How SaaS founders can get paid before setting up Stripe Billing

Early-stage SaaS sales can be exciting but overwhelming, especially as you try to figure out the best invoicing software for SaaS companies.

You’ve shipped the first version of your product and you have some eager customers ready to pay. Now you find yourself sifting through Stripe Billing documentation, wondering if you need to build a full subscription management system before you can collect your first dollar.

A common assumption among early-stage SaaS founders is that Stripe Billing is a necessity to begin charging. The reality is that most new SaaS companies get paid long before they have a polished billing system. That’s not only acceptable; it’s actually often the smarter move.

As you are working to get traction and land your first few customers, your goal isn’t perfect billing infrastructure. It’s getting paid and learning what people are willing to pay you for.

Waiting until everything is set up properly often comes with costs: lost revenue, slower validation of your product, and missed opportunities to learn from real customers. In this article, we’ll walk through how to start collecting revenue immediately, before committing to Stripe Billing or a full subscription system, while leveraging workflows that can scale with you.

Early SaaS revenue rarely fits into neat self-serve subscriptions. What it actually looks like is: 

• Manual deals closed over email or calls
• Custom pricing based on customer needs
• Annual or upfront contracts paid via invoice
• Net 30 or Net 60 payment terms instead of automatic charges
• Flexible terms that evolve overtime
• Proof-of-concept engagements before committing to subscriptions

In other words, it’s messy. And that’s normal when you are building an early-stage SaaS company. You’re still learning who your best-fit customers are, shaping pricing tiers and packaging, and standardizing onboarding procedures. Forcing everything into a recurring billing model at this stage isn’t possible.

Founders often make the mistake of overbuilding billing infrastructure too early, spending weeks integrating Stripe Billing, building complex pricing tiers, developing complicated billing logic, and automating accounts receivables before even validating how customers want to pay.

Complex structures can slow you down in the early days. That’s why it’s crucial to learn what your customers need first, then build the billing system that fits. 

Most early B2B SaaS companies get paid through invoicing. It’s a much simpler flow (invoice-to-payment) without subscriptions or automated charges. And it’s often the right flow for this stage of business.

Here’s what a typical invoice payment process looks like:

• You close a deal (usually through a manual process like a sales call, demo or contract negotiation)
• You send an invoice with payment terms (like Net 15, Net 30 etc)
• The customer pays via ACH, wire, or check
• You reconcile the payment in your accounting system

Many early buyers prefer this method, especially when deals are customized or contract-based, or payments are made quarterly or annually. 

Stripe Billing is designed for recurring subscriptions at scale. If you are manually closing deals and sending invoices, you don’t need that sort of complex billing infrastructure yet.

Now that you know the right invoicing process is key to collecting revenue quickly, you’ll be looking for tools that can make the process easier without requiring you to build a full billing system. When evaluating the best invoicing APIs for SaaS companies, a few capabilities matter more than others. Here’s a breakdown.

Must-haves

• API-first design: Look for a software that integrates with your other tools and workflows to simplify and automate processes down the road.
• Multi-currency support: You’ll need to look for invoicing tools that handle currency conversion cleanly and transparently if you plan to sell globally.
• Automated invoice generation: In the beginning, invoice creation will be mostly manual. But to make things easier when you grow out of this mode, choose a platform that can generate invoices automatically.
• Collections and reminders: Good invoicing software streamlines payment follow-ups so you spend less time chasing payments. That includes automatic reminders, flagging overdue invoices, and integrating with your communication tools.

Nice-to-haves

• Revenue-tracking and reporting: Tools that provide insights into your revenue and outstanding invoices can help you understand cash flow more closely. 
• Subscription bridging: A tool that gradually lets you layer in recurring billing is useful in transitioning to subscriptions once you reach that point.

The trade-off: Speed vs. scalability

When you’re building an early-stage company, you want tools that help you move fast. But you also don’t want to have to rebuild everything later. The key is to find a tool simple enough to start with, but that includes the capabilities to scale your operations in the future.

The best invoicing software depends on your company and its priorities. Here's a breakdown of some of the top options, organized by common use cases.

Developer-first APIs

These tools are best for technical teams that want more control over billing logic, integrations, and how they fit into workflows.:

• Stripe: Popular with teams that have strong engineering resources and usage-based requirements. Allows for programmable invoicing workflows.
• Orb: Designed specifically for usage-based billing, allowing for strong transformation and growth capabilities.
• Lago: Gives teams the ability to collaborate on complex billing, have control over billing logic, and develop usage-based pricing models.

Fintech-native invoicing platforms

These tools are best for early-stage teams that want operational simplicity, fast and easy set-ups, and streamlined financial workflows. 

• Mercury: Built for startups, small businesses, and scaling companies that want easy to set up invoicing tied to financial workflows. Mercury offers different banking that allows payments, reconciliation, and cash flow visibility to live in one place.  
• Ramp: Popular with companies focused on automation, and tracking and reducing company spend. 
• Brex: Offers a full financial stack for larger startups requiring more robust credit limits and international functionality.

Hybrid billing/invoicing tools:

Hybrid tools are preferred by companies that want to bridge the gap between manual invoicing and more advanced subscription infrastructure.

• Chargebee: Works great for mid-market SaaS companies and offers both subscription billing and invoice management. 
• Paddle: Popular with global SaaS businesses managing international payments and tax compliance. It handles invoicing and subscriptions.
• Maxio: A good choice for businesses looking to move beyond simple subscription billing to handle more complex subscription models with ease.

You don’t need a fully automated subscription billing system with advanced multi-currency support from day one. The goal is to get started with lightweight tools that allow you to move quickly, learn fast, and build financial workflows that evolve with your business. 

At some point, you will outgrow invoicing and need a full subscription billing system. But that’s usually a bit further down the line.

Here are the signals that you’re ready for Stripe Billing:

• You’ve moved past custom deals and now have standardized pricing
• You now have a high volume of customers
• You’re no longer onboarding customers manually but now have self-serve onboarding
• Most of your revenue is now coming from recurring subscriptions

You might want to delay if:

• You have enterprise-heavy sales with large deals and payment terms
• You have custom contracts with unique pricing and add-ons
• You’re still experimenting with packaging and positioning

Some SaaS companies continue to run hybrid models with both subscription and invoicing. That’s a perfectly normal model, too.

A simple stack can take you quite far, including:

• An invoicing tool or API that allows you to create and send invoices
• Payment infrastructure that allows you to accept ACH, wire, and credit card payments
• A bank account as your source of truth for incoming payments
• Accounting integration (optional but recommended) that connects your invoicing tool to your accounting software so your books are synced

Where Mercury fits

Mercury’s invoicing and payment tools are built for early-stage SaaS companies that need to get paid without overbuilding. It allows you to generate and send invoices, receive payments, stay organized, and track everything in one platform as your revenue grows.

The biggest mistake founders make is waiting for the perfect pricing and billing infrastructure and overbuilding until they finally feel ready. Revenue comes from real customers paying for what you are selling, not perfect billing.

Start simple. Begin with invoicing. Close deals and learn from your early customers. Then layer in complex billing and subscription infrastructure once you reach that stage. 

The best invoicing software for SaaS is one that allows you to get from closed deals to collected revenue as fast as possible.