for getting the most accurate invoicing).

Kill Bill‘s catalog, representing the list of products to be sold, can also specify multiple currencies, too. In case your international gateway isn’t supported yet, you can simply write a plugin for it. That’s the beauty of open source!

Can you apply agile logic to your subscription billing?

If by “agile logic,” you mean the ability to handle highly complex billing scenarios that encompass one-time, recurring, and usage-based charges as well as flexibility on pricing models, then yes, that’s actually what Kill Bill provides. Our model features an open-source, pluggable architecture that allows your business to scale up and down, according to your needs. 

For example, let’s say you need to add a new payment processor to your online store or website. If you’re using Kill Bill’s recurring billing software, it’s relatively simple to adjust the payment processing plugin (or create a new one using a similar existing plugin). 

That’s agile logic in its entire splendor!

How I can transition freemium trials to evergreen billing?

Each Kill Bill Plan can have multiple Plan Phases, so the way to transition Freemium trials to Evergreen billing is to configure a Plan that has multiple Plan Phases. The first phase would be a Trial.

Kill Bill provides a very powerful catalog to define and manage Plan Phases as well as sophisticated business rules to manage cancellation and plan changes. For example, when a customer cancels a subscription plan, Kill Bill performs the cancellation actions, taking into consideration the type of plan, whether it is in a trial, etc.

You can also configure the following:

  • Trials and discount phases – plans can be configured with trial and discount phases so that they move automatically between different pricing levels.
  • Cancellation – business rules to determine what to do when a customer cancels.
  • Plan Change – business rules to determine how to apply upgrades and downgrades.
  • Add-ons – Which add-ons are available with which product types, so that when the customer upgrades or downgrades, add-ons that are not available are automatically canceled.
  • Billing Alignment – rules to determine if the charges for a Plan are billed separately or on the account billing date.
  • Catalog change – specifying how and when catalog changes apply to new and existing subscriptions.

Is conditional communication logic and automatic subscriber communications supported?

Yes, both features are definitely supported. Kill Bill has a powerful platform where you can write plug-ins to send emails to your customers regarding upcoming invoices, payment successes and failures, subscription cancellations, and everything else your business needs.

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