What is recurring billing?
Recurring billing is the automated charging of customers on a repeating schedule — weekly, monthly, or annually — for an ongoing subscription or service. The billing system stores the customer’s payment method and generates and collects each invoice automatically, without re-entering payment details every cycle.
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Recurring billing underpins almost every subscription business. Instead of asking the customer to pay manually each period, the system keeps a saved payment method on file and charges it automatically at the start or end of each billing cycle, generating an invoice and a receipt each time.
Recurring billing covers more than a flat monthly fee. It includes fixed-price subscriptions, usage-based and metered charges, hybrid plans that combine a base fee with usage, and changes mid-cycle such as upgrades, downgrades, and proration. A capable billing engine also handles failed payments through dunning, so recurring revenue is actually collected and not just invoiced.
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Billing for the rest of us.
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