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