How Kombo captured 729k in revenue by billing for usage overages on Sequence

Overview

Kombo charges a platform fee that includes a set number of connected accounts, with overages on top. $729,000 of that wasn't automatically making it onto invoices because Stripe Billing couldn't automate the calculation. The model worked commercially but Stripe Billing couldn't run it. Every month someone pulled the usage data, worked out what each customer owed, and calculated the invoice manually, twice over because Kombo operates across a US and German entity. At 400+ customers, with the base set to double again over the next year, doing that manually in Stripe Billing wasn’t going to work. Sequence rebuilt hundreds of subscriptions across both entities, and brought quoting and approvals into the same place as billing.

The Challenge

1. A hybrid pricing model (a yearly in advance platform fee which included a set number of connected accounts and overage pricing Stripe Billing couldn't automate
2. Speed to capture: customers’ overages had to be calculated by hand before they could be invoiced, delaying revenue and inviting errors
3. Billing processes breaking as revenue grew 3x yearly

“We had the usage data and we knew customers were over their connected-account limits. We just had no way to get that onto an invoice without someone calculating it manually for every customer, each month. Growing at the pace we are going would have put real revenue at risk."

Kristina Kardell Operations and Finance Lead @ Kombo

The Solution

Quote-to-revenue between CRM and ERP: Kombo’s sales team has the flexibility to adapt the number of connected accounts and functionalities provided for each customers’ use case. That flexibility helped Kombo win customers, but it also meant every deal could have a slightly different commercial structure. As Kombo grew, finance was left translating those contracts into invoices and manually working out what each customer owed when they went over their committed usage. Sequence let Kombo keep that sales-led model while making the billing underneath it just as flexible. Their GTM team configures each customer’s commercial terms when they quote, and once the contract is signed, those exact terms automatically determine how the customer is billed. Pricing exceptions above a set threshold still go to the CRO for approval, without forcing the sales team into a rigid pricing model.

Custom metrics and a usage API that run the hybrid model: Kombo's pricing has 2 layers: platform fee and connected accounts. In Stripe, none of that calculated automatically, so the team recalculated every customer's overage every month. Sequence Checks each customer’s connected accounts against the terms of their contract, fed by a usage sync that runs daily from Kombo's own systems. The overages now calculate themselves. Sequence also allowed for the upload of months of historical usage events back to May 2025, immediately capturing $729,000 in overages that was waiting to be calculated and manually billed.

One billing workflow across two legal entities: Kombo's US and German entities each had their own Stripe Billing setup, their own accounting system and their own month-end process. Sequence rebuilt all billing schedules from the existing Stripe environment, connected DATEV for the GmbH and Xero for the LLC, and kept Stripe live for payments so no customer had to re-enter a payment method. Both entities now run off a single HubSpot instance, so the invoicing that used to happen twice happens once, automatically.

Revenue recognition and deferrals in the same system as billing: Kombo's platform fee is billed yearly in advance, so revenue has to be deferred and recognised across the term. That was a manual exercise for Kristina and the team before Sequence. It now runs off the same contract terms that drive the invoice, in the same place.

"We went live and Sequence immediately captured $729,000 of overages that would have taken months of manual work to calculate and bill. That alone more than paid for the platform. Now our usage syncs daily, overages are on every invoice, and the entire quote-to-cash and billing process runs itself across both entities between HubSpot and Xero.”

Kristina Kardell, Operations and Finance Lead @ Kombo

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