Kato's society billing process was heavily manual. It put significant operational load on the Customer Success team and created friction for organisations managing their members.
The goal was to move from a CS-led invoicing model to a fully self-serve billing experience, so organisations could manage seats, payments and renewals directly in the product.
Billing for societies was fragmented and manual
Organisations relied on the CS team to renew memberships, adjust seat counts and process invoices manually.
No in-product way to add or manage members, buy seats, or handle renewals independently.
Renewals created a high operational burden: manual outreach across ~1,500 organisations.
Users joined societies externally via society websites, creating a disconnected experience.
THE RESULTHigh internal overhead, slow turnaround for customers, and a model that couldn't scale.
Self-serve billing and seat management
Organisations can pay for memberships by card, add and manage members, buy extra seats on demand and handle renewals without CS involvement. The key challenge was making complex billing states feel simple: pricing and seat logic stay clear at every step, which reduces the risk of user error.
- Pricing and seat logic visible at every step
- Lower risk of error during payment and renewal
Renewal flow redesign
Previously, CS contacted organisations by hand, seat counts were confirmed over email, and invoices were created manually. The new in-product flow shows current seat usage and the upcoming renewal, so organisations can adjust and confirm in a few steps.
- Removed manual back-and-forth
- Removed external invoicing workflows entirely
Join requests: bringing users in-product
Users and organisations can now discover societies within the platform and request to join in-product. This was previously handled externally via society websites.
- Reduced friction in user acquisition
- Brought a key journey into Kato
A manual, CS-led process became a scalable self-serve system
- 98% of ~700 organisations paid on time, with 90% paying by card automatically
- Just 7 organisations needed active chasing, down from countless hours
- Reduced operational load across ~1,500 organisations
- Enabled ~£1m in transactions through the platform
- 01Complex systems don't need complex interfaces. Clarity in states and actions is everything.
- 02Self-serve only works when users feel confident they won't make mistakes.
- 03Removing internal dependencies is often the highest-leverage product work.
- 04Bringing fragmented journeys into the product unlocks both growth and usability.
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