The guide
Guide: customer contract and subscription management
A well-managed subscription is predictable revenue; badly managed, it becomes a series of forgotten invoices and disputed prorations. This guide explains how to structure your contracts, bill pro rata, track recurring revenue and prepare renewals in Switzerland.
How should you organise customer contract management?
Customer contract management starts with one principle: a signed contract must live in the same system as the client and their invoices. When the contract sleeps in a binder or a shared folder, nobody sees the cancellation deadline, the special conditions or the planned indexation, and invoicing relies on the accountant’s memory.
A well-structured contract includes at least the parties, the subject, the billable lines (one-off and recurring fees), the term, the renewal and cancellation conditions, and the billing start date. In Numezis, the contract is created from the won opportunity and attached to the customer account. Its lines feed invoicing directly, its deadlines trigger alerts, and every amendment creates a new dated version. You know at any time what was agreed with each client, since when, and what will be invoiced next month.
How do you invoice a setup fee and a subscription?
Many service SMEs combine one-off fees, such as setup, training or migration, with a monthly subscription. One-off fees are often invoiced on signature or at go-live, the subscription from go-live onwards. The difficulty is to forget nothing, not to bill the subscription too early, and to calculate the first month correctly.
In Numezis, the contract carries both types of lines with their trigger. The setup fee is invoiced on signature or at go-live, as you choose. The subscription starts on the go-live date recorded on the contract, taken from the onboarding project once it is completed. Each invoice carries the mentions required by art. 26 VAT Act, applies the right VAT rate, for example 8.1 %, and is issued as a QR-bill, eBill or by e-mail. The payment comes back with its QR reference and is matched automatically.
How do you calculate a prorated invoice?
Proration spreads a monthly price over the days actually covered. The most common method divides the monthly price by the number of days in the month, then multiplies by the days billed. For a CHF 1’450.00 subscription starting on 18 November, 13 days out of 30 remain: 1’450 × 13 / 30 = CHF 628.33, rounded to CHF 628.35 following the Swiss practice of rounding to 5 centimes.
State the method in your general terms and conditions to avoid discussions, and apply it consistently. Proration also comes into play for a mid-month quantity increase or an early cancellation. Numezis calculates proration to the day from the go-live or change date, rounds it to 5 centimes and explains it on the invoice, for example “18.11–30.11, 13/30 days”. VAT is calculated on the prorated amount, and the line stays traceable back to the original contract.
How do you track an SME’s monthly recurring revenue?
Monthly recurring revenue, often called MRR, adds up the monthly value of all your active subscriptions. It is the most useful indicator for a company that sells subscriptions, because it predicts revenue for the coming months. But a total alone is not enough: you need to understand its movements.
Break recurring revenue down each month into four flows: new contracts, expansions with existing clients, contractions and cancellations. Stable revenue can hide many cancellations offset by sales, which is a warning sign. Numezis calculates these movements from the contracts themselves, not from a spreadsheet kept on the side. You see, for example, that in November 2026 recurring revenue gained CHF 1’450.00 from new contracts and CHF 320.00 from expansions, and lost CHF 180.00 to cancellations. Figures break down by client, product and salesperson.
How do you manage contract renewals and cancellations?
Under Swiss law, term, renewal and notice of cancellation are governed first and foremost by the contract itself. Automatic renewal clauses are common in B2B, but they do not protect you from everything: a client who discovers the renewal on the invoice quickly becomes an unhappy client. It is better to prepare each renewal like a small sale.
Spot deadlines well before the cancellation period, for example three months ahead, and contact the client to review usage, satisfaction and new needs. Numezis alerts the account owner before each contractual deadline, proposes a renewal opportunity in the dedicated pipeline and can prepare an expansion offer with the AI agent. In case of cancellation, the end date stops recurring billing, calculates any proration and updates recurring revenue, while the contract and its invoices remain kept for ten years.