Products
A product represents something your company sells. Products are the foundation for prices, subscriptions, orders, invoice lines, tax treatment, and reporting.
Use products when you want billing to be consistent across customers and repeatable across billing cycles. Avoid typing ad hoc invoice descriptions for recurring commercial terms.
How products fit into billing
Product -> Price model -> Order or Subscription -> Invoice line -> Revenue report
Product configuration affects:
- What appears on invoices.
- How taxes are evaluated.
- Which revenue category a sale belongs to.
- Whether a subscription line is licensed, metered, or one-time.
- How external systems identify catalog items through SKU or external ID.
Product types
| Type | Use for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Standard product | A single sellable item or service. | SaaS seat, platform fee, onboarding package, API call. |
| Bundle | A package made from multiple components. | Enterprise plan containing platform access, seats, and support. |
Bundles are useful when customers buy one commercial package but finance still needs component-level visibility.
Required product decisions
Before creating a product, decide:
| Decision | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Product name | Appears in internal lists and may appear on invoices. |
| SKU or external ID | Helps sync with CRM, ERP, warehouse, or data systems. |
| Unit label | Explains what quantity means: seat, user, GB, API call, hour. |
| Pricing model | Determines whether billing is flat, tiered, usage-based, or hybrid. |
| Tax category | Drives whether the product is taxed as software, service, physical good, or another category. |
| Active status | Controls whether the product can be selected for new billing workflows. |
Naming guidelines
Use product names that support both customer understanding and internal reporting.
Good examples:
Platform SubscriptionAdditional SeatAPI CallsPremium SupportImplementation Services
Avoid names that are too campaign-specific, such as Q3 promo thing, unless they are intentionally short-lived products.
Product lifecycle
| Stage | Meaning | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| Draft setup | Product is being configured. | Validate price, unit, tax, and invoice description. |
| Active | Product can be used for orders and subscriptions. | Monitor revenue and usage. |
| Repriced | Future prices change. | Confirm whether existing subscriptions should keep old rates. |
| Archived | Product should no longer be sold. | Keep it for historical invoices and reporting. |
Price changes
Changing a product price should not automatically rewrite history. Existing subscriptions may keep the price captured when the subscription was created, depending on billing configuration and amendment workflow.
For pricing migrations:
- Create or update the future product price.
- Preview affected customers.
- Communicate change timing.
- Apply subscription amendments.
- Review the next bill run preview.
Operational checklist
- Every active product has a clear unit label.
- Products used in usage-based billing have a measurable unit.
- Invoice descriptions are customer-readable.
- Tax category and customer tax settings have been tested with a sample invoice.
- External IDs are populated before connecting ERP, CRM, or data warehouse sync.