Configuring billing accounts

Billing Account Core provides a foundational data model for managing billing accounts across organizations and users. It enables businesses to define, organize, and maintain billing relationships, supporting accurate billing, payments, and scalable financial operations.

Billing account overview

A billing account is a centralized record that manages payment and invoicing for services. Use billing accounts to organize billing schedules, payment terms, addresses, currency settings, and links to customers—including individuals, organizations, or sub-accounts.

Unlike a customer account, which represents the organizational relationship, a billing account is a financial entity specifically for managing billing and payments. A single customer can have multiple billing accounts for different billing arrangements, while multiple customers can share a consolidated billing account.

Billing accounts support both B2B and B2C scenarios and provide flexibility for complex billing structures through parent-child hierarchies.

Key capabilities

• Billing schedule: Define billing frequency (monthly, quarterly, annual) and billing cycles
• Payment terms: Configure payment terms (net 30, net 60) and accepted payment methods
• Bill-to address and currency: Specify invoice delivery address and billing currency
• Customer associations: Link billing accounts to customers, contacts, and households
• Hierarchy support: Create parent-child structures for consolidated billing

When to use billing account

Use billing accounts when your organization needs to:

• Separate billing from customer relationship management
• Support multiple billing arrangements for a single customer
• Consolidate charges from multiple business units, geographies, or product lines
• Manage payment responsibility separately from service consumption
• Track billing-related cases and interactions distinct from general customer cases

Billing account versus cost centers

Aspect	Billing Account	Cost Center
Purpose	Manages external payment and invoicing for services	Tracks and allocates internal costs within the organization
Focus	Customer-facing financial transactions	Internal budget management and expense allocation
Typical users	Finance, billing, customer service teams	Finance, department managers, internal operations
Examples	Customer invoice account, corporate billing account	Marketing department budget, IT operations budget