Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
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Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#2[deleted]
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#3>/as Qonto is a 'neobank', we wanted to charge our customers directly in their wallet, through a ledger connected to our internal billing system. The team started from a duo of full-time engineers building a billing system (which is already a considerable investment), to currently a dedicated cross-functional team called 'pricing'.
Stored procedures (ca. Oracle v6) suddenly sound a walk in the park.
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#4A classic, from http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html
> There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: ``Which is easier to design: an accounting package or an operating system?''
> ``An operating system,'' replied the programmer.
> The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. ``Surely an accounting package is trivial next to the complexity of an operating system,'' he said.
> ``Not so,'' said the programmer, ``when designing an accounting package, the programmer operates as a mediator between people having different ideas: how it must operate, how its reports must appear, and how it must conform to the tax laws. By contrast, an operating system is not limited by outside appearances. When designing an operating system, the programmer seeks the simplest harmony between machine and ideas. This is why an operating system is easier to design.''
> The warlord of Wu nodded and smiled. ``That is all good and well, but which is easier to debug?''
> The programmer made no reply.
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#5Just wait until you meet billing's angry roommate: invoicing.
In the US, an invoice is just a weird PDF that you might glance at before sending off to your accounts payable team. But in other countries, especially those that use VAT style taxing systems, an invoice can be a legal document that expresses costs and taxes in a legally prescribed way for accounting purposes. Many countries have prescriptive rules over how you invoice, who can write invoices, when you can invoice, what goes on an invoice, etc. And every country does it differently.
Are you building a service that charges incrementally many times per period? Or even worse, refunds incrementally? You might be sending a truckload of expensive accounting papers to your customer every month, one per transaction. And each of those pages was printed using government prescribed software from oddball vendors you must use or else.
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#6A classic, from http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html > There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: ``Which is easier to design: an accounting package or an operating system?'' > ``An operating system,'' replied the programmer. > The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. ``Surely an accounting package is trivial next to th…
OMG love the story, thanks for sharing!
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#7This has been my life for the past few months. Billing and dates / times are the worst part of the job.
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#8A classic, from http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html > There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: ``Which is easier to design: an accounting package or an operating system?'' > ``An operating system,'' replied the programmer. > The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. ``Surely an accounting package is trivial next to th…
Applications programming has a complexity of it's own that's distinct from the problems in systems programming.
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#9>/as Qonto is a 'neobank', we wanted to charge our customers directly in their wallet, through a ledger connected to our internal billing system. The team started from a duo of full-time engineers building a billing system (which is already a considerable investment), to currently a dedicated cross-functional team called 'pricing'. Stored procedures (ca. Oracle v6) suddenly sound a walk in the park.
They do indeed!
Re: Billing systems are a nightmare for engineers
#10A classic, from http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html > There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: ``Which is easier to design: an accounting package or an operating system?'' > ``An operating system,'' replied the programmer. > The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. ``Surely an accounting package is trivial next to th…
Thoughtful, and made me laugh. Thanks!