Billing Terms & Schedules | Tabs developer documentation

Billing terms are the chargeable line items on a contract. They define what gets billed, how much it costs, when invoices are issued, and how long billing runs. Tabs organizes billing terms into groups that tie billing and revenue recognition together.

Billing term groups

Within each contract, Tabs organizes billing into billing term groups. A billing term group is the unit that connects:

One or more billing terms — the billing side (what gets invoiced)
One or more performance obligations — the revenue-recognition side (how revenue is scheduled)

This many-to-many structure lets you bill and recognize revenue differently when needed — for example, billing monthly in arrears while recognizing revenue ratably over the service period.

Billing term groups are created automatically when Tabs processes a contract. You can also create and edit billing terms via the Contracts API.

Products vs billing terms

Products and billing terms work together but serve different purposes:

	Product (catalog)	Billing term (contract)
Defines	What you sell	How a specific customer is charged
Contains	Name, display name, description, ERP item, ERP class	Pricing, quantity, billing frequency, schedule, discounts
Scope	Reusable across all contracts	Specific to one contract

When you assign a product to a billing term, Tabs copies the product’s display name, description, integration item, and ERP class onto the term — while keeping a link back to the catalog for reporting. You can override any of those values on the billing term without changing the catalog entry.

Changes to a billing term do not modify the product catalog. Historical invoices are not rewritten when products or terms change.

For detailed configuration of product fields, see Product Catalog.

Pricing types

Pricing is configured on billing terms, not on products. Tabs supports three pricing types:

Flat

A fixed amount every billing period — for example, $500/month or $12,000/year. No usage events or quantities required.

Usage

Charges based on reported consumption — API calls, transactions, data processed, and similar metrics. Usage is typically billed in arrears because consumption must be measured before it can be invoiced.

Seat-based

Charges based on the number of licensed users, employees, or locations. Supports mid-cycle seat changes with configurable proration and true-up timing (immediate or co-termed).

For usage and seat-based pricing, you also choose a pricing model — simple unit pricing, graduated tiers, or volume tiers. See Pricing Model for the full tier configuration reference.

Billing schedule

The Billing Schedule on each billing term’s detail page shows a chart of every invoice the billing term will appear on and its value.

Darker blue bars — sent (billed) invoices
Lighter blue bars — draft, unsent invoices

Below the chart you’ll see the date range invoices will be sent over, whether you’re currently in an active billing period, the billing frequency, payment terms, and total billed to date.

Billing frequency, cadence, and invoice timing are configured on the billing term. See Cadence & Duration and Invoice Timing for configuration details.

Product Catalog — reusable product definitions
Cadence & Duration — billing frequency and term length
Pricing Model — flat, unit, and tiered pricing
Invoice Timing — when invoices are issued
Discounts — discount configuration on billing terms
Contracts — how billing terms are extracted from agreements
Create new contracts and billing terms — create billing terms via the API
List billing terms — API reference

For how products connect to billing terms, see Product Catalog.