Simplify Events-Based Billing Product Catalog Management with the New API Capabilities

In 2020, we launched Events-Based Billing, an out-of-the-box rating engine that makes it easy to offer multi-attribute pricing like the industry titans (Think: AWS, Twilio, Datadog). Now, we’re excited to announce API enhancements that simplify product catalog management for Events-Based Billing models!

The API updates enable you to programmatically:

Create Events-Based components and price points
Assign a billable metric to a component (e.g. sum of emails sent)
Build your rating table with hundreds of rows using bulk segments (e.g. Data transferred from U.S. East to EU (London) using AWS is $30/GB)
Fetch hundreds of segments, filter results by up to 4 attribute values, and apply bulk edits for a given price point.
Delete a specified segment that is no longer needed or was created in error

This new capability enables you to quickly and easily implement multi-attribute, pay-as-you-go pricing models like the example below, resulting in lower customer acquisition costs and higher net dollar retention.

Cloud Data Storage - GB of Data Transferred

For more information on Events-Based Billing, head to our documentation here >

New Filter Options via API for Invoicing

Last month we released a new endpoint to send invoices via API to mimic the behavior of the "Send Invoice" button within the UI. This endpoint enables you to programmatically deliver ad-hoc invoices as well as the re-send of auto-generated invoices, thus giving you control of when to send out an invoice.

As we continue adding new API endpoints, we are excited to announce new filter options on exposed event types on an invoice. You can now filter for multiple event types on an invoice (e.g. issue_invoice, apply_credit_note, refund_invoice) using a comma separated list. Previously, you were able to filter by only 1 invoice event.

For more information, see our documentation here>

Backdating Issue Date on Ad-hoc Invoices

We understand that charges can occur outside of a normal billing cycle and therefore provide the functionality for you to send ad-hoc or one-time invoices. Many customers utilize ad-hoc invoices to sell services or items on a non-recurring basis to their customer base. We are excited to announce that our Product Team has made some exciting developments to these types of invoices! You can now backdate ad-hoc invoices using both the UI and API.

If performing this in the UI, you go under Subscriptions > Invoices > Create an Invoice. There is a new input field for Issue Date in the top right of the ad-hoc invoice within the UI. The issue date will be set by default to the current date. In order to back date the issue date, you will use the date selector functionality by clicking into the Issue Date input field.

Alternatively, you can also backdate the issue date via the API with the "Create an Invoice Endpoint". If no issue date parameter is passed, then the issue date will default to the current date. If you desire to back date, you can simply pass an issue_date parameter of any date in the past.

The primary use case for backdating ad-hoc invoices is when you experience a delay in issuing an ad-hoc invoice but would still like for the invoice to be due at the same time it would have been had there been no delay. As an example, one-off usage is incurred but not charged until 7 days later and you want the due_date to reflect your standard net terms of 15 days. In this case, you could back date the ad-hoc invoice to the day the usage was incurred and set the due_date to Day 15.

For more information on backdating the issue date on ad-hoc invoices, see our documentation here>

Importing of Cancelled Subscriptions

Having the continuity with your historical data for your customers in a single system makes your life easier by providing "the big picture" on your subscriber base. Because of this, we are excited to announce that we have hit another milestone on our product roadmap to import your historical data into Chargify.

You now have the ability to import cancelled subscriptions. Importing cancelled subscriptions can be done either through the UI with a CSV or via the API. Once imported, you will be able to see all of the historic cancelled subscriptions on the Subscriptions Page (Billing > Subscriptions).

For more information on the minimum requirements for creating cancelled subscriptions, see our documentation here>

For our API documentation on importing cancelled subscription, please click here>

Create One-Off Invoice via the API

We are excited to continually provide you new API endpoints that surface our core functionality outside of our UI, allowing for full flexibility of how you bill your customers. Our latest API endpoint is creating ad-hoc invoices for one-off services or products, separate from your recurring charges. With these one-off invoices you can directly feed in everything that will be charged including the price, description and item being sold and you can set these invoices to be paid either by remittance or automatic payment collections. They can have multiple line items, a custom memo, and all other basic attributes you get when you create the one-time invoice in the UI.

For more information on how to create a one-off invoice via the API, see our documentation here>

Subscription Migration Preview Available via the API

As customers upgrade or change their subscriptions with you, providing a preview of their updated charges is a great way to mitigate surprises and keep customers happy! Chargify's latest API enhancement enables you to do just that. The 'Preview Migration' API call allows you to pull the prorated new charge amount based on a specified date (within the current billing period). Simply pass in the future date and get the corresponding prorated adjustment, charge, payment and credit applied values.

For more information on product migrations via the API, see our API documentation here>

API Endpoints Supporting Subscription Groups

As Chargify continues to evolve the way you can manage subscription groups, new API endpoints have been added that give you the option to easily navigate and view:

Groups
Members of the groups
Balances of group accounts

Cancellation and reactivation of the entire group can happen through a single API call. In addition, groups can now have their own service credits and prepayments, apart from individual member subscriptions.

For more information on our API endpoints supporting subscription groups, see our documentation here >

Additional Information in our API Endpoint

As the Chargify product continues to evolve, additional data has also been added to our API Endpoints to ensure all data is accessible when and how you need. Several recent updates to our API include:

Components API

product_family_name field added
conditional pagination added
query enhancements

Products API

Products#index pagination added
price_point_name field added
query enhancements

Coupons API

product_family_name field added
query enhancements

Events API

customer_id field added
filtration by multiple types added
query by datetime parameters

Offers API

per_page settings enabled
product_family_name, price_point_name, coupon_id, coupon_name fields added

For more information on our API, please see our documentation here >

Ease of Use Update for API Keys and Service Dates

It is now possible to hide service dates from line item presentment on Chargify invoices. This update does not charge the billing functionality in any way, but simply impacts what is displayed on your customers invoice. With this update, invoices become easier to understand if you are running an offset billing cycle for your customer base.

Also, It is now possible to label your API keys directly in the Chargify UI allowing admins to know exactly what that API key is being used for.

For more information on invoice dates, see our service date documentation here and for additional information on API key labeling, see our API documentation here.

API: Better Insights and Integrations via MRR Data

MRR data is now available via the Chargify API. This rich MRR data, driven by subscription creation, changes, or cancellations, is already surfaced in Chargify’s out-of-the-box MRR report. With the MRR API endpoints, you can now pull this data directly out of Chargify for inclusion in external reporting tools or integrations into other back office systems.

Learn more in our documentation >

Show Previous Entries

Chargify What's New

https://www.chargify.com