Upgrading Plans and Student Seats
PRELUDE to SOLO or ENSEMBLE
When you are done experimenting and assessing suitability for your use with the PRELUDE free trial it is easy to sign-up for a paid subscription. To do this simply select "Subscription" from the Admin Dashboard. There you will find a "Subscribe" button (in PRELUDE). Clicking on that will bring up the panel that shows the four Plans available to you; SOLO monthly or annual, and ENSEMBLE monthly or annual.
Choose the Plan you want, select the number of student seats you want, fill out the required information for payment. Note that you may choose when to begin the paid subscription--it defaults to immediately. Remember, you may increase the number of student seats later.
Then "Checkout". Your credit card will be charged, or, if you have chosen an annual Plan and wish to pay by check, you will receive an invoice to which you can respond with a check within 30 days.
All information you placed or created in PRELUDE will then be available in your new Plan. Teachers and students created in PRELUDE will be inactive, so that you can configure to your new Plan. (SOLO will permanently inactivate any Teacher-Admin created, and will restrict to one Teacher.)
ANNUAL VS MONTHLY
Monthly
We recommend monthly plans paid automatically by credit card, since they have the most flexibility. The subscription may be paused (billing is stopped) and resumed at any time. Student seats may be added or reduced at any time, and the cost is prorated during the month, adding or subtracting from the next automatic billing. The credit card information may be edited. A monthly invoice is e-mailed, informing the subscriber of pending charges. The monthly billing and automatic payment will continue indefinitely until paused, or the subscription is cancelled. When cancelled there is no refund given for days unused in the monthly period.
Annual
This plan is provided as a convenience for those who simply want to pay once a year, and for schools and other organizations that want annual billing for fiscal and budgetary control purposes. The one-time charge (which is equal to the monthly charge multiplied by 12) may be charged to a credit card immediately, or the pay-by-check option may be chosen and an invoice will be e-mailed immediately requiring payment within 30 days. In either case the subscription is active immediately and available for game playing. (If a check is delayed, every effort is made to not stop game-playing, and a grace period is given.)
With an annual plan there is no refund given. This means that student seats may be added at any time, but cannot be reduced during the annual period. If student seats are added, an invoice is created at the time of addition, prorated to the end of the annual period, and e-mailed. If more student seats are added later, again an invoice is created, prorated to the end of the annual period, and e-mailed. At the end of the annual period an invoice is created 30-days before the end of the period and the required payment is calculated based upon the number of student seats in place at that time (active or inactive status is irrelevant).
At the end of the annual period, if the number of student seats currently in place is acceptable, then no action is required other than automatic payment by credit card, or sending a check in response to the invoice. However, if a reduction in student seats is required, this must be done during the 30 days prior to the end of the annual period. This reduction does not affect the current period, only the invoice and set-up for the next annual period. [At the present time this change must be requested of customer service, since the member-managed utility is not yet installed.]
CHANGE SOLO to ENSEMBLE
If you need more students seats than 19 or more than one Teacher then an upgrade to ENSEMBLE is easily done. Select "Subscription" from the Admin Dashboard, then Billing and Payment, then Manage Billing. You are taken to the Stripe financial portal where you can select the ENSEMBLE Plan. Choose the number of student seats you want and enter the required information.
All information created or entered in the SOLO Plan will then be available in ENSEMBLE and active. There should be no interruption to your students. You may then proceed to configure ENSEMBLE to meet your needs.
The charge of the new amount to your credit card will take place immediately, or, if you have chosen an annual Plan and wish to pay by check, you will receive an invoice to which you can respond with a check within 30 days.
Student Seats Increase in Monthly or Annual Plans
In the SOLO or ENSEMBLE Monthly Plan, during any month the number of student seats may be increased in increments for SOLO of 1 up to 19 total seats. For ENSEMBLE in increments of 5 without limit. This is accomplished by selecting Dashboard/ Subscription/ Billing and Payment/ Manage Billing, which takes you to the Stripe financial portal where you select the number of student seats desired. Go to Update Plan/ Update Quantity. SAVE.
In Annual Plans student seats increases are accomplished from the Dashboard/ Subscription/ Add Seats. ONLY increases are allowed. As with monthly plans, the increased student seats are immediately available. A pro-ration of the additional cost to the end of the year will be automatically calculated and added to your account. An invoice will be created for the pro-rated charge and will be charged to your credit card, or if you have chosen to pay by check, you will receive an invoice to which you can respond with a check within 30 days.
Downgrading Plans and Student Seats
ENSEMBLE-monthly to SOLO-monthly
If you need to reduce the number of available student seats below 20, or no longer need multiple teachers for students less than 20, then a downgrade to SOLO is possible. This is accomplished through the Admin Dashboard/ Subscription/ Billing and Payment/ Manage Billing selection.
Choose the SOLO plan. Choose the number of student seats you want, edit the required payment information if needed, and SAVE.
The new plan goes into effect immediately. All students and teachers will be made inactive. You will need to re-activate those students you wish to occupy the now-reduced number of student seats. And only one Teacher can be active. Any Teacher Admin that may have been in place will be deactivated.
No records are lost, but student game-playing may be interrupted until they are re-activated.
Student Seats Decrease in Monthly Plans
In the SOLO Monthly Plan any month the number of student seats may be decreased (to the minimum of 5). This is accomplished by selecting Dashboard/ Subscription/ Billing and Payment/ Manage Billing and reduce the seats in the Stripe financial portal. SAVE.
In the ENSEMBLE Montly Plan, during any month the number of student seats may be decreased in increments of 5 (to a minimum of 20). This is accomplished as with SOLO above. SAVE.
The total number of student seats you want will be immediately the limit. A pro-ration of the additional cost will be automatically calculated and credited to your account. At the next monthly charging of your account the new price, less the proration, will be charged.
All students will be inactive, if the new student seats limit is less than the number of currently active students, since the system does not know which students should be active. You will need to re-activate the ones you want. No records are lost, but student game-playing may be interrupted until they are re-activated.
