Subscription & billing

The Subscription screen is where you see your plan, how many accounts you use, and what the next renewal will cost. Here you choose and change the plan, buy extra accounts, cancel or resume, and download the invoices for Complaia itself. Card details are kept by the payment provider, Stripe.

Where to find it: System → Subscription

When you'll use it

• The trial is ending and you need to choose a plan.
• You have run out of seats and want to add a colleague.
• You want a bigger or a smaller plan.
• A payment failed and you need to pay or change the card.
• You want to cancel, or undo a cancellation.
• You need an invoice for your Complaia subscription.

Key concepts

• Plan — what you subscribe to. Each plan card shows its price and how many active accounts it includes. Plans and prices are listed on the Subscription screen under Available plans.
• Seat — one active user account. A blocked account does not use a seat.
• Extra accounts — seats you buy on top of what your plan includes. Each one is charged every month. The price of one extra account is the same in every plan.
• Bonus seats — extra seats you keep until the end of the current period, instead of a refund. You get them when you move to a bigger plan while you have extra accounts that are already paid for.
• Trial — a new company starts with a trial: everything works, and no card is needed. The screen shows when it ends. During the trial you have as many seats as the smallest plan includes.
• Billing period — the time you have already paid for. The plan card shows when it renews. Upgrades take effect at once. Reductions take effect at the end of the paid period.
• Payment portal — Stripe's own page for your card and payments. You open it from Payment method.
• People who manage the subscription — the Owner, and anyone whose role includes the Subscription: Manage permission. Only they can change anything on this screen.

The screen

From the top, the screen shows:

• Notices at the top. They appear only when something needs attention:
  • a failed payment;
  • a scheduled cancellation, with Resume subscription;
  • a scheduled plan or seat change, with Undo change;
  • the trial countdown.
• The plan card:
  • your plan and its price, or Choose a plan when you have no plan yet;
  • one line about the state, for example when the plan renews;
  • Status;
  • the next important date: Next renewal, Trial ends, Access until or Pay by;
  • Accounts: how many are used out of your limit.
• Renewal summary — what the next renewal will cost: the plan, Extra accounts × n, Net, VAT and Total (gross). It also shows the date your card will be charged. Click it to open the details.
• Accounts — Accounts used out of your limit, and how many seats are free. Without an active plan it says No active plan. The card has two buttons:
  • Add account, called Manage seats once you have extra accounts;
  • Manage accounts, which opens the user list.
• Billing — Payment method, Invoices and Cancel subscription.
• Invoice details — the company details your Complaia invoices are issued to, with Edit company details.
• Available plans (called Change plan once you have a paid plan). This section is folded when the screen opens. Click its heading to open it. Inside you see:
  • what every plan includes, listed once above the cards;
  • one card per plan, with a button;
  • during the trial, the price of one extra account, below the cards;
  • Let’s talk, for larger teams and special requirements. See Ask about the Enterprise plan.

📷 Screenshot to add: the Subscription screen with the plan card, the Accounts card and the Billing card

A bar can also appear at the top of every screen in Complaia:

Bar	Who sees it
Trial period, with how much of the trial is left	Everyone
Payment failed, with the deadline for paying	Everyone
Subscription renews in … days, two days or less before a renewal, to remind you to keep money on the card	People who manage the subscription or may open the payment portal
Subscription ending, while a cancellation is scheduled	People who manage the subscription or may open the payment portal

Common tasks

Choose a plan for the first time

1. Go to System → Subscription. Click Choose a plan on the plan card, or open Available plans.
2. Click Choose … on the plan you want.
3. In the window that opens, enter a discount code if you have one. Click I have a discount code, type the code in Promo code, click Apply, and check the price after the discount.
4. Click Go to payment. Stripe's secure payment page opens.
5. Pay. You return to a Transaction confirmation page. The plan usually switches on within a few seconds.
6. Click Go to subscription.

If you leave the payment page without paying, you see the Transaction cancelled page. Nothing was charged, and you can start again.

If you have more active accounts than the plan includes, the plan card warns you how many accounts will be switched off after the change. See When there are more accounts than seats.

Change your plan

1. Click the Change plan heading to open the list of plans. Each card shows the difference in price and when the change would start.
2. Click Upgrade to this plan on a bigger plan, or Switch to this plan on a smaller one. Your current plan says This is your plan.
3. Read the window that opens. It shows what You have been paying, what You pay today, and what From the next period you pay.
4. If you have extra accounts, choose what happens to them. See the next task.
5. Confirm.

Moving up takes effect at once. Your saved card is charged only the difference, for the days left in the period.

Moving down takes effect at the end of the paid period. You pay nothing now, and nothing is refunded. Until that date a notice shows the scheduled change, and Undo change cancels it.

Decide what happens to your extra accounts

When you move to a plan that includes more seats, you may no longer need some of the extra accounts you bought. The plan-change window asks what to do. Which options you see depends on whether those extra accounts are worth more than the upgrade costs.

Option in the window	What happens
Switch now and keep the overpayment as bonus seats (marked Recommended)	The bigger plan starts now, with no charge and no refund today. What you overpaid for extra accounts becomes bonus seats until the end of the period. From the next period you have the plan's own number of seats.
Switch now: overpayment forfeited	The bigger plan starts now, with no charge today. You give up this period's overpayment. There is no refund.
Drop the extra accounts, because the plan's own accounts are enough (marked Recommended)	The extra accounts are removed now, and their value reduces what you pay today. From the next period your monthly cost is lower.
Keep the extra accounts	They stay on top of the new plan, and you keep paying for them every month.

If you still need all your extra accounts under the new plan, there is nothing to choose. The window says that your purchased seats stay.

Buy extra accounts, or give some back

1. In the Accounts card, click Add account (or Manage seats).
2. In the Extra accounts window, use the plus and minus buttons to set the total number of extra accounts you want, not the number to add. The maximum is 100.
3. Check Price per account, Added to the subscription and Account limit after purchase.
4. Click Pay and add to buy, or Drop seats to give some back.

Adding works at once. Your saved card is charged for the days left until the renewal. The window shows the amount due now.

Giving seats back takes effect at the next renewal. The seats are paid for until then, keep working until then, and are not refunded. If you set the number back to what you have now, the button changes to Cancel the scheduled change.

Switch to a bigger plan when it is cheaper

When a bigger plan would cost less than your current plan plus its extra accounts, Complaia tells you in two places:

• the Accounts card says which plan is cheaper and how much you would save per month;
• the Extra accounts window shows the same advice, with a button to switch.

If you buy extra accounts anyway, Complaia asks once more: Buy anyway or Switch to the cheaper plan.

Reactivate accounts instead of buying seats

When you have free seats and blocked accounts at the same time, the Accounts card shows You have free seats in your plan.

1. Click Choose accounts to reactivate.
2. Tick the people to bring back, up to the number of free seats. Each one is marked Auto-deactivated (Complaia switched it off when there were too few seats) or Deactivated manually.
3. Click the button to reactivate the selected accounts.

Cancel or resume the subscription

To cancel:

1. In the Billing card, click Cancel subscription.
2. Confirm with Cancel subscription.

The subscription stays fully active until the end of the paid period. A notice shows The subscription ends on …. After that date access is limited. Your data stays untouched.

To resume: click Resume subscription in that notice at any time before the end date.

While a cancellation is scheduled, you cannot change plans. Resume first.

Change the card

1. In the Billing card, click Payment method. Stripe's payment portal opens.
2. Add or replace the card there.

Download invoices for Complaia

1. In the Billing card, click Invoices.
2. Find the invoice in the Your invoices window. Each invoice shows its Number, Issue date and Amount. The five newest are visible. Scroll inside the list to see older ones. Open a row to see what the invoice was for and how the amount is made up.
3. Click Download PDF.

Invoices stay available after a subscription ends.

Correct the details on your invoices

The Invoice details card shows the company name, address and tax ID used on your invoices.

1. Click Edit company details. Company details opens.
2. Change the details there. See Update the company record.

Future invoices use the new details. Invoices already issued do not change.

Ask about the Enterprise plan

The Enterprise plan is for larger teams and special requirements, with individual pricing.

1. Open Available plans (or Change plan) and click Let’s talk at the bottom.
2. Check the Reply-to email. It is filled in with your own address.
3. In Message, describe what you need: the number of accounts, requirements, integrations. The message is required.
4. Click Send inquiry.

The Complaia team replies to the address you gave. The inquiry also appears in My tickets as a support ticket.

When a payment fails

When a renewal cannot be collected, nobody loses access straight away. This is what happens:

1. A notice appears with the amount that could not be collected. It states the deadline: Pay for your subscription by …, otherwise access to the system will be blocked until the payment is received. The deadline is 24 hours after the failed renewal.
2. Until the deadline, everyone keeps working, and the charge is tried again automatically.
3. The notice gives you three ways to pay:
   • Pay now charges your saved card again. Complaia asks you to confirm and shows the amount. If the default card is declined, the other saved cards are tried, and the card that works becomes the default;
   • Pay another way opens the unpaid invoice, so that you can pay it differently;
   • Change card opens the payment portal.
4. If the deadline passes without payment, the subscription is cancelled for non-payment and access is blocked. See When access is blocked. Restore and pay brings back exactly the plan and extra accounts you had. The new period starts on the day you pay.

When access is blocked

A full-screen notice, System access has been restricted, covers Complaia in three cases:

• the trial ends and no plan was chosen;
• a subscription runs out;
• a payment stays unpaid after its deadline.

People can sign in but cannot work.

	People who manage the subscription	Everyone else
See	The reason, Restore your previous plan (when there is one to restore), the list of plans, and the invoice details	A short explanation and, under Subscription manager, the Owner's name, e-mail and phone
Can do	Restore and pay, choose a plan, open the payment portal	Sign out, Report a problem

A few things keep working while access is blocked, so you can always pay, correct your invoice details or ask for help:

• signing in and out;
• the Subscription screen;
• Company details. The blocking screen links to it as Fix company details;
• support tickets.

If a payment is disputed or refunded, access ends at once, not at the end of the period.

When there are more accounts than seats

This happens when you move to a smaller plan, give seats back, or the trial ends with more active accounts than the plan covers. Complaia does not block the company. It switches off the extra accounts, and then lets the people who manage the subscription correct the choice.

Who gets switched off

• The Owner is never switched off.
• The newest accounts are switched off first.
• People who manage the subscription, or may open the payment portal, are switched off last. This way someone who can correct the choice can still sign in.

Anyone who is switched off is signed out and sees that their account was deactivated.

Choosing who stays active

The Owner receives an e-mail when this happens. People who manage the subscription see the Adjust active accounts window the next time they use Complaia. It stays open until a choice is saved.

The window has two lists: All users and Stay active, with a counter of how many you chose out of the limit.

1. Click accounts in All users to move them to Stay active, up to the limit. You can search by name, login or role.
2. Or click Select first … to fill the list for you. Clear empties it. The Owner always stays active.
3. Click Save selection.

Accounts you leave out stay blocked. You can bring them back later, when a seat is free.

While the correction is waiting, nobody can switch accounts on or off in Users. The Active switch is greyed out, with a note that a seat correction is in progress.

Going back up

When you move to a bigger plan or buy seats again, Complaia switches the accounts it switched off back on automatically. It starts with the oldest account and stops at the new limit. Accounts that someone blocked by hand stay blocked.

When it doesn't work

What you see	Why	What to do
You have used all your accounts when you add a user	Every seat is taken.	Block an account you no longer need, click Add account, or move to a bigger plan.
Subscription is not in your menu	Your role does not include the Subscription module. The Administrator role does not include it.	Ask the Owner, or ask for a role that includes it.
The buttons to change the plan, buy seats or cancel are missing	You can view the subscription but not manage it.	Ask for the Subscription: Manage permission.
Payment method is missing	You do not have the Subscription: Customer portal permission, or you have not chosen a paid plan yet.	Ask for the permission, or choose a plan first.
Payment failed: the change was not applied.	The card was declined during a plan change.	Change the card under Payment method and try again.
Payment failed: the seats were not added.	The card was declined when you bought seats.	Change the card and try again.
None of the saved cards worked. Add or update a card, or pay another way.	Pay now was declined.	Use Change card or Pay another way.
Hold on, the previous payment attempt is still in progress. Wait a few seconds and try again.	You clicked Pay now twice in a short time.	Wait a few seconds and try again.
You already have an active subscription. Cancel it or wait until the period ends before buying a new one.	You tried to buy a plan while one is active.	Use Change plan instead.
Resume the subscription first to change plans	A cancellation is scheduled.	Click Resume subscription, then change the plan.
The plan did not switch on after you paid	The confirmation from the payment provider is late. Complaia checks again every fifteen minutes.	Refresh the Subscription screen after a few minutes. If nothing changes within fifteen minutes, contact support.
The details are incomplete. Stripe will ask for the missing fields at payment.	The company name, address or tax ID is missing.	Click Edit company details and complete them.
Seats you gave back are still there	Reductions take effect at the next renewal.	Nothing. They are paid for until then.

Permissions

To do this	You need
See Subscription in the menu, view the plan and download invoices	Subscription: Read
Choose or change a plan, buy or drop seats, cancel, resume, undo a change, choose who stays active	Subscription: Manage
Open the payment portal, Pay now, Change card	Subscription: Customer portal

The Owner can always do all of this. The Administrator role does not include the Subscription module at all. To let someone else handle billing, give them a custom role with these permissions. This does not make them an owner. See Roles & permissions.

Everyone, whatever their role, can see whether the subscription is active and how to reach the Owner. This is why the blocking screen can show the Owner's contact details to everybody.

Related

• Users — creating accounts, and blocking them to free seats
• Roles & permissions — giving someone billing rights
• Company details — the details printed on your Complaia invoices
• Support — where an Enterprise inquiry also appears
• Invoicing — the invoices you issue to your own customers (not the invoices for Complaia)
• Glossary — seat and owner in one place