ZoneBilling vs. SuiteBilling as a NetSuite Billing Solution

In the fast-moving business environment of global enterprises, managing complex billing processes is central to continued success. For NetSuite, the billing solution is one of the most important configurations for a successful ERP implementation and future business growth. It is imperative that clients understand their business requirements prior to solution selection and designing overall system architecture. In this blog post, we will review the definitive (and unique) capabilities of ZoneBilling as a product and the types of clients that select ZoneBilling as their preferred billing solution.

Definitive Capabilities of ZoneBilling

• Fully Scalable – ZoneBilling is a fully scalable billing solution meaning that businesses can manage everything from simple fixed recurring subscriptions all the way to complex contracts with multiple billing scenarios. While SuiteBilling can handle these simpler contract structures, the solution fails to handle tiered pricing, inventory, and high quantity usage-based billing. Further, rapidly growing global companies tend to lean towards Zone Advanced Billing because of the volume of subscriptions / contracts the solution can handle.

• Multi-Subsidiary – ZoneBilling can handle multi-subsidiary customers in a NetSuite One-World account. This is an especially valuable feature for our global clients that have customers who may operate in more than one of their accounts Subsidiaries. SuiteBilling is limited to using only customers that have one subsidiary in which they do business.

• Intricate Customer Relationships – ZoneBilling excels at handling customer hierarchy relationships where there is a single Bill – to Customer, but multiple Sell – to Customers for a specific contract. Within these scenarios, we have seen instances of the multi-currency feature being required. This is another instance of where large enterprise / global companies prefer ZoneBilling as a solution over SuiteBilling.

• Automations – ZoneBilling has the feature to set up automations for both Billing and Revenue. This billing solution is very much a set it and forget it type of product. This means that once the design and configuration is complete, business can allow for the subscriptions / contracts to bill themselves to their clients based on a schedule. This is especially useful for global companies that send out thousands of invoices & sales orders every week across multiple subsidiaries.

Typical Clientele

• The types of clients we have seen in the past that tend to gravitate towards ZoneBilling are:
  • Global
  • Multi-Entity
  • Software, Media, & Technology Industries
  • Enterprise

Typical Billing Scenarios

• The types of billing scenarios these clients usually have that require ZoneBilling are:
  • Fixed (Recurring) Contracts
  • One-Time Charges
  • High Volume Usage (Variable)
  • Pre-Paid Quantities
  • Fixed with Overages

Overview

• While ZoneBilling is a more comprehensive billing solution than SuiteBilling, the unique capabilities listed above are some of the main reasons why these enterprise/global companies choose this solution. By understanding your business, ZoneBilling can handle a wide range of billing scenarios and allows clients to maintain good relationships with their customers. These customer relationships are ever changing meaning they will require flexible solutions inside an ERP to provide the scalability needed for growth without sacrificing functionality.

To learn more about ZoneBilling and how to become more involved in these types of projects, please reach out for more information on courses / trainings!

Connor Shutt

Technology Consultant, NetSuite Great Lakes Practice

Connor.Shutt@rsmus.com I W: www.rsmus.com/netsuite

Connor Shutt