Pricing Drift
Pricing drift is the gradual divergence between a company's intended pricing and the actual prices charged to customers, caused by manual errors, system misconfigurations, or accumulated exceptions.
Pricing drift happens slowly and invisibly. A sales rep offers a custom discount that becomes permanent. A pricing change updates in the CRM but not the billing system. A grandfathered rate applies to a customer who renewed at new terms. Over time, these small deviations compound.
In B2B SaaS, pricing drift typically affects 12-18% of customers and reduces average revenue per account by 3-8%. Detection requires comparing actual charged amounts against the current price book, contract terms, and intended discount schedules.