Revenue Cloud Billing product from Salesforce provides the following key capabilities: Accounting Foundations: Allows the configuration of legal entities, accounting periods, and general ledger accounts to establish the necessary accounting framework. Provides "accounting awareness" by integrating the billing system with core financial processes. Flexible Product Configuration: Supports a wide range of product types, including subscriptions, one-time purchases, professional services, and usage-based offerings. Enables granular control over billing policies, tax configurations, and usage rating for these different product types. Automated Billing Workflows: Tracks customer purchases through billing schedule groups and schedules. Enables automated invoice generation on a scheduled basis (daily, weekly, monthly). Allows invoices to be produced and emailed directly from within the Salesforce platform. Accounting Integration: Generates the necessary journal entries and general ledger postings based on the invoices processed. Ensures tight alignment between the billing operations and the financial reporting. Revenue Cloud Advanced Billing product provides a comprehensive, Salesforce-native solution for managing complex billing requirements, from establishing the accounting foundations to automating the end-to-end billing process and integrating with financial systems Observations of a demo: I. Set Up Legal Entities and Accounting Foundations A. Configured legal entities - Legal entities represented different operating companies (e.g., US, Japan, Canada) in the system. - Each legal entity was able to have its own set of accounting periods, such as 445 model or monthly, allowing for flexibility. B. Established general ledger accounts - The system allowed for the setup of general ledger accounts within Salesforce, similar to an ERP system. - This provided the necessary "accounting awareness" for the billing system by setting up accounts for receivables, deferred revenue, cash, and other financial elements. II. Flexible Product Configuration A. Subscription-based products - Billing policies, such as advanced billing, was defined for subscription products. - Tax policy integration was also configured, with support for Avalara and Vertex tax providers. B. One-time/equipment products - The system was able to handle one-time purchases or equipment-related charges. C. Professional services products - Milestone-based billing for professional services, allowed for percentage-based or fixed-amount charges at defined project milestones. D. Usage-based products - The system provided the ability to configure usage grants, rate cards, and other parameters to handle consumption-based billing. - Validity terms, refresh policies, and rollover policies could be defined for usage-based offerings. III. Order Management and Billing Workflows A. Order creation and decoration - Orders could originate from various sources, such as Revenue Cloud Advanced or Commerce. - Billing details, including payment terms and legal entity, were added to the orders. B. Billing schedule groups and schedules - The system tracked customer purchases and created the necessary billing data in the form of billing schedule groups and schedules. - Detailed billing information was made accessible from the asset record. C. Automated invoice generation - Billing batch schedulers were set up to allow for scheduled invoice runs on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. - Invoices could be generated and emailed directly from the customer account within Salesforce. IV. Accounting Integration A. Journal entries and general ledger postings - The system generated the necessary dual-entry accounting entries based on the invoices, ensuring accurate financial tracking and reporting. B. Aligning billing operations with financial reporting