What’s the Best Way to Use Salesforce Billing?

Getting paid efficiently and accurately is essential for sustainable business. It’s also one of the ways Salesforce shines as an IT platform. The Salesforce Billing feature, along with other native tools, helps you get paid fast, without associated stress. 

What is Salesforce Billing? 

Salesforce Billing is an add-on feature of the Salesforce Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) application. Once a quote and/or order is finalized in Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Billings receives the data to prepare and process a transaction. It then creates records for payments, invoices, revenue recognition, and automates these processes all from Salesforce. 

In a single instance, you can go from a quote to issuing an invoice with just a click. Another example is when an order is placed using CPQ. Salesforce Billing (or Salesforce CPQ Billing) then creates the record to facilitate invoicing and process payment. All the data and related processes never leave Salesforce. Besides saving time, the information is secure, accurate, and manageable in one consolidated location. 

How Does It Work?

Salesforce Billing is rules-based, like its automation. Users can create individual rules dictating how and when to create the necessary transaction records. This can be tailored to your precise business requirements  – making the billing cycle easier and more efficient. 

Each rule also has treatment records. These treatment records allow specific actions based on shared values between an order product and the prescribed treatment. Here are some things you can do:

• Develop an invoice line for an order product with pricing, date values, billing dates, billing cycles, and more.
• Create revenue transactions and a revenue schedule for an invoice line.
• Calculate tax for an invoice line. This is based on which tax calculation tool you’re using and the data itself.

How does Salesforce Billing Fit in the Financial Lifecycle?

Once a bill, invoice, or expense is issued, an accounting transaction has occurred. This represents the transfer of wealth and value that must be accounted for, the start of the cycle. When the transaction is generated, you are in the process of sending the request for and processing the transaction. However, while this is a part of the accounting process, it is not the entire lifecycle. The payment must be documented, received, and recognized in the general ledger. Salesforce Billing then transfers this information into the accounting system for full-scale financial management. 

Salesforce Billing is NOT an accounting solution. While this creates and even disperses the billings, it does not manage the accounting as a whole. Additionally, it cannot balance the debits and credit associated with the transaction, or create financial reports. Therefore, you must also use a dedicated accounting solution. 

What’s the Best Way to Use Salesforce Billing? 

The best way to use Salesforce Billing is in conjunction with a native salesforce accounting software. Why? Well, it is designed to generate billing and maintain this billing data from and within Salesforce. Using Salesforce Billing with an accounting system built separate from Salesforce defeats the purpose. The data must leave Salesforce and be housed in the accounting system through integration. Even with a Salesforce connector, a traditional integration is a costly investment. And, there is still potential for disruption and data corruption.

Instead, leverage the pre-established connections between native Salesforce technology. Use a Salesforce-built accounting system, like Accounting Seed. This allows you to remain consolidated on Salesforce while maintaining a streamlined, less complicated accounting cycle. The process started in Salesforce Billing is logged and accounted for in this native ledger in real-time. Simple, accurate, and a lot less expensive.

Accounting Seed: The Native Salesforce Accounting Solution

Accounting Seed taps the power of the Salesforce platform to let you fully pilot your back office in one environment. Systems like QuickBooks or Sage software accounting require full-scale integration or Salesforce connectors to work with your platform. That’s not the case with Accounting Seed. Our solution is pre-designed to connect with Salesforce CPQ and all other applications on the Platform. Billing and expenses have never been easier to manage. 

Get better accounting by going native with Accounting Seed! Harness our system’s flexibility and high-level automation to enhance your accounting and secure your future.