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:

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 feature: Chargify + Airbyte: Connect Your Data for Billing and Analytics

Over the past 2 years, we released Events-Based Billing, an out-of-the-box rating engine for multi-attribute pricing, and Business Intelligence, a custom analytics suite for Chargify and third-party data. These products empower our customers to price like the industry titans (Think: Snowflake, Twilio, Datadog) and make data-driven business decisions.

Now, we’re thrilled to announce that streaming data to Chargify from your product database and favorite SaaS applications just got a whole lot easier! Airbyte.io, a no-code data integration platform, offers hundreds of source connectors that allow you to quickly and easily sync your data to Chargify. 

See this new capability in action by watching the 6-minute video below and learn how to easily deploy highly-tailored pricing models used by fast growing companies like Snowflake and AWS. 

For more information on the Airbyte integration, head to our documentation here >

Stream Data from your Application to Chargify for Billing and Analysis

It’s easier than ever to send data from your application to Chargify Business Intelligence for custom analysis. With this information, you can hone in on how your users are consuming your product and identify key value metrics. Then, leverage this data to build complex, multi-attribute pricing models that charge your customers for the exact value they receive. 

Take a Data Ingestion Tool for example, with Events-Based Billing, they can charge different rates based on: Cloud Provider, Data Center Region, Cluster Type, and Availability.

Data Read Event Rate per GB:

Segment
Cloud Provider
Data Center Region
Cluster Type
Availability
Segment Rate
1AWSUS East N VirginiaBasicSingle Zone$0.0001/GB
2Microsoft AzureWest EuropeStandardMulti Zone$0.0009/GB
3Google CloudAPAC SydneyStandardMulti Zone$0.001/GB

To start streaming your data to Chargify, head to Business Intelligence and select ‘Manage Data Sources’. From there, you will be asked to define your new data source. You can follow this guide to start streaming your data in. 

For more information on Chargify Business Intelligence, see our documentation here>

Introducing Dashboard Theming for Business Intelligence

Dashboards that are easy to understand and consistent with your branding allow you to seamlessly convey the value you provide to your end users. We are thrilled to announce the release of advanced theming capabilities for your dashboards, allowing you to easily control the look and feel of your dashboards.Whether you are running business reviews with key clients or embedding metrics for a strategic partner, you can now provide a more cohesive experience for dashboards that are shared or embedded  outside of Chargify BI. 

Our Dashboard Theming feature has three main categories: General, Chart Elements and Visualization Types. You can access this functionality in Dashboard Edit mode from the top, right ‘Theming’ button. 

Dashboard Theming 

  • The General tab  allows you to select the overall data color palette that you want to apply to your dashboard. Here, you are also  able to set the background color, fonts, and space between your chart elements.
  • On the Chart Elements tab you can set the text font, color, and size for your chart titles, subtitles, legends, labels, grids, X- and Y-Axis, as well as tooltips. 
  • The look and feel of each Visualization Type (Line & Aera, Pie & Donut, Funnel, Metric, Table) can be defined on the last Theming tab. This includes things like line thickness, values style, labels, and colors. 

Dashboard Theming - General

Dashboard Theming - Chart Elements

Dashboard Theming - Visualization Types

Business Intelligence is included on all 2021 public plans. To request access or discuss adding BI to your plan, please reach out to us at support@chargify.com 

For more information on Business Intelligence Dashboards, see our documentation here>

Business Intelligence: Widget Naming and Filter Enhancements

Giving your stakeholders an easy way to interact with your dashboards empowers them to better understand the data and make impactful decisions across the organization. Our Product Team is continually working on enhancing charting functionality within Chargify Business Intelligence. 

We are excited to announce three new additions to dashboard settings, the ability to name your filters and date pickers, and an easy way for users to clear all dashboard filters. 

Naming Your Filters
We have added the option to name the filters on your dashboards. This will make it easier for users to know exactly how the filter will impact the connected charts.

Naming Dashboard Filters


Naming Your Date Pickers
We have added the option to name the date pickers on your dashboards. This will make it easier for users to know exactly how and where the selected date range will impact the connected charts.

Naming Dashboard Date Pickers


Clearing All Filters on a Dashboard  
We have made it easier for users to clear all selected filters on a dashboard with a single click.

Clearing Filters on a Dashboard

For more information on Business Intelligence, see our documentation here>

Business Intelligence: Chart Enhancements

Understanding your data and communicating it clearly to your key stakeholders is crucial in making impactful decisions across the organization. Our Product Team is continually working on enhancing charting functionality within Chargify Business Intelligence. We are excited to announce new chart settings, additional data handling, and some improvements to Heatmaps. 

Chart Settings
We have added additional settings options to our charts, so you can further customize how your data is presented. The settings available will depend on the visualization type that has been selected.

  • Legend - You now have the ability to turn the legend on and off as well as deciding its placement on the chart.
  • Grids - The vertical and horizontal grids can now be turned on and off.
  • Metric Chart title - The metric chart now also has titles and subtitles in line with all the other visualization types.

Chart Settings - Legend and Grids

Choropleth Chart
Support for US postal codes: You will now be able to see your MRR data by US state when you select the Choropleth visualization type. Visualizing your MRR data by country on a world map is also supported.

Heatmap Improvements
Support for negative values: It is now a lot easier to visualize negative values on a heatmap. This enables you to identify patterns by month across the MRR movement types.

Negative Values (Churn) on a Heat Map

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>

Business Intelligence Demo Video

Over the past few weeks, we’ve highlighted the powerful capabilities of Chargify Business Intelligence and how they enable you to get a granular, 360-degree view of your business. 

Now, you can see it in action. Here is an end-to-end walkthrough video that will take you through:

  • Out-of-the-box metrics and dashboards
  • Cloning and customizing a metric
  • Creating a metric from scratch
  • Building and sharing a dashboard

Interested in getting access to Chargify Business Intelligence? Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or support@chargify.com.

For more information on Chargify Business Intelligence, see our documentation here>

Streaming in Third-Party Data with Chargify Business Intelligence

Chargify Business Intelligence enables you to stream in data from external sources (e.g. your application and tools in your tech stack) and analyze it alongside your Chargify data. You have 3 different ways to achieve this:

Adding Custom Fields

Custom fields can be used to enrich your Chargify data to enable more granular reporting and filtering of your subscription and billing data. Custom fields can be added via a few different methods:

  • Manually populate a custom field on a Customer or Subscription in Chargify. More information is available here.
  • Use our API to create and populate custom fields.
  • Use our Salesforce integration to update custom fields. Read more about Salesforce custom fields here.

Find out more about custom fields here

Using the Chargify API Endpoint Method

The Chargify API endpoint allows you to stream in any third-party data (i.e. Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira, your application, etc.) to Chargify Business Intelligence. Documentation on how to create the endpoint and start streaming data from your own applications and other systems can be found here. Third-party data streamed to Chargify becomes available to query and visualize in the same way as our built-in data sources. 

Apache Kafka Endpoint Method

Chargify Business Intelligence is built on top of the Keen technology (powered by Apache Kafka), giving you the option to connect over Kafka protocol programmatically. You can use the endpoint to programmatically stream external data to Chargify Business Intelligence over a widely supported and robust protocol. By leveraging the Chargify Kafka endpoint and stream mirroring, you can stream part of that data to Chargify Business Intelligence and analyze it with your billing data.

In the near future, we will provide tutorials on how to stream in data via this method using Airbyte, an open-source data integration pipeline.  

Interested in getting access to Chargify Business Intelligence? Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or support@chargify.com.

For more information on Chargify Business Intelligence, see our documentation here>

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