How HUMAN cuts usage-related billing errors in half while supporting more clients

About HUMAN

HUMAN is a cybersecurity company focused on protecting the integrity of digital interactions. Its Human Defense Platform safeguards organizations from bots, fraud, and account abuse, helping advertisers know that real people are engaging with their ads. This allows brands and publishers to trust the activity taking place across their digital properties. By protecting people throughout their online journeys, HUMAN works to build greater trust across the internet ecosystem.

The Challenge: Buggy Billing Workflows Created Delays and Risk

At a glance, the finance team’s biggest challenges included:

• A poor user experience: Team members had to navigate complex workflows and develop specialized system knowledge.
• Frequent manual overrides: Workarounds used to keep the close moving could create downstream accounting issues.
• Limited billing visibility: It was difficult to quickly confirm what had been billed and whether contracts were being processed.
• Delayed invoice generation: Invoices had to be generated and reconciled before being released manually, which regularly slowed delivery. Billing ran once a month, causing some invoices to go out early while others were delayed by 7–10 days.
• Usage base complexity: Human’s complex usage based consumption model made it difficult to capture the usage drawdowns for certain products.

According to VP and Global Controller Vera Nazarova, usage-based pricing has long been part of HUMAN’s revenue model. The company processes trillions of events, creating billing requirements that its native ERP tools could not accommodate at the necessary scale. HUMAN adopted a NetSuite-native plug-in, ZoneBilling, to manage that usage, along with its broader billing and revenue recognition workflows.

That only got them so far.

“There were always some bugs on the revenue recognition schedule. We tried to find a workaround, but what we also found was that the workaround would lead us to errors. We sometimes weren’t able to catch these errors in real time because of the system complexity.”

— Vera Nazarova, VP, Global Controller, HUMAN

Over time, the finance team found that the system required highly specialized knowledge. Reaching the right information could involve navigating several steps, and if not done properly from initial contract entry, would have downstream impact which made it almost impossible to fix if not caught immediately. This made the platform difficult to use and complicated knowledge sharing across the team. Bugs in revenue recognition schedules and unexpected usage calculations also required manual workarounds.

Those manual interventions introduced additional risk. A fix made during the close could affect another part of the process, leaving the team to anticipate what might break next. Usage-related errors also created additional work for billing and collections. Meanwhile, a monthly billing run meant invoice timing did not always match contract schedules, with delays adding 7–10 days in aggregate. Vera knew HUMAN needed a more straightforward system that could clearly show what had been billed and improve the accuracy of usage-based invoicing.

Why Tabs: A Simpler Foundation for Usage Billing and RevOps

As it prepared to leave its previous system, HUMAN evaluated both NetSuite’s native billing functionality and Tabs. The team was looking for a platform that could simplify the user experience and provide confidence that every closed contract would move into billing. HUMAN also wanted clearer reporting across deferred revenue and revenue recognition waterfalls.

“When I saw Tabs, I thought, ‘This is the first exciting platform that I’ve seen since 2016.’ Everything else was very much expected. This one was more fresh.”

— Vera Nazarova, VP, Global Controller, HUMAN

Tabs stood out as a modern alternative in a category that Vera felt had become unnecessarily complex. Its intuitive approach gave HUMAN an opportunity to start modernizing its revenue processes without replacing its entire ERP. The company also valued the ability to work closely with a growing technology provider and provide input as the Tabs product continued to develop.

Automated Billing Schedules

Tabs gives HUMAN visibility into the status of active contracts and the invoices associated with them. Once an invoice is scheduled, it can be sent in real time at the appropriate point in the contract cycle, rather than waiting for a monthly billing run.

This provides greater confidence that recurring invoices will not be overlooked. The finance team sees invoices across the duration of an active contract, creating a clearer view of upcoming billing activity.

Usage-Based Billing

HUMAN’s business model requires it to bill against an exceptionally high volume of usage events. Tabs has made the upload and review process more precise, reducing both billing time and usage-related errors by half compared with NetSuite.

Revenue Recognition and Deferred Revenue Reporting

Tabs supports HUMAN’s revenue recognition processes and gives the team access to deferred revenue reporting and revenue recognition waterfalls. The company is currently operating across Tabs and NetSuite while legacy annual contracts continue to run through the former process.

As more contracts move into Tabs, HUMAN expects to consolidate additional revenue recognition activity within the platform. This transition is also expected to reduce reliance on separate billing tools and create future cost savings.

Cash Forecasting and Connected Data

HUMAN has begun using Tabs invoice data to create cash forecasts. By reviewing invoices that have already been sent alongside those scheduled for future delivery, Vera can build a clearer picture of expected collections over the next 16 weeks.

The company is also working toward deeper connections with Salesforce and Snowflake. Its longer-term goal is to create a continuous flow from a closed-won opportunity through billing and collection. HUMAN also plans to surface accounts receivable details in Salesforce so sales representatives can review outstanding balances as they prepare for renewals.

Life With Tabs: Faster Billing Accelerates Cash Collection

HUMAN’s most immediate improvement has been the reliability of its billing process.

“I can see the status of all the contracts being scheduled and that all invoices are already there through the end of the active contract. That gives you peace of mind. The biggest change is that all invoices are going out on time.”

— Vera Nazarova, VP, Global Controller, HUMAN

The more automated process has reduced monthly billing work by 40%. The remaining time is largely associated with backdated contracts that still require manual entry. The collections team is also spending less time than before despite supporting a larger client base, which HUMAN attributes primarily to fewer usage-related billing errors.

Measured impact includes:

• 40% less billing work: Monthly time spent on contract entry review, preparing billables, and reconciliation declined.
• 50% fewer usage-related errors: Improvements to usage upload and review have cut the time and errors associated with usage billing in half.
• Real-time invoice delivery: Invoices now go out according to their schedules, eliminating the 7–10 day delays created by the previous monthly billing cycle.
• Improved DSO: With invoices being issued more quickly, days sales outstanding has improved by roughly 10%.
• A 16-week view of expected collections: Tabs invoice data allows Vera to forecast incoming cash based on invoices that have been sent or are scheduled.
• Greater confidence in contract coverage: The team can see active contracts and their associated billing schedules, reducing the risk that revenue will be left unbilled.

As HUMAN continues connecting Tabs with Salesforce and Snowflake, the company is working toward a revenue process in which closed contracts reliably move into billing and collection. For Vera, the ultimate measure of success rests on three equal pillars: every customer should be billed accurately, collected from on time, and revenue and deferred revenue balances should be recognized with full confidence in their accuracy.