Apex subscriptions

Subscription billing that follows the contract, amendment by amendment.

B2B subscriptions rarely stay as signed. A customer adds a site in month four, steps up in year two, and co-terms an add-on to the main renewal date. Apex keeps one billing schedule per contract and changes it the way the contract changed, with proration worked out and the invoice posted to the ERP.

Start with subscription billing

Billing schedule BS-1043Ashford Packaging, 3 yearsIn advance, quarterly

Phase 1Pilot, 2 linesJan to Jun 2027$4,800 / qtr

Phase 2All 6 linesJul 2027 to Dec 2028$13,500 / qtr

Phase 3All 6 lines, +3%2029$13,905 / qtr

Amendment · Sep 14, 2027

Two lines added, co-termed to the contract end. Prorated for 17 of 92 days this quarter: $831.52 on the next invoice.

Next invoice Oct 1 · $18,831.52 · posts to NetSuite as draft

A billing schedule

Built from the signed quote, not retyped from it.

Phases

A pilot, a ramp and a full term on one schedule, each with its own prices and dates.

Advance and arrears

Platform fees billed in advance and usage billed in arrears, on one invoice or on separate ones.

Frequencies

Monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual, and different frequencies for different lines.

Evergreen terms

Contracts that roll until canceled, with notice periods and price changes at renewal.

Milestones

Fees billed when a milestone is reached rather than on a date.

Minimums and credits

Committed minimums, prepaid credits with drawdown, overage and true-ups on the same schedule.

Amendments

When the deal changes mid-term.

01
Change
An upsell, upgrade, downgrade or cancellation is entered against the contract, usually from an amendment quote.
02
Prorate
Apex works out the partial-period charge or credit to the day, under the proration rule you set.
03
Co-term
The new line can end on the main contract's date, so the customer renews once.
04
Bill
The next invoice carries the change, or a credit note is drafted for a downgrade, for a person to approve.

Before a run

Simulate the period before it is real.

A billing period can run against a test copy of your data first, so a new plan or a large amendment is seen as invoices before any reach the ERP.

What runs: Every schedule due in the period, with usage, proration and credits applied.
What you see: Draft invoices, totals by customer and the difference from last period.
What does not happen: Nothing is posted to the ERP and nothing is sent to a customer.

Agents propose, people approve

The agent drafts. A person decides.

A contract intake agent turns a signed PDF into a draft billing schedule for a person to check, and a renewal agent drafts the renewal from the schedule's history. The schedule calculation is deterministic.

Every agent stops at an approval gate until it has earned its way out of one. Nothing releases cash, commits spend or touches a customer without a person saying so.

Your dataModels that read your data run inside your environment, behind your firewall. No client data reaches a frontier lab.

Apex’s agents Why the approval gate

Start here, keep the foundation

Start with subscription billing. Add the rest without starting over.

Start with subscription billing on contracts you already have. Apex brings your customers and open invoices down from the ERP into your Ferrata foundation, and every invoice it calculates goes back up. Add quoting later and new deals land on the same schedules, or add revenue recognition and it reads the schedules you already run.

FAQ

Questions, answered plainly.

What is subscription billing software?

Subscription billing software turns recurring contracts into invoices on the right dates for the right amounts. It has to handle phases and ramps, mid-term changes with proration, different billing frequencies and renewals, without someone recalculating each invoice by hand.

How does Apex handle mid-term upgrades?

An upgrade is entered against the contract, usually from an amendment quote. Apex prorates the partial period to the day under your proration rule, can co-term the new line to the main contract's end date, and puts the change on the next invoice.

Can one invoice mix advance and arrears billing?

Yes. A fixed platform fee can be billed in advance and usage for the same contract billed in arrears, either on one invoice or on separate ones, depending on how you set the schedule.

Where do the invoices end up?

Apex calculates each invoice and posts it to your ERP as an A/R invoice, as a draft or posted according to your company's setting, then reads it back to confirm. The ERP stays the system of record for the receivable.

Can we test a billing run first?

Yes. A billing period can run against a test copy of your data. You see the draft invoices and the totals, and nothing is posted to the ERP or sent to a customer.

Do we need to move our existing contracts?

Existing contracts are imported as billing schedules, and a contract intake agent can draft schedules from signed PDFs for a person to check. Customers and open invoices come from the ERP rather than being re-entered.

Related in Apex

From Ferrata Labs

Start with subscription billing, or talk it through first.

Thirty minutes with Ferrata Labs on one workflow. You leave with a view of where Apex fits, and an honest answer if the sequencing is wrong and you should fix something else first.