The powerful EV charging billing software is a must-have for EV charging businesses. Imagine you’re a charge point operator (CPO) transitioning into an e-mobility service provider (EMSP) to grow and get new revenue streams. Your network grows, and so does the list of your partners. Consequently, you need a robust billing solution that encompasses partnership management and revenue settlement.
Or, you’re an EMSP that offers charging network roaming and a B2B app for EV fleet drivers, delivering access to charging stations beyond their primary locations. Additionally, you aim to facilitate monthly contract-based payments and eliminate per-charge transactions.
From the customer perspective, managing comprehensive profiles for customers and drivers necessitates a distinct account management system, encompassing billing, payments, and settlements.
Hence, simply using the charge point management system (CPMS) with a basic EV charging station billing system is insufficient. To fully capitalise on EV monetisation, it’s crucial to integrate advanced billing software with a robust customer and partner management system.
In this piece, we will distil what kind of billing and revenue settlement software should be your destination if you run an EV charging business. Without further ado, let’s get straight to the characteristics.
Convergent and Configurable Solution to Factor in Business Specifics.
First and foremost, the right billing and revenue settlement system for EV charging should be configurable enough to support various EV charging business models, including private or semi-private EV charging services, public charging networks, home charging solutions, or all of them.
Let’s explain this point with an example. An EMSP based in Germany adopts a subscription-based model for eMSP services. They have established roaming agreements with local CPOs having EV charging points for business, providing their EV drivers with a subscription plan. For a fixed monthly payment, drivers gain access to a broader network of public charging stations through the app.
The eMSP charges the same rates as the CPOs for charging, without any additional markup, and earns revenue exclusively from the monthly subscription fees. Utilising advanced billing systems that support subscription management and roaming, the company can effectively generate income from its network and collaborations. Herewith, the network and collaborations can grow unlimitedly.
EV Charging Billing Software to Empower Customer Satisfaction without Sacrificing Profits.
To optimise revenue and enhance customer satisfaction, it’s essential to have the ability to establish diverse pricing models, organise tariffs into groups, and support a variety of payment options to cater to different business scenarios.
Let’s get more specific with the example of the scheduling of EV charging.
While some newer EV models support scheduling, charging service providers can collaborate with electricity suppliers to introduce flexible tariffs. This becomes particularly crucial in regions where legal or technical constraints hinder the direct offering of scheduling options to drivers. Guess who these drivers will be loyal to more?
Customers are also happy when businesses offer creative payment solutions. Let’s dive into a few.
The balance option. Customers have the option to pre-fund their accounts using a credit card for future EV charging services.
Top-up packages. You can create pre-payment plans that offer bonus incentives to boost customer loyalty.
Vouchers and promo codes. Customers can enhance their account balance with predefined top-up options by entering a specific code. You manage user access to these payment methods and determine their availability duration.
Subscriptions. Subscriptions serve as a powerful mechanism for maintaining customer retention and loyalty. By providing EV drivers with subscription options that include perks and exclusive discounts, you not only foster loyalty but also enhance revenue stability.
Reimbursement. Businesses can easily compensate employees for the expense of charging company vehicles at their homes by also leveraging reimbursement billing.
To sum up, the billing system you pick for your EV charging business should help implement any strategy that best benefits the customer. Just another quick example: you introduced alternative payment options that help avoid bank transaction fees due to using credit cards after each charging session.
Robust Billing and Revenue Sharing Capacities to Support Complex Roaming.
CPOs and EMSPs can manage roaming with their roaming partner agreements. Or, they turn to managed roaming service to give their EV drivers access to the third-party extensive roaming network.
If roaming is outsourced to a third-party managed roaming service, it also has its own partners. Partners, in turn, leverage such a service’s existing charge point network, decide on their roaming contracts, and tap into new revenue streams.
Put simply, such a kind of relationship needs efficient and convergent customer and partner management modules built into a billing platform and, most of all, revenue management and settlement within such a complex ecosystem.
The point leads to the next most important characteristic that enables efficient and revenue-driven partner interactions within the EV charging business.
Comprehensive Partner Management for Successful Onboarding.
Companies can rapidly expand their charging infrastructure and services by efficiently integrating and onboarding partners into their systems. Within the EV charging sector, these business partners may include:
- organisations that own charging stations managed by your company
- site hosts like apartment complexes, workplaces, restaurants, retail centers, and municipalities that offer locations for charging station installation to accommodate EV drivers.
An effective billing and revenue settlement system is crucial for handling diverse revenue-sharing arrangements with business partners. For instance, different locations may require different agreements, necessitating a billing system with partner management capacities that can adapt to offer the most suitable pricing strategies.
Therefore, the system should include a robust partner management module to streamline the integration of hosts, fleet operators, and other business partners. Partner settlement reports compile revenue and expenses for all partners, delivering a comprehensive total due at month’s end.
Let’s outline key features of partner management in a billing solution:
- Full visibility for both you and your partners through monthly reports on usage and revenue.
- Capacity for partners to provide benefits to their users with tailor-made tariffs, including discounts or complimentary charging services.
- Facilitation of revenue sharing, corporate billing, and detailed settlement reporting, among other features.
- Availability of varying levels of access and remote one to manage charging stations.
- Analytics tools, enabling both you and your partners to make business decisions based on data insights.
Do you want a tip that you will definitely appreciate? Pick the billing and revenue settlement solution from a vendor with a telecom background!
Based on MaxBill’s 28 years of experience in different verticals, including telecoms, we can conclude that this industry’s partner hierarchy is more nuanced than any other’s. Vendors that used to work in it, know the ins and outs of partner relationship management and its intricacies. This means they possess in-depth expertise in managing partners within roaming services, distributing revenue, providing accountability, implementing any pricing strategy, keeping compliance on top, and much more.
Powerful Tenant Billing Capabilities to Go Beyond Traditional Services.
Managing hundreds of tenants who come and charge daily can be challenging. Advanced billing features within charging management platforms simplify this process, allowing for tracking and invoicing directly through an app.
Property managers can tailor pricing strategies, monitor tenant usage, generate invoices, and process payments effortlessly. A comprehensive billing and revenue settlement system offers them the ease of overseeing tenant billing from one place.
MaxBill delivers an extensive range of tenant billing solutions. If your property includes EV charging services, we can integrate these into a single bill for automated invoicing. Our tenant billing platform accommodates a range of charging scenarios with electric vehicle charge point billing software, including home charging, enhancing ROI through centralized billing, detailed reports, and analytics.
EV Charging Billing Management with Automation to Give Wings to Business.
Handling a vast EV charging network requires significant effort, so opting for billing that comes with automation is a way out.
The goal here is to reduce the workload to the minimum. Thus, payment processes should be automated, removing concern over financial transactions. Pricing established by the charging station owners is seamlessly integrated for end-users and displayed within the apps. Billing for end-users is directly based on these prices, with charging revenues sent to CPOs or EMPs monthly.
The intricacies of local VAT registration and the management of cross-border transactions are key for providing EV charging services across Europe. Therefore, such a billing solution has to consider all VAT-related concerns and adhere to various national regulations for the customer. All of that applies automatically to business processes inside the complex EV charging business.
What Should You Take Away from This?
If you’re into surveying how to enhance your billing and revenue settlement capacities, looking through the lenses of these 6 key characteristics can be more than enough.
At MaxBill, we help businesses to strategically expand their EV charging operations, boost their brand through EV charging offerings, and strengthen customer loyalty.
Nationwide or multinational companies, viewing EV charging as a key strategic division, can find here not just a reliable solution provider but a strong partner who’ll be there for you as you grow. Whatever your business profile is, we’re here to have your back with a comprehensive billing and revenue settlement system.
Related:
Everything about EV charging pricing across Europe | MaxBill
