How Heron Data migrated 100+ bespoke, usage-based contracts to Sequence in 4 weeks
- 93% Heron's time spent on monthly billing runs reduced from 30 hours to 2 hours
- Accurate billing for any pricing enabled Heron’s GTM team to launch usage based pricing in 45 days
- 1 month migrated over 100 customers before next monthly billing run
“ Sequence reduced our revenue slippage by automating billing for our custom contracts. Our team summarised it well by saying that Sequence is the Ramp for Accounts Receivable, as we now don't need to hire a dedicated person to manage revenue collection. ”
Heron Data uses AI to transform raw bank transaction data into actionable insights, giving financial institutions real-time visibility of their cash flow, income, and spending patterns. With a rapidly expanding customer base, Heron is setting a new standard for how companies harness financial data to drive growth and reduce risk.
Software Development
Industry
10-30
Company Size
New York, United States
Headquarters
2020
Founded
Heron Data chose Sequence to support the entire accounts receivable workflow for their bespoke, usage-based contracts
Heron Data's previous billing system was unable to handle their complex pricing models. Their search for an alternative was driven by the following needs:
- Swiftly migrating to a new solution without consuming internal team resources
- Maintaining a lean Finance team, instead of hiring additional people
- Minimising delays in monthly billing due to the reliance on manual data exports from engineering
This pushed the team to seek alternative A/R solutions. With over 100 unique usage-based contracts, Heron was eager to automate billing, invoicing, and revenue collection before their next billing cycle.
They set three key criteria for the migration, which led them to choose Sequence:
- Fast and seamless migration process before their next billing run.
- Intuitive UI enabling a single operator to manage the entire AR workflow
- Accurate billing for complex, usage-based pricing models and bespoke contract terms
The Challenge
Migrate 100+ custom contracts before their next billing run
Given that Heron’s previous billing solution could no longer support their A/R process, Heron had to accurately invoice customers within the month. They couldn’t afford the typical 6-month onboarding process for a billing platform, so a quick migration was critical in their decision.
Accurate billing for multiple usage-based pricing models
Heron’s contracts include usage-based pricing models and custom terms, including minimum commitments, discounts and pricing ramps over multi-year phases. As a result, Heron needed a flexible billing engine capable of accurately invoicing for any pricing model.
Manage the entire AR workflow without draining team resources
With a fast-growing customer base, Heron Data prioritised using team capacity for revenue-generating tasks. They wanted to avoid time-consuming and error-prone manual billing and usage calculations. Heron needed a single operator to be able to accurately manage the A/R workflow.
The Solution
Dedicated implementation team for a seamless migration
Faced with over 100 customers to migrate, Heron needed to avoid the typical long and resource-intensive billing migration process. Thanks to a dedicated migration team, all customers were moved into Sequence, automating the entire A/R workflow before their next billing cycle.
Aggregating usage data to accurately bill for consumption-based pricing
Accurately invoicing Herons high volume of usage events and custom deal terms was critical. Sequence’s BigQuery integration feeds directly into Heron’s data warehouse, allowing real-time ingestion of usage events. This automates monthly usage calculations and streamlines the accounts receivable workflow, from data aggregation to invoice creation.
A single operator to invoice 100+ customers
With no dedicated finance team and limited team capacity, Heron Data needed a solution that wouldn’t drain billing and invoicing resources. Sequence seamlessly integrates with Heron’s stack, so only one operator is required to review the process to confirm and issue invoices that are fully synced and reconciled in Xero.
Get in touch to book a Sequence demo.
Tech Stack Overview
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