Laravel Mollie Billing Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Subscription Monetization Strategy: Enables a wallet-based metered billing model (e.g., usage-based pricing for SaaS products like API calls, storage, or seats) while supporting traditional subscription plans. Ideal for hybrid pricing models (e.g., base fee + overage charges).
• Compliance & Tax Automation: Automates VAT/OSS compliance (including country-mismatch reconciliation, VIES validation, and reverse-charge handling for B2B customers). Reduces manual tax reporting effort and mitigates compliance risks in multi-country markets.
• Self-Service & Customer Portal: Provides a Livewire 4 customer portal (with admin panel) for self-service plan management, reducing support overhead. Supports trial flows, plan upgrades/downgrades, and coupon redemption without manual intervention.
• Feature Gating & Access Control: Integrates plan-based feature gating (via @planFeature Blade directive) to dynamically enable/disable UI elements based on subscription tiers. Simplifies A/B testing and tiered access.
• Promotion & Discounts: Supports five coupon types (e.g., trial extensions, recurring discounts, credits) and promotion links for targeted marketing campaigns (e.g., referral programs, seasonal offers).
• Multi-Tenant & Scalability: Designed for multi-tenant SaaS with polymorphic billable models (e.g., Organization, Team). Scales billing logic without duplicating code per tenant.
• Build vs. Buy Decision:
  • Buy: If your roadmap includes metered billing, VAT compliance, or self-service portals, this package accelerates development by 6–12 months.
  • Build: Only if you need highly customized billing logic (e.g., non-standard pricing curves, legacy integrations) or lack Laravel/Livewire expertise.
• Roadmap Priorities:
  • Phase 1: Launch subscription tiers with VAT compliance (use SinglePayment coupons for early adopters).
  • Phase 2: Roll out metered billing for high-usage customers (e.g., API plans).
  • Phase 3: Enable self-service upgrades/downgrades via the customer portal.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • You’re using Laravel 12/13 and need Mollie subscriptions with advanced features (VAT, wallets, coupons).
  • Your business model requires usage-based pricing (e.g., pay-as-you-go) or hybrid subscriptions.
  • You operate in EU/UK markets and need automated VAT/OSS compliance (including country-mismatch handling).
  • You want to reduce support costs with a self-service customer portal (Livewire 4).
  • Your team lacks bandwidth to build a custom billing system from scratch.
  • You’re already using Livewire 4 and Flux Pro (required for the portal).

• Look elsewhere if:

  • You need Stripe or another payment provider (this is Mollie-only).
  • Your pricing model is wholly usage-based (no subscriptions); consider a dedicated metered-billing package like spatie/laravel-billing.
  • You require highly customized billing workflows (e.g., non-recurring invoices, complex contracts).
  • Your stack doesn’t support PHP 8.3+ or Laravel 12/13.
  • You’re building a marketplace with multi-vendor billing (this focuses on single-billable subscriptions).
  • You need real-time analytics dashboards (integrate with a third-party tool like Chart.js or Power BI).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives (Business Leaders)

"This package lets us launch subscription + usage-based pricing with automated VAT compliance and a self-service customer portal—cutting development time by 60% and reducing support costs. For example:

• EU/UK markets: VAT calculations and OSS exports happen automatically, so we avoid fines and manual reporting.
• Usage-based revenue: Charge customers only for what they use (e.g., API calls, storage) while keeping a base subscription.
• Customer autonomy: Users upgrade/downgrade plans, apply discounts, and manage payments—freeing our team from manual interventions.
• Scalable growth: Supports multi-tenant SaaS and promotion campaigns (e.g., referral discounts) out of the box.

We’ll start with subscription tiers (Phase 1), then add metered billing for high-volume users (Phase 2), and finally enable self-service plan changes (Phase 3). The total cost is minimal (MIT license, no per-seat fees), and the ROI comes from faster launches, fewer compliance risks, and happier customers."

For Engineering (Technical Leaders)

"This is a batteries-included Laravel package that handles:

1. Mollie Subscriptions: Built on the official Mollie SDK v4 with typed request objects.
2. VAT/OSS Compliance:
   • Three-way country reconciliation (user-declared, payment-derived, IP-based).
   • VIES validation for B2B customers (reverse-charge).
   • Automatic cancellation + email notifications for mismatches.
3. Metered Billing:
   • Wallet-based usage tracking (via bavix/laravel-wallet).
   • Overage charging with retry logic and past_due states.
4. Coupons & Promotions:
   • Five types: SinglePayment, Recurring, Credits, TrialExtension, AccessGrant.
   • Promotion links via signed URLs.
5. Self-Service Portal:
   • Livewire 4 customer portal + admin panel (Flux Pro required).
   • Feature gating via @planFeature Blade directive.
6. Checkout Flow:
   • Multi-step wizard for billing details, plan selection, and coupon application.
   • IP-based country pre-fill (UX only).

Key trade-offs:

• Pros: Saves 6–12 months of dev time, handles edge cases (e.g., VAT mismatches), and scales with your SaaS.
• Cons: Requires Livewire 4/Flux Pro (commercial license) and Laravel 12/13. Customization may need template overrides.

Recommendation: Adopt for Phase 1 (subscriptions + VAT), then extend for metered billing in Phase 2. The package’s Billable contract lets us swap the billable model (e.g., Organization → Team) without refactoring core logic."*

For Design/Product (UX/Feature Owners)

"This gives us:

• No-code plan management: Customers upgrade/downgrade plans, apply discounts, and view invoices via the Livewire portal—no support tickets.
• Smart VAT handling: If a customer’s billing country doesn’t match their payment IP, the system pauses their subscription, emails them to correct it, and refunds/reissues at the right rate.
• Flexible promotions: Create coupon codes for trials, referrals, or seasonal discounts without engineering help.
• Feature gating: Hide/show UI elements (e.g., ‘Export Data’) based on the user’s plan tier—no backend logic needed.

Example workflows:

1. Trial user: Signs up, gets a 14-day trial (auto-converted to a paid plan).
2. B2B customer: Enters a VAT number → system validates it via VIES and skips country checks.
3. Overage user: Hits their API limit → charged automatically, with a past_due warning in the portal.

We’ll need to:

• Style the Livewire portal to match our brand (Tailwind-compatible).
• Configure plans, addons, and coupons in mollie-billing-plans.php.
• Set up Mollie webhooks for real-time payment events."*