Billing → CRM workflows that drive lifecycle and renewal plays

Problem

Billing lived in a separate system, so CRM lifecycle stages were wrong, revenue reporting was inconsistent, and renewal/dunning workflows depended on spreadsheets and tribal knowledge.

Context & constraints

• Multiple plans, add-ons, and edge cases (upgrades/downgrades/pauses)
• Finance-required definitions for MRR/ARR and “active customer” status
• Need for idempotent syncs, backfills, and rollback-safe changes
• Sensitive fields required strict access control and auditability

Approach

• Define a canonical billing event model (subscription, invoice, payment, status) and map it to CRM properties/objects.
• Build a validated sync pipeline with reconciliation checks and alerting.
• Ship lifecycle workflows that trigger from billing truth (renewal risk, dunning, expansion plays) with clear ownership and SLAs.

What Shipped

• Subscription + invoice sync into CRM (properties + related objects where needed)
• Reconciliation checks + daily exception reporting
• Dunning and renewal workflows with tasks, timers, and escalation paths
• Dashboards that reconcile billing → pipeline → revenue for leadership

Operational outcomes

• Lifecycle stages aligned to billing truth (less manual correction)
• Earlier renewal/dunning actions with clear ownership and escalation
• Reporting became reconcileable across Finance and RevOps
• Operational load reduced by replacing spreadsheets with automated workflows

Governance & Safety

• Least-privilege access
• Idempotent writes + backfill strategy
• Change control + rollback plan
• Audit logs + monitoring