Invoicing and Renewal Offers

An invoice is a legal payment obligation. When you send an invoice, your customer must pay it.

Bookkeeping impact: Invoices affect your accounts immediately—the moment you send one, it's recorded as income. If the customer doesn't pay, you must credit the invoice. This impacts VAT and bookkeeping.

When to use invoices: Use invoices for new subscriptions, B2B contracts, or any payment that's legally binding.

A renewal offer looks like an invoice, but it's not legally binding. It's an invitation to renew.

If your customer pays the renewal offer, their subscription continues. If they don't pay, the subscription expires. No legal obligation, no chasing.

Bookkeeping impact: Renewal offers stay outside your bookkeeping until the customer actually pays. If they don't renew, nothing enters your accounts and there's no credit note to process.

When to use renewal offers: Use renewal offers for print subscription renewals when you want to avoid the administrative burden of crediting unpaid invoices.

Sesamy offers two methods for sending invoices. Choose based on your invoice volume and how hands-on you want to be.

Sesamy tracks when it's time to invoice each customer and notifies you, but you handle the actual invoicing and delivery yourself.

You create and send invoices through your own process—your accounting software, bank, or any method you prefer. Then mark invoices as sent and paid in Sesamy to keep your subscription records accurate.

Best for: Publishers with fewer than 100 invoice-based subscribers who want full control or already have established invoicing processes.

Setup: No integration needed. Configure your invoicing schedule in Sesamy and you're ready.

Billogram is our invoicing partner. Sesamy creates invoices automatically and Billogram handles delivery and payment collection—e-invoices, EDI, Autogiro (Sweden)/AvtaleGiro (Norway), bank payments, reminders, and payment tracking.

Best for: Publishers with 100+ invoice-based subscribers who want automated, hands-off invoicing.

Integration: Sesamy connects directly to Billogram. All data syncs automatically—no need to jump between systems. Invoice status, payment confirmations, and reminders all appear in your Sesamy dashboard.

Setup: There's a setup fee and lead time to get Billogram connected. Contact your Sesamy account manager to get started.

Learn more: billogram.com

Sesamy lets you customise when renewal offers are sent and what they say.

Time-based: Send renewal offers a specific number of days before subscription expiry. Example: 30 days before expiry, send a reminder offer. At 0 days remaining (expiry day), send a final renewal offer.

Issue-based (for issue-based subscriptions): Send renewal offers when a specific number of issues remain. Example: When 3 issues remain, send the first renewal offer. When 0 issues remain, send the final offer.

You can configure different renewal offers for different products, and send multiple offers at different intervals for the same product.

Example setup:

This lets you adjust messaging for early reminders versus final renewal opportunities.

Payment handling works differently in Sweden and Norway due to local banking systems.

How it works: You grant Sesamy read-only access to your bank account via Mastercard. Sesamy automatically reads incoming transactions and matches KID numbers (Norwegian payment reference codes) to renewal offers.

When a customer pays, Sesamy marks the offer as paid and extends the subscription automatically.

Setup: Provide OCR access credentials to Sesamy. Your account manager will guide you through the process.

Terms: OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the Norwegian system for reading payment data. KID (Kunde-ID) is the unique payment reference number printed on each renewal offer.

Set up a Bankgiro account through Sesamy. We handle access and automatically read payment files, match OCR numbers (Swedish payment references), and mark payments as received.

Setup: Contact your Sesamy account manager to set up a Bankgiro account with access for Sesamy.

Keep using your existing Bankgiro account. Each day you receive payments, upload the Bankgiro report to Sesamy via the portal. Sesamy processes the file and marks payments automatically.

Setup: How to export your Bankgiro

Terms: Bankgiro is the Swedish bank payment clearing system. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the Swedish payment reference number printed on each renewal offer.

These delivery options apply to renewal offers only. For invoices, Manual means you handle delivery yourself, and Billogram handles delivery automatically.

Sesamy sends renewal offers via email with a PDF attached. Fast, cost-effective, and immediate.

Best for: Customers who have provided email addresses and prefer digital communication.

Cost: Included in your Sesamy subscription.

Send printed renewal offers via post. Delivery methods vary by country.

Register a Digipost account and connect it to Sesamy. When you send a renewal offer:

Sesamy uses your Digipost account to handle both digital and physical delivery.

Setup: How to sign up for Digipost

Cost: Digipost charges apply for digital and postal delivery.

Sesamy uses a postal delivery partner for printed letters in Sweden. All letters are printed and posted via this partner.

Setup: No account needed. Sesamy handles delivery through our partner.

Cost: Postal charges are added to your Sesamy subscription fees.

Should I use invoices or renewal offers?

Use renewal offers if you want to avoid bookkeeping complexity. Unpaid renewal offers don't create credit notes or affect VAT. Use invoices if you need a legally binding payment obligation.

Can I send both invoices and renewal offers?

Yes. You might use invoices for new subscriptions and B2B contracts, and renewal offers for print subscription renewals.

How do I know which invoice method is right for me?

Manual works well for publishers with fewer than 100 invoice-based subscribers or those who prefer direct control. Billogram is better for larger operations or publishers who want automated reminders, payment tracking, and fewer manual tasks.

What happens if a customer doesn't pay a renewal offer?

Their subscription expires. Since it's not a legal obligation, there's no debt to chase or credit note to process.

Can I customise the renewal offer PDF?

Yes. Sesamy produces PDFs based on criteria you specify—branding, messaging, terms, and payment instructions. See Preparing your PDF documents for postal mail for requirements and guidelines.

Do I need separate configurations for email and postal delivery?

No. You choose the send method (email or post) when you configure each renewal offer. Sesamy handles the rest.

Need help setting up invoicing or renewal offers? Contact your Sesamy account manager—we'll walk you through configuration and answer any questions specific to your setup.