Sequin initially used fixed pricing for subscriptions in its Stripe configuration, which worked well until it became evident that static prices didn't adequately reflect the value delivered or support costs for each customer. To address this, Sequin implemented metered billing, where customer bills are calculated based on product usage, specifically using monthly active rows (MAR) as a metric. However, managing metered billing posed challenges, as it required frequent reporting of customer usage to Stripe, which complicated the process due to the need for multiple API requests. To streamline this, Sequin developed a sync with Stripe that replicates Stripe API data, including Customers, Subscriptions, Subscription Items, and Prices, into a Postgres database. This synchronization allows for a simplified billing process where a single database query replaces multiple API calls, effectively reducing HTTP requests and improving efficiency. The system now automatically posts usage reports using a cron-like job, making it robust and predictable while simplifying the application’s metered billing management.