Pricing & plans 201: Account hierarchy
Manage complex B2B and enterprise customer billing with Recurly's Account Hierarchy. Learn to structure parent-child accounts, implement consolidated Invoice Rollup, and configure flexible billing responsibilities.
Acquire · Pricing & Plans 201
Account hierarchy
Enterprise and B2B customers rarely fit the one-account, one-subscription model. Account Hierarchy lets you structure parent and child accounts to reflect how your customers actually operate — and choose exactly where billing lands.
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Account hierarchy
What is Account Hierarchy?
Account Hierarchy models complex billing relationships in Recurly by linking child accounts to a parent. The parent represents the top-level entity — a headquarters, holding company, or reseller. Each child represents a subsidiary, location, department, or end customer. The relationship is visible in the Recurly admin and exposed through the API.
The most commercially important decision the feature unlocks is billing responsibility. For each child account, you choose whether it pays its own invoices or whether all charges roll up to the parent.
Contact Recurly Sales to discuss upgrade options before planning an implementation that depends on these features.
The two billing modes
Every child account is configured in one of two billing modes. This single decision determines where invoices live, who holds the payment method, and how your finance team reconciles charges.
- All invoices and charges belong to the parent account
- The child account's payment method is not used for charges — though one can optionally be stored for future use if the parent relationship is later removed
- Ideal for enterprise deals where procurement controls payment centrally
- Enables Invoice Rollup — all child charges consolidated on one parent invoice
- Tax is calculated using the parent's taxable address; taxable address used depends on collection method and site settings
- Credits on the parent apply to the consolidated invoice; coupons must be redeemed on the child account to discount parent-billed charges
- A chilld account billing to a parent account cannot access invoice or pricing information in Hosted Account Management.
- Child account manages its own billing information, invoices, and payment method
- Behaves like a standard Recurly account — just with a visible parent association
- Ideal when divisions, franchises, or subsidiaries have autonomous budgets
- Parent visibility maintained: all child invoices visible from the hierarchy dashboard
- Tax calculated using the child's own billing address
- No Invoice Rollup — each child receives separate invoices
A single parent can have children in both billing modes simultaneously. A global enterprise might have its North America divisions billing to the parent while APAC entities manage their own invoices. Billing responsibility is set per child — you're not locked into one model across the whole hierarchy.
Invoice Rollup
Invoice Rollup consolidates line items from all billed-to-parent child accounts into a single parent invoice — one document, one payment, with full line-item transparency showing which child account each charge originated from.
Invoice Rollup is powered by Calendar Billing, which aligns all child billing dates to the parent's billing date. Both features must be activated by the Recurly support team — neither is self-serve. Factor this into your implementation timeline, especially for enterprise deals where consolidated billing is a committed feature of the commercial agreement.
Note: Invoice Rollup consolidates billing when eligible conditions are met. Differences in billing timing, shipping addresses, or subscription configuration can result in separate invoices even when Rollup is enabled. Test your setup before go-live.
When Invoice Rollup is active and child accounts have different shipping addresses, Recurly taxes each line item based on its shipping destination — not a single parent address. This produces more accurate tax treatment per location, but adds complexity for businesses with multi-jurisdiction compliance requirements. Review this with your customer's tax team before activating Invoice Rollup across a complex hierarchy.
Immediate one-time charges for child accounts that bill to a parent are not fully supported via the transactions endpoint. Use the Admin UI or the Recurly purchase endpoint instead. Charges created for next bill date work normally via the adjustments endpoint.
When Account Hierarchy earns its setup cost
Account Hierarchy adds configuration and coordination overhead. It's worth it in these situations — and unnecessary complexity everywhere else.
Multi-location enterprise customers
A franchise, healthcare network, or retail chain with dozens of locations — each needing its own subscription, but all billed to a central procurement account. Hierarchy makes this a single billing relationship instead of dozens of disconnected accounts.
Enterprise B2BReseller and agency billing
An agency managing subscriptions on behalf of multiple end clients. The agency is financially responsible; clients each have their own subscription and service history. The agency sees consolidated charges; clients see line-item detail.
Reseller modelFamily and household plans
One payer covers subscriptions for multiple household members, each with their own account and credentials. The parent pays a single consolidated bill; children manage their own profile and usage independently.
Consumer B2CCorporate subsidiaries
A holding company with operating subsidiaries that each need separate subscriptions and invoices for internal accounting — but with the parent holding ultimate payment responsibility and needing consolidated billing visibility.
Corporate structurePlanning an enterprise hierarchy setup?
Bring your hierarchy design questions to Global Office Hours — billing responsibility decisions, Invoice Rollup activation timelines, and multi-jurisdiction tax implications are common topics our CSMs can help you think through before you build.
Register for Office Hours →