Modernizing Billing Before ERP Transformation: Lessons from 24 Hour Fitness & ISG
Modernizing billing before completing your ERP transformation isn’t just possible, it’s a smart strategic move — and it’s one that’s increasingly validated by both analysts and practitioners. Leading research firm ISG calls this a market-proven approach for enterprises navigating complex monetization. And 24 Hour Fitness put it into practice, decoupling billing from ERP to support daily invoicing, simplify compliance, and give Finance the agility to move faster. All without waiting on a multi-year back office overhaul.
That shift was the focus of a recent live conversation with ISG and 24 Hour Fitness — a real-time look at how leading enterprises are rethinking sequencing and strategy. Watch the full conversation here.
If your business model is evolving faster than your ERP roadmap, your billing platform can’t afford to lag behind. The time to decouple is now.
What’s the Problem with ERP Billing Systems?
Today’s monetization strategies demand speed, flexibility, and experimentation. But traditional ERP billing modules can’t keep up.
Designed for one-time product sales and fixed pricing models, these systems often fall apart when challenged to support modern revenue dynamics like hybrid bundles, usage tiers, or mid-cycle plan changes.
“A typical ERP system is not built and is not designed with agility and change in mind,” said Stephen Hurrell, Director of Research at ISG. “It’s designed with a very fixed concept of what the world looks like.”
The result? Any change in your go-to-market model becomes an engineering project. Finance teams lose autonomy. Product launches stall. Customers feel the friction.
And while modern ERP platforms can promise more flexibility, they weren’t purpose-built for the needs of subscription businesses. Moreover, full ERP transformation can take years and monetization can’t wait that long.
A typical ERP is not designed with agility and change in mind. It’s designed with a very fixed concept of what the world looks like
–Stephen Hurell
Director of Research, Office of Revenue, ISG Software Research
How 24 Hour Fitness Transformed Its Billing Model
24 Hour Fitness faced a familiar situation: a heavily customized, aging ERP system, burdened with complexity and compliance risk. Billing was fixed to just six days a month, making everything from customer acquisition to proration harder than it should’ve been.
“We used to have a big joke: Anytime we wanted to launch a new project, it was six months and $500,000,” said Katie Healon, VP Treasurer at 24 Hour Fitness.
The team saw an opportunity to change that without waiting for a total ERP overhaul.
They implemented a dedicated billing platform and shifted to daily billing. That single change unlocked faster cash flow, eliminated the need for complex proration logic, and allowed the business to respond to customers in real time.
“When we moved to Zuora, the key game changer for us was moving to daily billing,” Healon said.
What Are the Benefits of Decoupling Billing from ERP?
Beyond billing cadence, the transformation delivered deeper infrastructure gains.
By offloading payments and card data to a modern SaaS platform, 24 Hour Fitness reduced its PCI compliance surface area and associated costs. They also positioned themselves to scale more easily, without multiplying internal dependencies.
“We no longer had to manage credit cards or bank accounts in our system,” Healon said. “That relieved a lot of that compliance complexity for us.”
And critically, they gained a platform that didn’t lock them into a specific monetization structure. Whether the future holds more usage-based pricing, digital add-ons, or new membership tiers, Finance now has a system that can support it.
We no longer had to manage credit cards or bank accounts in our system. That relieved a lot of that compliance complexity for us.
–Katie Healon
VP Treasurer, 24 Hour Fitness
Can You Modernize Billing Without Replacing ERP?
One of the most persistent myths in finance transformation is that billing can’t change until ERP does. Hurrell was clear: that’s simply not true.
“We recommend you don’t have to wait for the back-office transformation to happen for you to be able to transform what we’re talking about here as a monetization platform,” he said. “They can happen in parallel.”
In other words: modern billing doesn’t replace ERP. It complements it. It integrates through APIs, connects to CRM and commerce systems, and becomes the system of action for monetization.
This approach lets you move faster today, without derailing your long-term ERP strategy.
Why Billing Systems Matter for Customer Experience
In many organizations, the billing system is the only touchpoint the customer sees post-purchase. A confusing invoice, inflexible plan change, or delayed refund creates friction.
“Service is the product,” Hurrell said. “I think many products are different. The differentiation is not so much in the performance of the product as the performance of the organization who is supporting you, who is selling it, who is supporting, who is servicing you.”
If your monetization strategy is part of your competitive edge, your billing system needs to keep up. And it needs to reflect the way customers expect to engage — not the way your legacy ERP structures internal processes.
Service is the product. I think many products are different. The differentiation is not so much in the performance of product as in the performance of the organization who is supporting you, who is selling it, who is supporting, who is servicing you.
–Stephen Hurell
Director of Research, Office of Revenue, ISG Software Research
How to Align Teams Around a Billing Transformation
24 Hour Fitness’s billing transformation wasn’t just a technology shift. It was a company-wide effort. Club operations, finance, IT, support, and product all had to align.
“We definitely had to have the leadership of every single part of the organization,” Healon said. “Every single part of the business was impacted.”
She admitted she was hesitant at first. The legacy system may have been inflexible, but it was stable, and that made the idea of change feel risky.
What changed? The team committed. They got aligned. And once the project was in motion, they pushed through the complexity and delivered.
The most successful transformations aren’t IT-led. They’re finance-driven, with executive sponsorship and cross-functional leadership. And they start not by replacing everything, but by replacing what matters most.
What Does a Modern Billing Platform Actually Do?
For companies rethinking revenue infrastructure, the billing platform isn’t just a back-office utility. It’s the system that operationalizes your monetization strategy. A modern platform doesn’t just generate invoices, it orchestrates how revenue is configured, sold, collected, and recognized across your entire business.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Easily Integrates with ERP, CRM, and Commerce Systems
Modern billing platforms are designed to work alongside — not replace — core systems like ERP, CRM, and digital commerce platforms. Through APIs, they pass clean data across quoting, order management, invoicing, and accounting workflows.
This kind of integration allows Finance to respond quickly to changes without waiting for Engineering to retrofit ERP logic.
Supports Subscription, Usage-Based, and Hybrid Pricing
Legacy systems assume one-time transactions and static pricing. That doesn’t work in a world of digital products, usage tiers, outcome-based billing, or personalized bundles.
Modern platforms are built to support:
- Recurring billing models
- Tiered usage or consumption pricing
- Prepaid or drawdown structures
- Mid-cycle changes and plan swaps
- Bundled offerings with physical + digital components
This flexibility gives Finance and Product the power to test and launch new offers, without custom development every time.
Automates Revenue Recognition and Accounting Compliance
New monetization models bring new accounting complexity. Revenue schedules can’t always follow the invoice. With usage, milestones, and partial refunds, timing gets tricky fast.
Modern billing systems include:
- Native revenue subledgers
- ASC 606 and IFRS 15 support
- Deferred revenue tracking
- Real-time recognition and forecasting
This automation helps Finance close the books faster, reduce risk, and stay audit-ready, even as pricing evolves.
A modern billing platform bridges the gap between what your business wants to sell and what your back office can actually support. It integrates cleanly, handles complexity at scale, and frees Finance to lead — not follow — your go-to-market strategy.
Should You Prioritize Billing Over ERP?
If your billing system is still hard-coded into ERP, it’s time to reassess.
A decoupled monetization platform gives Finance the power to:
- Launch new products and bundles without engineering support
- Support hybrid pricing models without custom code
- Make mid-cycle plan changes without months of dev time
- Integrate billing and revenue data directly with accounting systems
- Improve cash flow through flexible invoicing and payment options
This isn’t a rip-and-replace move. It’s a strategic shift and one that positions billing as a flexible layer that supports both current revenue streams and future innovation.
Final Takeaway: Don’t Wait for ERP to Evolve
24 Hour Fitness didn’t delay. They started with billing and made Finance faster.
The companies that win in today’s market aren’t just thinking about cost. They’re thinking about time. Time to market. Time to value. Time to respond to customers.
“ERP modernization is essential,” Hurrell said. “But waiting years to modernize billing is not necessary.”
If you’re waiting for ERP to evolve before rethinking billing, you’re waiting for the wrong reason.
Start where the money comes in. Start where the flexibility matters. Start with billing.
For a deeper look into how 24 Hour Fitness made it happen and what other companies can learn from it, watch the full conversation with Stephen Hurrell and Katie Healon.