Continue incremental patching
Minimizes short-term disruption but preserves inconsistent calculation logic and compounds fragility.
The operating problem
What leadership was facing.
Avalara's SaaS expansion brought acquired platforms whose back-end engines calculated usage charges differently. As customer scale increased, the inconsistency created reconciliation overhead, pricing-communication friction, and audit-exposure risk. Billing accuracy directly affected revenue integrity and customer trust — and changes could not disrupt live customer billing.
Options on the table
The decision, framed honestly.
Full system rewrite
Architectural cleanliness at the cost of high operational risk to revenue stability.
Structured engine transformation under governance
Re-architect usage logic in controlled phases under CIO sponsorship, protecting billing continuity while standardizing methodology.
What I put in place
The structure behind the outcome.
- Came rapidly up to speed on complex usage-billing logic across acquired systems
- Extracted and reconciled requirements across finance, product, engineering, operations, support, and marketing
- Structured phased delivery to protect billing continuity, with validation enforced before each release
- Embedded the transformation inside portfolio governance rhythms and managed executive alignment across revenue-impacting systems
- Delivered an MVP within roughly nine months
What changed
The operating difference.
Disparate billing methodologies converged on a unified, transparent calculation model. Dispute troubleshooting and reimbursement exposure declined, cross-functional pricing interpretation became consistent, audit posture improved, and the business gained a governable baseline for future pricing evolution.
Why it mattered
The executive read.
For a SaaS company scaling through acquisition, billing integrity is existential. The work protected revenue streams, lowered audit and compliance exposure, and turned fragmented billing logic into a governed, scalable revenue engine.
Related operating proof:
Delivery readiness to value realization route
Decision cadence proof