Challenge

If you run long-term contracts with your customers, you face time-based risks like inflation. For example, a contract signed today at €1,000/month is effectively worth only ~€905/month in five years, assuming the ECB or Fed’s 2% annual inflation target.

Given the recent rise in inflation volatility, many companies are now tying contract prices to official indexes — and with Nitrobox, you can too.

How does it work

Set Up the Index

In the Nitrobox Webportal, go to Product → Automatic Price Adaptation to set up one or more indices.

Each index can include multiple increment values that define when and by how much the price should adjust over time.

Apply it to a contract

When creating a contract, simply select which (if any) price adaptation index should apply.

How price adjustment are calculated

1. The contract start date determines the price adaptation baseline.
2. For each billing period, Nitrobox checks the applicable price adaptation value at the start of that period.
3. The adjusted price is calculated as:
   original price / baseline value × current value

Example

You’ve configured your price adaptation as:

A contract starting in 2023 at €100/month will be billed:
€100 in 2023, €104 in 2024, and €106 from 2025 onward.

A contract starting in 2024 at €100/month will be billed:
€100 in 2024, and ~€101.93 in 2025.

Best Practices and Limitations

1. Reporting lag: Index updates are often published with a delay. For example, March’s index value may only be reported in mid-April — by then, March invoices are already sent. As a result, the March adjustment usually applies starting in April or May.
2. Automatic vs. manual updates: Once a contract uses automatic price adaptation, you can no longer manually adjust its price after creation. You can still set the starting price during contract creation.
3. Future adjustments only: You can only add future increment values — past periods can’t be updated retroactively.