Alright, let me just be straight with you: subscription billing sucks.

If you’re building a SaaS and thinking, “Hey, I’ll just plug in some subscription system and be done,” brace yourself. It’s way messier than you imagine. I’ve been there, done that, and I want to save you some headaches.

Here’s the lowdown on how I got my billing and SaaS metrics dashboard up and running using Zoho Catalyst and Zoho Books what worked, what tripped me up, and what I’d do differently next time.

Why Zoho Catalyst and Zoho Books? Because I Needed Something That Didn’t Suck (and Didn’t Break the Bank)

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t pick these tools because they’re the “coolest” or “most popular.” I picked them because:

• I didn’t want to deal with spinning up and managing servers.
• I wanted decent automation with the option to customize.
• Zoho Books already handled invoicing and accounting stuff well.
• Catalyst offered a flexible, serverless backend without forcing me into a black box.

Honestly, it’s a pretty good combo if you want control but don’t want to spend forever building everything from scratch.

What I Did (And How It Went)

Step 1: Letting Users Pick Plans and Signing Them Up

Easy, right? Just a form and some backend logic in Catalyst to create the user profile…

Step 2: Auto-Generating Invoices in Zoho Books

This part was slick once I got it going…

Step 3: Syncing Payment Status Back to Catalyst

Zoho Books sends webhook events when payments happen or fail…

Step 4: Handling Grace Periods and Downgrades

You think billing’s just about charging? Nope…

Building the SaaS Metrics Dashboard — Because Numbers Don’t Lie (But They Can Confuse the Hell Out of You)

Here’s what I focused on for the dashboard:

• MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
• Churn Rate
• LTV (Lifetime Value)
• ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
• Active vs Inactive Users

I pulled all this from Zoho Books and Catalyst’s datastore and built a simple React dashboard…

Where I Got Burned

• API Limits Sucked
• Timezone Hell
• Custom Plans Were a Nightmare

What I’d Say to You If You’re Starting This

• Don’t overbuild. Nail the billing flow first.
• Automate all the things you can.
• Test payments like a maniac failed, succeeded, refunds, partials.
• Think hard about how you communicate billing status to users.
• Keep your data sources in sync.

Final Thoughts — Why This Combo Works for Me

It’s not perfect, but Zoho Catalyst + Zoho Books gives me enough control to customize, the automation to reduce busywork…

And hey if I can do it, you can do it. Just expect some hiccups and be ready to debug your way through them.

Thanks for sticking with me through this rant. If subscription billing or SaaS metrics have ever made you want to scream, I feel you. Drop me a line if you want to swap war stories or get some example code.

Want me to help you set up your own billing backend? Or maybe some sample Catalyst functions? Just holler.