HelpAlive billing: free trial, packs, invoices and payments

Billing and usage is the page in the HelpAlive dashboard where you subscribe, see what you have used this month, buy more, and get your invoices. It is the third tab of Settings, at Settings → Billing and usage. Prices are shown on this page, “plus tax where it applies”, and at checkout. For what each plan includes and costs, see Plans and pricing.

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Billing at a glance

• A new workspace starts with a 7-day free trial. Your plan isn’t charged until the trial ends; packs you buy during it are charged at once.
• Your agent runs for your users only during your free trial or while you are subscribed.
• Packs add assists or chat messages. They are used only after your plan’s own amount runs out, and carry over while you stay subscribed.
• Change plan switches between Core and Scale, or monthly and yearly. Manage billing is where you change your card, see all your invoices and cancel.
• When a monthly payment fails, anything past your plan’s amount pauses at once. After 14 days, assists and chat stop.

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Free trial

A new workspace starts with a 7-day free trial. You add a card as the last step of sign-up, and nothing is charged that day.

• The trial includes 50 assists and 1,000 chat messages, on either plan. There is no overage: once those and any packs you bought are used, new ones stop until your plan starts.
• You can switch plans during the trial and keep the trial. The plan you have on the last day starts and is charged then.
• While the trial runs, the sidebar shows Free trial with the days left, such as “5 days left”, and what happens on the last day. It opens this page.
• We email you three days before the trial ends.
• When it ends, your plan starts and your card pays for it. To never pay for the plan, cancel under Manage billing before the trial ends.
• If you cancel, the trial runs to its last day and your plan is never charged. Until then, every page says “Your free trial ends on” that day, with Keep my plan. After it, your agent turns off for your users.
• If your card can’t be charged when the trial ends, your agent turns off for your users at once. Every page says “Your free trial has ended”, with Update card. Once the card is updated, your plan starts that day.
• Each workspace gets one trial.

If you leave sign-up at the card step, Finish later signs you out. The next time you sign in, the card step opens again: “Your workspace is ready. Add a card to start your free trial.”

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How to subscribe

If your workspace has no subscription, for example after one has ended, subscribe here. Your agent runs for your users only during your free trial or while you are subscribed. Until you subscribe, the band adds “Your agent turns on for your users once you subscribe.” Your dashboard, settings and data are kept either way.

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Your plan

The band at the top shows your plan, where your subscription stands, This period, with how far into it you are, and the Price, “plus tax where it applies”. During the free trial the band names the plan Free trial, shows Free trial in place of This period, gives the price as free “during the trial”, and says which plan starts on which day. The sentence under it says what the trial includes until it ends: “Extra packs are used only after the trial’s amount runs out.” Once you subscribe it shows the Next invoice with the card that pays it, and Manage billing. Change plan, on the band beside Manage billing, opens the plans, where you switch between Core and Scale, or between monthly and yearly. When your plan has ended, or you never subscribed, the button reads Choose a plan and opens the same screen, titled Choose your plan. See Changing plans for when a change starts and what it costs. Manage billing opens in a new tab. There you change your card, see all your invoices and cancel.

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Assists and Chat messages

One card for each, for this plan period:

• Used refers to how many your users have used.
• In your plan refers to what your plan includes.
• Extra this month refers to packs and anything carried over.
• Past the plan refers to how many more you allow on Controls under How far over your plan, or “stops at your plan’s limit”.

During the free trial, In your plan reads In your trial (“for the whole trial”) and Extra this month reads Extra in the trial. The Assists card also says: “Every assist starts from a chat message, so assists need chat messages left too.” While chat messages are used up, it warns instead: “No new assists can start while chat messages are used up: every assist starts from a chat message.” Under the bar, Daily caps explains: “The most that can be used in a day, so one busy person or tenant can’t use up your plan. Past a cap, nothing more is served or billed until usage drops back under it.” It shows Your organisation, Each tenant and Each person, each with its figure or No cap, and whether it is “the default” or “set by you”. Change caps on Controls opens Controls. The card also lists where each extra came from: Carried over from last month, Pack bought on a date, or Added by HelpAlive.

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Packs

A pack means a fixed number of assists or chat messages that you add to your plan.

• Packs can be bought only while you are subscribed, the free trial included. A pack bought in the trial is charged to your card at once, and what is left of it carries into your first paid month.
• They are charged to the card on file: $25 for 100 assists and $15 for 1,000 chat messages, plus tax where it applies.
• They are used only after your plan’s own amount runs out.
• They carry over to the next month while you stay subscribed, and end with your subscription.

If your bank wants to confirm the payment, the dialog says “Your bank wants to confirm this payment.” Nothing is charged until it does. If a pack’s payment is refunded, or a dispute over it is lost, the pack’s unused assists or chat messages are taken back. Ones already used stay used.

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Invoices and what you have paid

• Invoices lists your newest three, each with its Date, Amount and Status, and a PDF to download. All invoices in Manage billing opens the rest under Manage billing.
• What you have paid shows the last months and “A month, on average”.

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How to cancel

Open Manage billing and cancel there. The band then says, for example, “Cancelled: your plan won’t renew. It runs until 27 October, then your agent turns off for your users.” Unused packs end with the subscription; the page lists what is left. To keep them, turn cancellation off in the same place. A yearly plan runs to the end of the year you paid for, and the rest of the year is not refunded. When the subscription ends, your agent turns off for your users. Every page says “Your plan has ended”, with Subscribe. Subscribe again to turn it back on.

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A failed payment

When a monthly payment fails after your first paid month has started:

• At once, anything past your plan’s amount pauses. Everything your plan includes keeps running. Controls says “Overages are paused until your last payment goes through.”
• After 14 days of failing, or sooner if the payment is marked unpaid, assists and chat stop and the agent disappears for your users. It comes back as soon as the payment goes through.
• Every page of the dashboard shows a notice at the top: “Your last payment didn’t go through”, with the date to update your card by, and Update card. Once the agent has stopped, the notice says “Your assistant is paused”, and Home says Paused.
• On this page, the band says “Your last payment did not go through. We’ll try it again; update your card under Manage billing.”
• We email everyone on your team when the payment first fails, halfway through the 14 days, three days before the agent stops, and when it stops.

The charge at the end of your free trial has no 14 days: if it fails, the agent turns off at once and we email your team once. See Free trial. Update your card under Manage billing. The new card pays your plan from then on, and a payment that didn’t go through is charged to it at once. Your agent comes back for your users within seconds. Your renewal date stays the same, except after a free trial, when your plan starts on the day it is paid. Home also warns you when your card expires within 30 days, with Update card.

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Check it works

After you subscribe, the band says Subscribed. Renews on a date, and Invoices lists your first invoice.

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Troubleshooting

• “Extra assists and messages are for subscribers.” Subscribe first, then buy packs.
• “Add a card under Manage billing first.” This means that no card is on file. Add one under Manage billing.
• “Your card was declined. Update it under Manage billing, then try again.” Nothing was charged. Update your card and retry.
• “The payment did not go through. Try again: the same purchase is never charged twice.” Press the button again. You are charged once at most.
• “Billing is not set up yet. Contact us to change your plan.” This means that billing isn’t available for your workspace yet. Write to support@helpalive.com.
• “Checkout cancelled. Nothing was charged.” This means that you closed Checkout. Press Choose a plan again.

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