Are you new to Zuora, and looking to get oriented to Zuora’s core functionality? Our Zuora expert will start with the basics, and walk you through the Zuora workflow end-to-end with. By the end of the session, you’ll have created a product catalog, customers accounts, and subscriptions, and will have worked through the billing workflow to understand everything that goes into a payment run. This session will give you a working knowledge of Zuora concepts as they relate to your billing workflow, as well as some best practices to get you started.

2. Zuora Functional Training and
Best Practices for Beginners
Walk through Zuora functionality from product catalog to billing
workflow
Matt Holland
Instructor, Zuora

3. welcome
message
page
03
Matthew Holland, Instructor

4. content
review
page
04
01Product Catalog
Set up a basic Product
Catalog, discuss best
practices and using discounts
in Zuora effectively
03Billing and Payments
Walk through a Bill run, Invoice
review, Payment Run and
associated settings
02Subscriptions and Accounts
Create and manage accounts
and subscriptions, dates in
Zuora
04Zuora Admin Overview
Review all Zuora Admin
Settings, security and user
roles

5. presentation
agenda
page
05
Billing Workflow
10:45
Welcome/Product
Catalog
9:15
Zuora Admin
Overview
11:30
Subscriptions and
Account
10:15 12:00
5 min 20 min 10 min 5 min
Close
(Lunch)

6. product catalog
The Product Catalog is a container that
represents HOW your product is being sold.
A product rate plan represents the collection
of charges that your customers may incur
when buying your product.
The rate plan is associated to the
subscription, not the product.
What is the Product
Catalog?

7. components of
product catalog
page
07

8. components of
product catalog
page
08

9. three different
charge types
page
09

10. four
discount types
page
010
Overwrite the product catalog
price when you add a new rate
plan to subscription
Subscription
Specific
Zuora is happy to let you, for
example, create a -$10 monthly
charge
Negative dollar
charge
The additional tiers provide
discounts on the pricing in the
previous tiers
Tiered/Volume Pricing
Using a % or fixed fee discount
Discount charge models

11. page
011
Watch the
Demo!
Let’s create a
Product Catalog!
1 Product
2 Rate Plan(s)
3 Rate Plan Charges

12. page
012
Avoid Product Proliferation
Don't create a new product when a new rate plan will do. Make
sure you consider adding a new rate plan vs. a new product.
Promotions and discounts can also be added as rate plans, rather
than separate products.
Leverage discounting
Understand the 4 primary options for issuing discounts in Zuora.
Put bundles in a single
ProductIf you require that a set of products or capabilities must always be purchased
in a bundle (for example, like Microsoft requires Word, Excel, Outlook, and
PowerPoint to be purchased in its Office bundle), then create a single product
for that entire bundle.
product catalog
best practices

13. Subscriptions and
accounts
An account is a customer account that collects all of
the critical information about the customer, such as
contact information, payment terms, and payment
methods.
Zuora uses the Account object to track all subscriptions,
usage, and transactions for each customer account.
Each account is a source of a recurring invoice stream.
Every subscription must be associated with an account.
What is an Account?

14. page
014
account
data model

15. Subscriptions and
accounts
The Subscription is the Zuora Object which brings
together all of the attributes needed to bill a
customer. Think of it as the contract. It
establishes the terms and houses the charges and
basic billing rules.
You must have an active account before a
subscription can exist, and you must have one active
subscription before an invoice can be created.
What is a Subscription?

16. page
016
Watch the
Demo!
Now that we have a
Product Catalog
and we understand
Accounts and
Subscriptions... we
need customers!
Let’s create a
customer, and
subscribe them to
one of our rate
plans!

17. coffee break
next session at 10:30 am

18. billing and
payments

19. Zuora billing
workflow
page
019
Process a
payment run.
Understand
automation, and
overrides for
payment retry
rule.
Payment
Run
Process a bill run,
review timing,
dates and invoice
review process.
Bill Run
Review settings
that impact
proration and
automation within
the billing workflow.
Settings

20. billing
automation…
this is the goal
page
020
Define and enable automation in Billing
Settings
Select automation options and schedule during bill
run
Select automation options and schedule during
payment run

21. using batches
page
021
Can use up to 50 batches
Organize customer accounts
Optimize billing and payment operations
Partner with your Zuora admin to
leverage this feature and add customer
batches
Group customers by:
 Vertical (B2B, B2C)
 Regions (US, EMEA, etc.)
 Business Unit (Emerging,
Enterprise, SMB, Strategic)
 Non-Billing Accounts (Free
trial, test accounts, etc.)
 Payment Method

22. what I’ll demo in
my Zuora
sandbox
page
022
Process a bill run
Review invoices/generate invoice PDF
Post a bill run
Troubleshoot a bill run/notifications
Process a payment run
Leverage billing features such as:
 Automated billing
 Using batches

23. page
023
Watch the
Demo!
Let’s walk through
the Zuora Billing
process!

24. page
024
Use Co-termination with Product Catalog when
possibleUsing co-termination when setting up the timing of your subscriptions
ensures that changes made to asubscription (post originalorder) have the
same next billing date as the original order.
Understand impacts of settings before making the
changeFor example: Making changes such as tenant time zone can have
significant impact on billing and finance activities. make sure you
understand the impacts of changes setting before you “go live” with a
change.
Understand “dunning” process and options
You can, for example, temporarily remove the payment retry rules to expedite
a failed payment if customer has been contacted and has updated payment
method. Leverage Payment notifications to improve collections process.
Zuora billing
tips

25. Zuora admin
overview

26. page
026
Zuora admin
overview
Security
Understand
security
settings
Use
rsAdd/delete
Zuora
users
Roles
Understand
how to
create, edit
and update
user roles
Best Practices
Learn best
practices in
managing
your Zuora
tenant
Settings
Understand
the different
Zuora
settings and
their
impacts
within the
eco-system

27. page
027
Zuora admin:
what could possibly go
wrong?
Rule #1: Don’t make
everyone an admin.
We often see, especially with new implementations,
that any and all Zuora users are given full access to
all functionality and settings.
This can lead to inadvertent and unforeseen
issues that can impact:
● Billing
● Finance
● Reporting
● and shut down day to day operations completely.
Many admin settings can leverage existing company
security requirements such as:
● Password length and complexity
● Session time-out and lockout parameters
● Two factor authentication
Partner with your IT and security team to ensure your
Zuora settings are compliant.
Rule #2: Know your company’s
security policies

28. page
028
create
custom roles

29. page
029
Watch the
Demo!
Let’s take a look at
admin settings and
creating a custom
role!

30. page
030
Get to know the settings in ALL areas of Zuora
Understanding the various settings in Zuora will help to diagnose issues that
may come up.
Understand impacts of settings before making the change
For example: Making changes such as tenant time zone can have significant
impact on billing and finance activities. make sure you understand the impacts of
changes setting before you “go live” with a change.
Leverage API user role
For people that do not need direct access to Zuora UI, you can create API
access roles. The main benefit is you will not have password or lockout issues
to manage.
Zuora admin
tips

31. questions
page
031

32. thank you.