Seats & add-ons
How you buy, use and give back extra store and staff seats.
If you need more stores or staff than your plan includes, you buy extra seats. You pay for a seat first. A new store or staff member then uses it. When you no longer need it, you give it back.
Who can do this: the Administrator buys and releases seats on Billing. Only the Administrator can create stores and invite staff, and both use seats.
How many seats you have#
Free seats = seats included in your plan + seats you bought, minus seats in use.
The Add-ons panel on the Billing page shows this for stores and for staff. Each has a meter with included in your plan, bought as seats, in use and free.
Buying a seat#
- On Billing, in the Add-ons panel, press Buy a seat.
- Choose how many seats. Under What you'll pay, the box shows what you pay today. You pay only for the days left in your current billing period.
- Press Buy 1 seat. The box then shows What you were charged.
From your next invoice, each seat costs the plan's monthly seat price.
If the price for today cannot be worked out, the box says so. It never shows zero as a guess.
Using a seat#
- Creating a store uses a free seat. If you have none, the Create store button opens a box with Buy a seat. Buy one, and the store form opens straight after.
- Inviting staff is free. The seat is used when the person accepts the invitation. If no seat is free then, they cannot join yet. Their link keeps working until a seat is free.
- Turning a store or staff member back on uses a seat too. If none is free, it stays off until you buy or free one.
Freeing a seat#
Disabling or deleting a store or a staff member frees its seat straight away. You can use the seat for something else at once.
Releasing a seat (lowering your bill)#
- On Billing, in the Add-ons panel, press Release a seat.
- Set the number with One fewer and One more. The box shows how many seats you will have after the release.
- Press Schedule release.
The release happens at the end of the period you have already paid for. Nothing changes before then, and there is no refund. If you start using those seats again before the date, the release is cancelled and nothing changes.
To release seats now instead, use Release now instead and tick "I understand this cannot be undone and nothing is refunded." The seats go straight away. Buying them back later is charged again.
You cannot release seats that are in use. When every seat you bought is in use, Release a seat is turned off. Its hint says: "Every seat you have bought is in use. Disable a store or staff member first."
Behind the scenes#
- Annual plans: extra seats are still billed monthly, on a separate monthly charge. This is also why you cannot switch from annual to monthly while you pay for extra seats.
- If a seat payment fails: a warning appears on Billing: "Your add-ons are unpaid". Your plan is not restricted. If the payment is still not made by the date shown, the extra stores and staff are archived. The app says: "Nothing is deleted, and they come back when the add-ons are paid."
- Plans that do not sell seats: the free plan sells no extra seats. When you reach its limit, the create button changes to an upgrade button.