Pricing Model Change Readiness Review (Onboarding)

Pricing Model Change Readiness Review (Onboarding)

1. 01

   Map every live plan, add-on, and discount code the client currently sells

   Pull the full catalog from the billing system of record and reconcile it against what the client's sales team believes it sells. Mismatches here are the most common cause of failed migrations.

2. 02

   Document the pricing dimensions that must survive the change

   Record whether the client bills flat-fee, tiered, usage-based, or hybrid. Chargebee and Recurly both support all four, but a plan built for flat fees rarely ports cleanly to metered billing without a data model change.

3. 03

   Identify who bears tax and compliance liability under the new model

   If the client sells into 300+ markets, a Merchant of Record arrangement such as Paddle shifts VAT and sales-tax filing off the client's books. Confirm in writing which party remits before any invoice template is redrawn.

4. 04

   Trace every downstream system that reads subscription state

   List the CRM, accounting ledger, analytics warehouse, and any client-facing portal that consumes plan or status data. Each one needs a field-mapping note before cutover.

5. 05

   Test the change against a sandbox copy of the live catalog

   Run a full billing cycle on cloned plans, including one upgrade, one downgrade, and one failed payment. Agencies that skip this step discover proration bugs in the client's first real invoice.

6. 06

   Set the grandfathering rule and communicate it to the client's customer base

   Decide whether existing subscribers keep old pricing, move at renewal, or move on a fixed date. Write the customer-facing notice before the client's support team starts fielding tickets.

7. 07

   Agree the rollback trigger with the client in writing

   Name the metric (failed charge rate, support ticket volume, revenue delta) and threshold that reverts the change. Platform lock-in is easier to accept when an exit condition exists on paper.