Usage billing and true-up,
one motion
A warehouse robotics company bills every pick against an annual commitment. It describes the motion once, and viax runs it from the first pick to the true-up.
Setup
01What it needs
Here’s what it has to do.
Fourteen requirements across usage, billing, partners and approvals. One motion.
- 01Daily usage from FleetOS
- 02Plans with annual commitments
- 03Commit and overage rates per site
- 04Platform and robot fees
- 05Monthly billing in arrears
- 06Alerts at 80% and 100% of commit
- 07Plan-upgrade signals
- 08Usage disputes and adjustments
- 09Annual true-up per site
- 10Multi-site discount
- 11Partner review and margin
- 12Discount and waiver approvals
- 13Customer approves online
- 14Invoices in Dynamics 365 Finance
Setup
02Nine systems
Nine systems. Nine RFPs. Years before it runs end to end.
- Usage metering
- Rating & billing
- Contract management
- Customer usage portal
- Partner portal
- Approval workflow
- Alerts & analytics
- Dispute management
- ERP invoicing
- Integration
And the motion still lives in the gaps between them.
Or — describe it once.
Step 1 of 4 · Describe
03Describe it
This is everything the business typed.
No requirements document translated into a spec. No system selection. Plain words, plus the documents the business already had.
From business intent to revenue motion10 paragraphs · plus 6 supporting docs
We make autonomous mobile robots for warehouse picking. We don't sell the robots. Customers pay us monthly for a fleet at each distribution center, and we charge for every pick the fleet does. Most customers run two or three sites with us. Some came to us directly, and some through reseller partners who install the fleets and handle first-line support.
Our problem is billing. The robots work fine. Every month someone in billing exports pick counts from FleetOS, our fleet software, into a spreadsheet, applies the rates and keys the invoices into Dynamics 365. At the end of each contract year we do a true-up by hand, and it is late and argued over almost every time.
Here's how it works. Each site is on a plan: Core, Growth or Scale. The plan sets how many picks the customer commits to for the year and what they pay per pick. Picks above the commitment cost more, and if a site comes in under its commitment the customer still pays for the committed picks. On top of usage there's a monthly platform fee per site and a monthly fee per robot. The plans, rates and true-up rules are in the attached policy, and the pricing model has the calculator.
Every month we bill in arrears for the fees plus the actual picks at the plan rate. Usage needs to come straight from FleetOS every day, so customers can see where they are against their commitment at any time, not just on the invoice.
We want to warn customers before a surprise. When a site reaches 80% of its annual commitment, and again at 100%, the customer and the account executive should hear about it. When a site keeps running well above its commitment for a few months, we want to suggest moving it up a plan. A site can move up once a year.
At the end of each contract year every site gets a true-up: extra charges for overage, or a charge for the shortfall. Customers with more than one site get a multi-site discount on usage. For partner-sourced customers, the partner sees the true-up first and has a few business days to review it before it goes out. Partners earn a margin on what we bill. The reseller schedule is attached.
Customers sometimes dispute pick counts. When that happens someone has to check the FleetOS logs, and small corrections shouldn't need a manager. Account executives can give some discount on pick rates, and anything bigger needs approval. Waiving or reducing a shortfall needs approval too, and the bigger the amount, the more senior the approver. The approval matrix is attached.
Customers should approve their true-up online, see the detail per site, and raise a dispute from the same place. Once approved, the invoice is created in Dynamics 365 Finance on our standard terms.
We'd like an AI agent to draft each site's true-up from the year's usage, with a short explanation of how the number was reached, and to flag sites that should move up a plan. Billing or the account executive always reviews it before the customer sees it.
I've also attached notes from our last billing review and a thread from the Northgate account channel. Northgate is our test case: three sites, through Lakeshore, and their contract year just ended. A few things in there are still being decided.
Attached with the description · 6 docs
- PDFRaaS Commercial Policy FY26Plans, rates and true-up rules
- XLSXRaaS Pricing Model v4Rate card and true-up calculator
- XLSXBilling Approval MatrixWho approves discounts, waivers, credits
- DOCXLakeshore Reseller Schedule BPartner margin and review window
- DOCXUsage Billing Review NotesDecisions and open questions
- CHAT#acct-northgate threadWhere the conflicts surface
The scenario and company are illustrative.
Got it. That's the Describe step.
We'll walk you through how viax would model it. Pick a time, or we'll reach out within one business day.
Book a time →Step 2 of 4 · Clarify
04Clarify
It asks only what the description left open.
viax reads the words and the documents together, finds where they conflict or go silent, and asks. Nothing is guessed.
-
Pending decisionQ1
Commitments
Are commitments measured per site, or pooled across an account’s sites?
From: The policy says per site. The billing review notes say pooling comes with FY27 contracts, and whether current contracts can opt in is still with the CFO. Northgate asks to pool this year.
- Per site
- Pooled across sites
- Per site, pooling as a contract option Recommended
-
AmbiguousQ2
Billable picks
Do re-picks after a robot misroute count as billable picks?
From: A pick is a confirmed order line, and a re-pick creates a second confirmation. About 1.8% of Reno’s picks since March are re-picks after a misroute.
- Count every confirmation
- Exclude system-caused re-picks (fault M-17) Recommended
- Exclude all re-picks
-
SilenceQ3
Partner margin
Does the partner earn margin on true-up charges?
From: The reseller schedule pays 6% on usage invoiced monthly and says nothing about the true-up. The partner asks in the account thread.
- On all true-up charges
- On overage only Recommended
- No margin on true-up
-
ConflictQ4
Plan changes
When a site moves up a plan mid-year, when do the new rates apply?
From: The policy says from the next month, with the commitment prorated. The billing review notes say the whole contract year re-rates, and the account executive has already said so to the customer.
- From next month, per policy Recommended
- For the whole contract year
- Next month, plus a one-time credit
Step 3 of 4 · Model
05Model and participants
It drafts the model. Participants carry everywhere.
The business execution model, interaction by interaction. Participants are set on the Site Subscription and copied to every related interaction in one click.
- InteractionRaaS Agreement
- InteractionSite Subscription
- InteractionUsage Record
- InteractionCommit Alert
- InteractionAnnual True-Up
- InteractionPlan Change
- InteractionMonthly Invoice
- InteractionUsage Adjustment
- InteractionPartner Review
- InteractionCredit Approval
- InteractionTrue-Up Invoice
11 interactions · 11 relationships
Participants, set once on the Site Subscription
- Account executive
- Billing Operations
- Customer approver
- Accounts Payable
- DC general managers
- Partner account manager
- Fleet Operations
- Approvers
- AI agent
Step 3 of 4 · Model
06Lifecycle, ERP & AI agent
Add a step. Connect the ERP. Put an agent on the work.
-
Lifecycle
Add a step in one click.
A Partner review state is added to the Annual True-Up lifecycle, on the submit transition, with a five-business-day window.
-
ERP action
Connect the ERP on any transition.
Issuing a True-Up Invoice creates one invoice per distribution center in Dynamics 365 Finance, each with its own PO number. ERP records. viax executes.
-
AI agent
Governed, not loose.
An agent drafts each site’s true-up from the year’s usage, explains the number, and flags sites for the next plan up. Billing reviews it before the customer sees it.
Step 3 of 4 · Model
07Pricing & approvals
One pricing model, inherited everywhere.
Kestrel RaaS Pricing is applied to the Site Subscription and copied to the related interactions. Policy is part of the model.
- Platform fee
- Robot fee
- Commit rate by plan
- Overage rate by plan
- Annual commit by plan
- Multi-site discount
- Partner discount & margin
| What changes | Up to | Approver |
|---|---|---|
| Discount on per-pick rates | 5% | Account executive, no approval |
| Discount on per-pick rates | 10% | Director of Revenue Operations |
| Discount on per-pick rates | 15% | VP Sales |
| Discount on per-pick rates | Over 15% | VP Sales + CFO |
| Shortfall waiver | $10,000 | Director of Customer Success |
| Shortfall waiver | $50,000 | VP Sales |
| Shortfall waiver | Over $50,000 | CFO |
The multi-site discount (4% for 2–4 sites, 7% for 5 or more) applies to every per-pick charge, true-up included, and needs no approval.
Step 4 of 4 · Execute
08Generated surfaces
Every role gets its own surface. Generated from the model.
No portal project. Billing, the partner and the customer each work in a surface the model generates.
Billing
Review the draft true-up.
The AI agent drafts Northgate’s true-up site by site: Columbus over, Reno short, Dallas over. Billing checks it, sees Columbus flagged for Scale, and submits it to the partner.
Partner
Review inside the window.
Lakeshore checks each site against FleetOS usage, sees its margin on the overage, adds a note and releases the true-up to the customer.
Customer
Approve it once. It invoices per DC.
Northgate sees usage against commit for each distribution center, accepts the move to Scale for Columbus, and approves. One invoice per DC goes to Dynamics 365.
Northgate Home & Garden · true-up, contract year ending Oct 31, 2026
- Columbus overage · 420,000 picks
- $10,500
- Reno shortfall · 360,000 picks
- $25,200
- Dallas overage · 90,000 picks
- $2,700
- Multi-site discount · 4%
- −$1,536
- True-up net
- $36,864
Step 4 of 4 · Execute · Optional
09Add peak capacity
Add peak capacity. Same motion.
Version 2 adds seasonal robots to any site, priced per robot per day. The account executive books 8 surge robots for Columbus for November and December: $33,220, with surge picks counted toward the commitment.
AI reasons. viax executes. ERP records.
Any revenue motion you can describe, viax can model and execute. For the first time, the limit is imagination — not systems.
You're on the list. We'll send the next motion film when it's out.