Usage and one-time charges

Getting a clear picture of your variable revenue helps you make better decisions for your app business. The Usage and One-Time Charges report shows you exactly what’s happening with your usage patterns, seasonality, and charge collection across payment providers. Instead of waiting to see what’s been collected, you can see your variable revenue as it happens.

Report components

The report has two main sections that give you the full story of your usage-based revenue.

Revenue trend visualization

The main chart shows how your usage patterns change over time. The filled area chart makes it easy to see your daily charge volumes – great for spotting seasonal trends or seeing how pricing changes affect your revenue.

We overlay a dotted line showing the previous period that automatically adjusts to whatever date range you select. This comparison makes it easy to tell if what you’re seeing is normal or if something interesting is happening with your numbers.

At the top, you can quickly see your total charges and how they’ve grown compared to the last period. The rolling view underneath tells the longer story – helping you spot everything from seasonal patterns to billing cycles and growth trends.

Detailed charges table

Below the visualization, you get a detailed look at each charge:

When it happened (down to the minute)
What it was for
How much it was
What type of charge it is (Usage or One-Time)
Which customer it belongs to
Where it stands right now (status)

Understanding your numbers

This report pulls together everything happening with your variable revenue, whether it’s coming through Shopify or Stripe. As your billing gets more complex, having everything in one place becomes really valuable.

Charge statuses

Each charge moves through different states as it goes from creation to collection:

Billed: These charges are on the merchant’s invoice. They’re committed revenue that should be coming your way soon.
Paid: Money in the bank! These charges have successfully made it through your billing system.
Due: Waiting for the merchant to pay. Keep an eye on these – if they stick around too long, you might need to follow up.
Pending: One-time charges that are ready to go but haven’t hit the merchant’s invoice yet.
Refunded*: Charges that were refunded through Stripe. Watching these can help you spot if there are any patterns worth investigating.
Void*: Charges voided in Stripe. Like refunds, it’s worth keeping track of these to see if there are ways to reduce them.

*only available for charges handled by our Stripe integration

Filtering and analysis

The report gives you several ways to slice and dice your data:

Billing Provider: Look at Shopify, Stripe, or everything together
Keywords: Find specific types of charges
Transaction Types: Focus on Usage or One-Time charges
Group By: Organize things by status or type
Custom Date Ranges: Compare any time periods that matter to you

Making the most of this report

Understanding seasonality

Most apps see natural patterns in their usage – daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly. The period comparison helps you understand these patterns and use them to your advantage:

Normal patterns become clear when you compare any period to its predecessor. What looks like a concerning drop might just be a regular weekend dip, or what seems like amazing growth might just be Black Friday coming a week earlier this year.
Identifying peak usage helps you plan. Whether it’s the holiday season or the first of the month, knowing when your heaviest usage periods occur lets you prepare your systems and your team.
Historical data becomes a planning tool. When you can see that usage always spikes in July, you can prepare your infrastructure in June, or when you notice regular dips, you can schedule maintenance for those quieter times.
Unusual patterns stand out against the baseline. When you know what normal looks like, real anomalies – whether opportunities or problems – become much easier to spot.

Monitoring growth

Your usage charges tell a story about how your business is evolving. This report helps you track the impact of various initiatives:

When you change your pricing structure, you can see exactly how it affects usage patterns. Do customers use more when you lower their tier thresholds? Do they pull back when rates increase?
New feature launches show up in your usage data. Track adoption through usage charges to see if customers are finding and using new capabilities. You might try using Journal to annotate these graphs with new feature releases.
Marketing campaigns often drive not just new customers but increased usage from existing ones. See the full impact of your efforts across your customer base.
Seasonal promotions can be measured against previous years. Did this year’s holiday promotion drive more usage than last year’s? Did the impact last longer?

Revenue health

Usage-based revenue requires different monitoring than straightforward subscriptions. Keep your revenue healthy by watching:

Payment performance across providers. Different payment methods can have different success rates and timing patterns. Understanding these helps you optimize your billing strategy.
Failed charges patterns. Are certain types of charges more likely to fail? Do some customer segments have more payment issues? Spot these trends early to address them proactively.
Revenue timing cycles. Usage charges often follow patterns – knowing these helps with forecasting and cash flow management. Maybe enterprise customers always pay faster, or certain charge types take longer to collect.
Collection effectiveness. Compare payment methods and providers to see what’s working best for your business. This insight can help you guide customers toward payment methods that work better for everyone.

Pro tips

Take your usage analysis to the next level:

Use keyword filters strategically. Create consistent naming conventions for your charges to make tracking specific features or customer segments simpler.
Compare payment providers thoughtfully. Shopify and Stripe often show different patterns – understanding these can help you optimize your billing mix.
Export strategically. Regular exports of filtered data can feed into your broader analytics or BI tools for deeper analysis.
Make pending charge review a routine. Build a regular cadence of checking pending charges to ensure nothing gets stuck in the system.

Need help getting more out of usage-based billing or making sense of your revenue tracking? We’re here to help!