Getting Started with Tabs

Why Tabs?

Advancements in technology have enabled merchants to bring unstructured data from throughout the enterprise and structure it for use by finance and accounting teams for billing, revenue recognition, and reporting.

Intelligent agents handle routine activities like collections, approvals, and reconciliations, freeing Finance teams to focus on initiatives that drive growth. And because Tabs integrates seamlessly with your ERP, CRM, and other enterprise systems, you can transition among tools without unnecessary complexity or overhead.

In short, Tabs isn’t just automation, it’s a smarter way to run a finance organization.

Why Integrate with the Universal API?

• Seamless Data Ingestion
  Push new customers, contracts, obligations, and usage data into Tabs. Tabs will sync them downstream to your ERP so you don't need to also create them there. Altogether, this enables finance and accounting teams to operate off of the latest data in your ecosystem including new signups, plan changes, and opt-outs.

• Real-Time Data Retrieval
  Pull up-to-date invoices and payments to populate internal tools, customer-facing dashboards, or to drive business logic like shutting off overdue customers.

The Tabs Data Model

Most companies use their APIs to show how much they can do, which causes them to over-complicate everything. Tabs intentionally keeps things simple enough to get started quickly, yet robust enough to handle complex workflows. This allows you to get a streamlined view of your financial world with minimal data mapping and mental overhead.

We've chosen to model revenue around the key entities finance leaders use to discuss changes in their businesses:

1. Customers
   The businesses you’re billing. Customers have names, contact information, and custom fields like AEs and CSMs.

2. Contracts
   The binding agreements defining dates, payment terms, cancellation policies, and obligations. Each contract belongs to exactly one customer, but Tabs can infer the customer if a contract is uploaded without one.

3. Items
   The products or services in your general ledger and their respective accounting codes. The account associated with an item is Credited when the item is sold. That account is Debited during month-end close when revenue is recognized.

4. Revenue Categories
   Logical groupings for the products or services you offer. These groupings are used to simplify visualizations and reporting in Tabs.

5. Obligations
   The commitments you are responsible for how much they cost. Obligations relate to a GL Item and generate the line items that comprise Invoices.

6. Invoices
   Itemized requests for payment tied to obligations and contracts. Invoices contain Invoice Line Items and have a series of dates that are computed but can be modified. Invoices also generate Sales Tax.

7. Payments
   Recorded receipts that settle outstanding Invoices. Transactions are generally imported from your commercial bank and are applied to Invoices as Payments.

8. Coming Soon (Beta): Events (Usage)
   Track how customers consume usage-based products or services, enabling more accurate billing and forecasting.

By focusing on these core entities, Tabs keeps integration and maintenance simple—while giving you the power to manage every stage of your revenue cycle.

Integrations

Tabs integrates with industry-leading platforms to streamline revenue operations. Our opinionated approach ensures seamless connectivity without unnecessary complexity.

🏢 ERP

Manage financial operations with enterprise-grade accounting and reporting.

🏛️ Tax

Automate tax calculations and compliance without manual intervention.

🤝 CRM

Sync customer data across sales and finance to improve visibility.

💳 Payments

Process transactions and manage cash flow with integrated payment solutions.

Looking for more integrations? Contact us to discuss your needs.