Some companies charge their customers using metered or usage based billing, where the monthly or annual cost is not based on a fixed number but instead based on usage from the previous month.

Common Paper can support these use cases with Automated Billing with just a few extra steps of configuration.

This article covers all you need to know to use metered billing with your customers.

In order to successfully create a subscription in Stripe using Automated Billing with metered items you’ll need to connect your Stripe account via the Integrations page if you haven’t already. Read more here.

Follow the normal process to create a new CSA from a template. Be sure to check the Include Billing Workflow checkbox at the bottom of the form. You can read more about the different options available for invoicing, etc. here.

Under the Cloud Service Fees section, you'll need to check the Use a table to list fees and included items checkbox to bring up the fees table.

Click on Add metered item, which will open up a new row for metered items. Enter the name of the metered product that you created in Stripe, along with the price cost per unit.

NOTE: As part of the Automated Billing feature, Common Paper will automatically create a new Product in Stripe with the Item name from the pricing table. If multiple metered items are included, multiple products will be created.

You can add additional metered items the same way, or include fixed cost items or discounts as well. The total will reflect these items and discounts, while the metered items will not be included in the total (as they haven't occurred yet).

Once you are satisfied with your agreement, click the Preview or Send Agreement button and finish sending your agreement to your recipient.

Once your recipient signs the agreement, they will be prompted for billing information and the invoice will be created based on the Stripe settings you configured when sending the agreement, and any necessary Stripe products will be created.

NOTE: The first invoice will list the metered items, but with a quantity of 0. The next invoice will include any usage from the first billing period.

Here's an example invoice:

A few things to note when only using metered items and automated billing:

It's important to note that while our Automated Billing will create the subscription and invoices for you in Stripe, it's your responsibility to report usage to Stripe over time to ensure that your customer is accurately charged.

Please refer to the Stripe documentation for how to report usage.