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Telemetry
For SaaS teams metering billable product usage

Usage-Based Billing Analytics

Build a defensible usage ledger, quota dashboard, overage workflow, and billing reconciliation from idempotent structured events.

Reviewed by the Telemetry product team on . Event contract, recommended analysis, and privacy boundaries. Review standards and ownership

Run a sample usage queryCopy the prompt
Why this works
  • Separate logical billable units from raw event volume.
  • Detect quota thresholds and overages before invoice finalization.
  • Reconcile meter totals with the billing provider and account plan.
Use-case evidence path

Usage-Based Billing Analytics: from implementation to decision

A complete usage-based billing analytics measurement loop connects one owned workflow, a bounded event contract, a controlled fixture, and a question someone can act on.

  1. 1

    Set the boundary

    Define one billable unit and the workflow boundary where it becomes final.

  2. 2

    Capture the outcome

    Begin with usage_meter_recorded, usage_adjustment_recorded, quota_threshold_reached and document the grain of each event.

  3. 3

    Prove the rows

    Review adjustments and plan changes before invoices become final.

  4. 4

    Make the decision

    Which accounts are approaching or exceeding included usage?

Scope and neighboring use cases

Choose this page for the right measurement boundary

  • Use this page for metered usage, quota consumption, entitlements, invoice inputs, and billing reconciliation.
  • Use SaaS revenue analytics for subscription MRR movement, gross revenue retention, and net revenue retention.
  • Keep both models separate from product activation until account identity and reporting windows have been reconciled.

Agent prompt

Paste this into your coding agent

Replace YOUR_API_KEY after signup, then ask the agent to run the product flow and verify the first events.

agent prompt

Usage-Based Billing Analytics setup prompt

text
Instrument usage-based billing with Telemetry.

Use /skill.md and this Telemetry API key: YOUR_API_KEY

Log one usage_meter_recorded event at the final billable boundary with meter_event_id, account_id, plan, feature, unit_name, billable_units, included_units, billing_period, and status. Use an idempotency key that survives retries.

Also log append-only usage adjustments, quota-threshold notifications, exports, and reconciliation outcomes. Create dashboards for monthly quota burn, usage by feature and plan, overages, and provider reconciliation differences.

Do not log payment details, invoice documents, credentials, or raw customer content. Do not use request count as billable quantity unless the commercial contract defines it that way.

Setup steps

  1. 1Define one billable unit and the workflow boundary where it becomes final.
  2. 2Emit an idempotent meter event with account, plan, quantity, and unit.
  3. 3Compare monthly usage with the included quota and provider aggregate.
  4. 4Review adjustments and plan changes before invoices become final.

Events to capture

usage_meter_recordedusage_adjustment_recordedquota_threshold_reachedusage_export_completedinvoice_meter_reconciled

Questions unlocked

  • Which accounts are approaching or exceeding included usage?
  • Do internal meter totals match the billing provider?
  • Which features and plans create the most billable units?

Event schema starting points

Event contracts for this workflow

Review the row grain, emit boundary, required types, privacy classes, example payload, and validation checklist before adapting a query or snippet to production.

Revenue operations9 fields

invoice_payment_completed

One terminal payment attempt.

Inspect contract
Revenue lifecycle10 fields

subscription_changed

One committed recurring-revenue movement per account, subscription, and effective change.

Inspect contract
Usage billing10 fields

usage_meter_recorded

One accepted usage increment per idempotency key and meter.

Inspect contract

Related product capability

Continue this workflow in Dashboards

Turn a validated product or revenue query into a focused decision surface.

Explore DashboardsReview customer evidence

Related SQL recipes

Answer the next question with SQL

Run the query against the structured fields from this workflow, inspect the example result, and turn a useful answer into a dashboard or alert.

Browse all recipes
Revenue and billingBeginner

Calculate Usage Quota Burn by Account

Which accounts are consuming their included usage fastest this month?

Open recipe
Revenue and billingIntermediate

Calculate Monthly Recurring Revenue Movement

What caused recurring revenue to grow or shrink each month?

Open recipe
Revenue and billingIntermediate

Measure Payment-Failure Recovery

Which payment failures recover, and how much revenue remains at risk?

Open recipe
Revenue and billingIntermediate

Calculate Net and Gross Revenue Retention

How much starting recurring revenue was retained before and after expansion?

Open recipe
Complete collectionsRevenue and billing SQL

Customer evidence

Related workflows described by customers

“Telemetry makes it super easy to track, analyze, and visualize what's going on in my business. It's the perfect mix of simple and powerful.”

Namu Kang, Browserflow

Review the documented context

Next step

Create the API key your agent will use

The free plan is enough to run the prompt, send test events, and review the first dashboard.

Prompt packStart with sample data

Related pages

SaaS Revenue Analytics with SQL

Build an auditable SaaS revenue model from subscription movements, invoices, entitlements, and product outcomes instead of relying on disconnected billing snapshots.

Open page