At SPOTIO, we make sure we are transparent with how our customers are going to be billed, so we went ahead and put together this guide for you.

How does SPOTIO billing work?

To best understand how you will be billed for SPOTIO, you first need to understand these important terms in your contract:

Per License Price - Your effective charges per license per month. 

Payment Interval - How often are you invoiced and how many months are in the billing cycle. You can find this information on your contract.

• Quarterly* - 3 months in each billing cycle. At the beginning of each billing cycle, you will pay for any outstanding balance from charges incurred during the previous billing cycle AND for the current active licenses on the account at the time of billing through the NEXT billing date.

• Annual - 12 months in each billing cycle. At the beginning of each billing cycle, you will pay for any outstanding balance from charges incurred during the previous billing cycle AND for the current active licenses on the account at the time of billing through the NEXT billing date. You are automatically billed for new licenses at time of invite.

*Note - not all contract values qualify for Quarterly payment intervals, if you are interested in learning more please contact your SPOTIO Account Executive or Customer Success Manager.

User Commitment - how many licenses have you committed to keeping “active” on the account at each billing date. This is the MINIMUM number of licenses you will be charged for at each billing date.

In addition to your invoice, the Account Statistics & User Statuses are helpful tools to support you in managing your licenses. You can find this information in the Users & Teams section under Settings. Here are the definitions for each:
Account Statistics - 

• Total Users - The total number of users currently occupying an active license on your account. 
• Total Licenses - The total number of billable licenses on your account. 
• Total Available Licenses - The total number of available licenses on your account that can be used for a new user without adding to your billable total. (Always check here before adding new users!)
• Active Users - Total number of users that are defined as Active meaning they have accepted their invite & have logged in within the last 30 days.
• Invited Users - Total number of users that are defined as Invited meaning they have an active license but have not yet accepted their invitation & logged into SPOTIO.
• Idle Users - Total number of users that are defined as Idle meaning they have an active license but have not logged in within the last 30 days.

User Status - various user statuses that affect how you are billed for the license they occupy.

• Invited - The user assigned to this license has been invited to SPOTIO but has not yet accepted their invitation. Licenses can only remain in this status for 14 Days until they are automatically suspended. 
• Active - The user assigned to this license has accepted the invitation to SPOTIO & has logged in within the last 30 days & has not been suspended.
• Idle - The user assigned to this license has not logged into SPOTIO over the last 30 days. 
• Suspended - The user has accepted the invitation to SPOTIO, but an Account Admin has suspended their access. Suspended users cannot log in, and you are not billed for suspended users. 

When you purchase a new license, there will be 24 hours before the charge is processed if you are on an annual billing cycle. If you are on a quarterly billing cycle, you will be charged on your next invoice.

Once purchased, additional licenses will remain active until the end of the current billing cycle, and any licenses that are still “active” on the billing date are considered “active” for the duration of the next billing cycle.

Prorated Charges 

When you purchase licenses between billing dates, these licenses are charged at a prorated price from the time they become Active through your billing date. Your per license price is multiplied by the percentage of days left in the billing cycle between the date it becomes active and the end of the billing cycle.

Formula: (Monthly Price Per License x Months in Billing cycle) x (Percentage of days left in the billing cycle between the date a new license is added and the invoice due date)

Quarterly Billing Example:

All of your licenses are allocated and you need to purchase a license for an additional user. Your last bill was on 1/1, and you add a license for this user on 2/1 then you would be charged for this user for 59 days of use. You pay $79 per license per month and are invoiced quarterly, so for this particular license you would be billed:

$79 Price per license per month x 3 Months = $237

59 days between Feb 1 and April 1 when the bill is due:

$237 x (59 days / 90 days = 66% of term) 

$237 x 0.66 = $156.42 prorated charge for 2/1 - 4/1

Annual Billing Example:

All of your licenses are allocated and you need to purchase a license for an additional user. Your last bill was on 1/1, and you add a license for this user on 3/1 then you would be charged for this user for 306 days of use. You pay $79 per license per month and are invoiced annually, so for this particular license you would be billed:

$79 Price per license per month x 12 Months = $948

306 days between March 1 and Jan 1 when the bill is due:

$948 x (306 days / 365 days = 84% of term) 

$948 x 0.84 = $796.32 prorated charge for 3/1 - 1/1

Users vs Licenses

The distinction between “users” and “licenses” is an important one. Consider this analogy to illustrate the difference– Imagine you are having a dinner party. You have 6 chairs at your table and 6 guests in attendance. Out of nowhere, your Uncle Jerry shows up, and all of a sudden you need a 7th chair. 

Now imagine that instead, one of your 6 guests leaves before Uncle Jerry shows up, you wouldn’t need to get another chair since he can occupy the vacant chair.

Similarly, SPOTIO bills for licenses rather than “users”. You can have an infinite number of different guests show up at the party, and as long as an old guest leaves the table before another sits down, you can reuse the existing 6 chairs at the table, there just can never be more than 6 people sitting there at once.

User Management and SPOTIO Billing Portal

Admins can view how many Licenses are allocated to users under Settings > Billing.

Adding New Users

• If the number of users equals the number of available licenses when you add a new user, you are purchasing an additional license for them, just like you had to provide an additional chair for Uncle Jerry to join the dinner party.
• If the number of users is BELOW the number of available licenses when you invite an additional user, this new user will automatically occupy one of the open licenses.
• If you have more licenses available than users allocated on your billing date, the open licenses will drop off your invoice, unless they are part of your user commitment.
• If you have fewer licenses in use than the number of licenses in your user commitment, you would simply be charged for the number of licenses in your user commitment at the next billing. 

Best Practices

• BEFORE adding a new user to your SPOTIO account and purchasing a license for them, suspend users that do not need SPOTIO access, then add new users. Remember that the same number of licenses can be used for any number of new users, provided there are licenses available when you add them. By suspending users that do not need SPOTIO access first, you can make in-use licenses available for the new user, and avoid charges for additional licenses.  
• Understanding your reporting is critical to best managing users in SPOTIO. Many of the reports on the Dashboard can give you insight into sales rep performance to allow you to assess strengths and weaknesses, providing sales leadership with the opportunity to address under performers as they see fit. For a deeper dive on reporting, check out our video on the SPOTIO dashboard here.
• Suspend users in the Idle status. These users have not logged in for over 30 days & are taking up licenses that could be used by other team members. You will not lose any data or activity history of these users & they can always be reinstated. 
• Monitor Last Login Dates in the Users & Teams section of admin settings to get a good idea of who is logging in and using SPOTIO daily and who is not. You should always keep your active user list clean & up to date. Remember that at each billing cycle, you are paying in advance for the Active licenses on the account. We recommend putting a reminder in your calendar for the week before your invoice due date to assess the users in SPOTIO. 
• For teams who value consistency over managing their invoice each billing cycle, consider a higher user commitment so that you always have available licenses to assign to new users, rather than purchasing them at the time new users are added. As long as you do not exceed the available licenses or any other usage limitations, you will be billed the same amount at each billing.