Get Started with Billing
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the evolution of billing and its role in driving revenue.
- List key benefits of using Billing in Revenue Cloud.
- Explain how Billing supports each stage of the revenue lifecycle.
Before You Start
Before you start this module, make sure you complete this content. The work you do here builds on the concepts and work you do in that content.
Shift in Billing from Back Office to Growth Engine
Gone are the days when billing was just a back-office chore. Today, it's a core part of your customer experience and revenue strategy. Sure, billing still covers the basics—creating invoices, processing payments, and managing transactions. But modern businesses expect more. The question is no longer if you can bill your customer, it's if your billing system is helping your company grow.
That shift in mindset puts your billing system design front and center.
Some systems operate in silos, disconnected from your CRM, and depend on heavy integrations. Others are built natively into the CRM, providing a seamless, unified experience. So what does this mean for businesses?
When systems are disconnected, teams struggle with fragmented data, inconsistent processes, and clunky handoffs. Managing complex pricing, midterm changes, or billing adjustments becomes a challenge. And when the billing system isn’t flexible or intuitive, teams often fall back on spreadsheets and manual workarounds. That slows things down and increases the risk of errors in invoicing, issuing credits, or collecting payments.
A connected billing solution keeps things running smoothly, and scales with your business as it grows.
That’s where Billing in Revenue Cloud comes in. It doesn’t just send invoices. It anchors the final stage of your revenue lifecycle with a connected, intelligent billing engine designed to grow with you, converting products and services into revenue.
Unlike standalone tools, Billing in Revenue Cloud works hand-in-hand with your sales and service processes. It helps teams collaborate more easily, respond faster to changes, and reduces the need for manual cleanup, so you can focus on what matters—delivering value to your customers.
In this module, find out how Billing in Revenue Cloud can help your organization grow. You start in this unit with some of the basic capabilities of Billing.
Why Billing in Revenue Cloud?
Let’s explore what makes Billing in Revenue Cloud different, and how it helps businesses adapt, innovate, and grow.
Built Natively on Salesforce for a Unified Experience
Billing in Revenue Cloud lives right alongside your CRM data. That means your customer data, product information, pricing, and payment history are all in one place. Everyone from sales to finance sees the full picture. And with capabilities like Product Catalog Management, Salesforce Pricing, Product Configurator, Transaction Management, Usage Management, and Rate Management, Revenue Cloud brings the entire revenue process—quoting, billing, and beyond—onto a single connected platform.
Support for Diverse Revenue Models
Whether you're billing for subscriptions, usage, one-time charges, or a mix of all three, Revenue Cloud has you covered. You can bill monthly, quarterly, annually, in advance, in arrears, or based on usage.
It’s built to handle complex pricing models, including proration, ramp deals, and minimum commitments, helping businesses match evolving needs without custom workarounds. As your business grows, Billing in Revenue Cloud scales with you—supporting new revenue models, customer types, and geographies. No need for multiple systems!
Included Analytics
Built-in real-time insights help teams surface key billing information and act faster.
Composable and API-First Architecture
Billing in Revenue Cloud uses an API-first composable design; businesses can adapt the system to fit their processes. Whether you need to integrate with external systems, build custom workflows, or scale, the platform flexes with your needs.
End-to-End Billing Automation
From invoice generation to payment collection, automation replaces spreadsheets and manual steps. This reduces errors, and speeds up workflows.
Real-Time Financial Visibility
You get a complete, up-to-date view of cash flow. Built-in dashboards track invoices, payments, credits, and adjustments in real time. Every transaction stays visible, traceable, and compliant with audit-ready controls.
Simplified Credit and Adjustments
Issue refunds and apply credits quickly, with full access to customer and billing history in one place.
Market-Leading Partner and App Ecosystem
Salesforce’s partner and app ecosystem provides the support, add-ons, and innovations businesses need to customize their solutions. It offers built-in flexibility, so businesses can choose what works best for their size, industry, and growth stage—without being tied to a fixed approach.
Help at Every Stage
In the Revenue Cloud Foundations module, you learned about Revenue Cloud, an all-in-one suite built on the Salesforce platform. Revenue Cloud helps you meet your product-to-cash needs. It has everything you need to manage revenue in a modern business environment.
Revenue Cloud consists of several components that are built on a foundation of powerful APIs, user interfaces (UIs), and capabilities.
The components work together across these Salesforce solutions.
- Product Catalog Management
- Salesforce Pricing
- Product Configurator
- Transaction Management
- Dynamic Revenue Orchestrator
- Billing
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), Contracts, Order Management, and Assets are part of Transaction Management.
For now, let’s walk through one of the key solutions of Revenue Cloud: Billing.
Operating on a single platform with shared data, Billing ensures that every step—from product setup to payment collection—flows smoothly. There’s no need for manual reconciliation or workarounds across siloed systems.
Once an order is activated, Revenue Cloud automates the transition from quote to recognized revenue, making sure that every downstream process is accurate, timely, and adaptable as business needs evolve. Let’s explore how Billing supports each stage of the revenue lifecycle.
Stage 1: Move From Quote to Order
After quote approval, Revenue Cloud converts the quote into an order. All billing-related information—product details, pricing, quantities, and terms—is carried forward automatically.
Stage 2: Create Billing Schedules
Billing schedules define when and how often to bill. Natively, you can automate the creation of billing schedules through the order activation process—no manual setup required. You can bill monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, by milestones, or based on usage. Billing can happen in advance or in arrears.
Billing schedules apply to one-time sales, subscriptions, and usage-based products. When you amend or cancel an order, the system creates new schedules in the same schedule group. It consolidates all schedules to ensure the correct quantity and amount are billed.
Stage 3: Generate Invoices
Revenue Cloud generates invoices on schedule or on-demand. It applies pricing logic, tax rules, credits, and adjustments. Invoices are available as PDFs and can be emailed.
Stage 4: Collect Payments
Billing in Revenue Cloud supports payment through credit cards and bank accounts. Payment schedules provide a clear view of due, paid, and outstanding amounts.
Stage 5: Record Subledger for Accounts Receivable
As invoices are issued and payments are collected, Billing in Revenue Cloud automatically creates journal entries to reflect the financial impact. These entries capture revenue, taxes, credits, and liabilities, and are aligned with your chart of accounts. This automation supports period close activities and ensures accurate, audit-ready financial reporting downstream.
Next Up
In this unit, you learned how Billing in Revenue Cloud supports the full revenue lifecycle on a unified platform. Next, explore the key components that drive this process.