Billing — a system that tracks payments: it calculates amounts, records charges, and stores payment information. Simply put, billing determines who must pay, what they must pay for, how much they must pay, and whether the payment was successful.
Such systems are used in online stores, mobile apps, subscription services, advertising, online games, and other products that process one-time or recurring payments.
How billing works
The specific process depends on the service. For example, when purchasing a subscription, billing calculates the cost, sends the payment for processing, and records the transaction after successful payment. If the subscription renews automatically, the system also tracks the date of the next charge.
Billing itself does not necessarily accept money directly. A connected payment system may be responsible for processing the payment, while billing performs calculations and records transactions.
Billing in traffic arbitrage
In traffic arbitrage, billing is encountered on both sides: when paying for traffic and when a user pays for a product, service, or subscription on the offer side.
In Ads Managers
Here, billing is related to paying for advertising. It includes linked cards and other payment methods, charges, outstanding balances, and payment thresholds.
For example, an Ads Manager may have a billing threshold — the amount of spend at which the platform automatically charges for advertising. The platform may also have other charging conditions, such as a billing date.
On the offer side
Here, billing is responsible for payments made by the acquired user. This may be a one-time purchase, a subscription, a trial followed by a charge, or another model.
Subscriptions are associated with the term rebill — a recurring charge. For example, a user subscribed for one month and did not cancel it. The next payment for a new period will be a rebill.
