Appsheet Billing is unscrupulous

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
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I’m guesing this is not just me. I have 3 Appsheet accounts, one for each license type and about 20ish app in active use. When you increase the number of licenses, Appsheet gives you a rebate on the extra licenses that you haven’t used for that month. Why can it not also just bill you for the licenses you’ve ACTUALLY used? You know… like pretty much every other service I pay for

So for example, I set my account to pay for 20 licenses

  • If I use 20 then thats fine
  • If I set it to pay for 15 then Appsheet righty warns me
  • But if I only actually use 15 then Appsheet says nothing an quietly pockets the $25 or $50, depending on the account

The only ‘fix’ I can see is to go in at the end of each month. Set the number of licenses to 1. Wait for appsheet to come back with the actual number you’ve used. Then set that to the amount you want to buy. Doing this took 5mins and has just saved me $120ish.

This feels wrong. I’ve no issue paying for all the licenses I’ve used in a given month. But making me guess that figure feels a bit like “game theory” pricing to me. Where the aim is to extract as much cash as possible without the amount being linked to the service provided

9 Likes
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1minManager:

But if I only actually use 15 then Appsheet says nothing an quietly pockets the $25 or $50, depending on the account

Really? Has this changed?

I haven’t actually deployed any apps under my own accounts yet (well 1 for a non-profit) they’ve all been apps I co-authored. So I haven’t had to deal with this. But will be deploying some soon.

I remember reading somewhere that we pay only for the licenses used and began using that in my marketing information.

1 Like
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1minManager:

The only ‘fix’ I can see is to go in at the end of each month. Set the number of licenses to 1. Wait for appsheet to come back with the actual number you’ve used. Then set that to the amount you want to buy.

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WillowMobileSystems:

I remember reading somewhere that we pay only for the licenses used and began using that in my marketing information.

and thank you @1minManager for highlighting this point.
Based on it, I contracted my client on the same speech. Exactly as you do.
Now I have to be careful every month

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No I think this has been going on for years…

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Yeah, I’ve sort of got into the routine that everytime a client asks me to add or remove a user I also have to jump into Xero and change the monthly amount of licenses. PITA, but there isn’t an easier way…

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Escalated.

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https://www.appsheet.com/pricing/manageyourplan

“We never enroll you in a subscription plan, change your subscription plan, or automatically add charge based on app usage. Only you can change your subscription plan. That keeps you in control.”

“Subscription charges are pro-rated and applied to your next 30-day bill. If your plan change lowers your charge, then we will credit you with the appropriate amount.”

“Pay for what you need”
“Subscribe to the number of licenses you need. If app usage exceeds expectations, we’ll let you know so you can update your subscription.”

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1minManager:

If your plan change lowers your charge, then we will credit you with the appropriate amount.”

Yes! This is the part that I remember reading. Since we are (supposed to be) paying up front for the licenses, this approach would make sense. Credit back for un-used licenses in the following month.

From your experience, you are not getting this credit?

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no

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No. It seems if you used 20 licenses for 2.5 months (when you only need 15), then reduced it to 15 halfway into month 3, you’d get a credit of 0.5 months x 5.

So either $2.5 x 5 = $12.50.

Or $5 x 5 = $25.

What you wont get back is the 5 unused licenses in months 1 & 2

1 Like
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1minManager:

What you wont get back is the 5 unused licenses in months 1 & 2

Unless the billing process has changed, this has to be a billing issue - at least based on what you posted.

I see that @Steve escalated it so maybe it will get some attention or clarification!

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No credit given back. If I decrease the number of users in my plan, then I got a credit. It would be really great if they just charged for the highest number of actual users each month.

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I learned this lesson some time back, but I must say, it is any user’s responsibility, to ensure that they record and keep track of the number of licenses per month.

As I see it if one sets 20 licenses for any month (they are month2month use it or lose it subscriptions) then one will be charged for such usage. If one wishes to change then one will have to reduce the licenses to 15, as you correctly note.

The real problem is that is fine if all accounts start on the 1st of the month but when users add or remove licenses midstream it becomes difficult to track for both user and APPSHEET.

So you are saying you allocate 20 licenses but may only actually use 15 but then get charged for the 5 you did not use. As I see it that is not an APSHEET issue and it would require the APPSHEET billing system to track all user’s license usage. This is no different from booking airfare and not making the flight and it is a use it or loses it basis.

But what may be done is to say you wish to reserve a number of licenses (20) but wish to have a more convenient way of managing them then APPSHEET might implement a system whereby they provide a list of radio buttons one for each license with along with the start and end date and any user may, at any time select or deselect. When one selects it should note the starting date and renewal date as shown below

O license 1 Start Date 01-08-2021 Expiry Date 30-08-2021 O Auto/Manual Renewal
O license 2 Start Date 05-08-2021 Expiry Date 04-09-2021 O Auto/Manual Renewal

APPSHEET on the other hand could simply automatically expire each and every license after 30 days and remove the autorenewal function, making it a user’s sole responsibility to track and renew their license usage.

So what I have suggested is a very good compromise whereby users may readily keep track of their license usage and also have an autorenewal function.

The problem with all accounting is that they like to work and bill on the first of day of each calendar month and not have to track a portion use of a license. So if one starts mid-month with a licensed one should get 50% in the beginning month and 50% in the end month so one has to also consider matters from an APSHEET account tracking and usage perspective.

So if one starts mid-month and ends mid-month the next month does one get charged full rate usage for 2 months or 1 month from start to end or is it done pro-rata and then trying to reconcile license usage will be difficult.

So what I have suggested above will allow users to more readily track and control their license usage and also allow APPSHEET to more easily track billing but still retain the monthly use it or lose it whether any activated license is used or not, and which I agree is solely a user responsibility.

1 Like
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I agree.

For my usage it’s not so much a money issue to me as it is a moral issue. Having a billing plan made to prey on the forgetfulness or ignorance of users, is not a good long term strategy for building trust.

Appsheet may have stated it correctly somewhere, but I was also unaware of this for a long while, (before asking for support on it), as it wasn’t written in an easily understandable language. I genuinly thought that it was based on actual active users.

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Gregory_Diana:

As I see it that is not an APSHEET issue and it would require the APPSHEET billing system to track all user’s license usage

I supose my point here is Appsheet is already doing this. Since within minutes of reducing the bought number below the actual useage number you get a warning.

Gregory_Diana:

The problem with all accounting is that they like to work and bill on the first of day of each calendar month and not have to track a portion use of a license. So if one starts mid-month with a licensed one should get 50% in the beginning month and 50% in the end month so one has to also consider matters from an APSHEET account tracking and usage perspective.

For me, pro-rata-ing the invoices, to credit half a month for example, is kinda pointless as I doubt anyone here bills their client for anything other than a full month.

I really don’t see the point of choosing a number of licenses in the account section. When we have to manually add and remove users from each app.

The only logical reason I could see for setting a number of licenses in the Accounts section would be where you had other devs or even an client allow to access the definition for the purposes. So in theory, without the Accounts limit they could add 100+ users and you just have to pay the bill. But ATM if they did this, and you didn’t see the warnings, this would bring down all your apps. Which is obviously even worse.

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So the issue is if you have 10 users and 10 licenses and you remove 5 users then you want to be charged for only 5 in the next month.

As I suggested if in your account it did this

O User 1 (bob@gmail.com) APPName Start Date 01-08-2021 Expiry Date 30-08-2021

The point is to have one point where one can do all this. Currently, you must remove the user at an app level and then repeat at an account level.

What I have suggested above is that at an account level one may add/remove and activate any user at both license and app level. One may have a user using all apps for example?

What you are alluding to (I think) is that when you reduce users at an app-level below the license level than the license level, for that app should automatically reduce, come the next billing month.

I do not think it is rocket science to resolve and AS has quite a few propeller-heads

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1minManager:

“We never enroll you in a subscription plan, change your subscription plan, or automatically add charge based on app usage. Only you can change your subscription plan. That keeps you in control.”> > “Subscription charges are pro-rated and applied to your next 30-day bill. If your plan change lowers your charge, then we will credit you with the appropriate amount.”

At first I understood the pro-ration part as an automatic adjustment. But I now realize that it is the App Creators responsibility to adjust the plan. The pro-rated credit will be based on the month and DAY you change the plan.

So for example, if on August 15 you changed the plan from 30 licenses to 20 licenses. Your bill would adjust to pay for 30 licenses for the first 15 days and then for 20 licenses for the remainder of the month. Since you had already pre-paid for the month, you would get a credit back on 10 licenses for half of the month of August. Meaning, if the license are $10/each, the credit would be for approximately $50. Billing would continue at 20 licenses until the next change by the App Creator.

1 Like
19

Ahh well then it is clear that the App Creator must be able to have some record to confirm that it tallies with the billing

Not too much different from what I proposed.

I would like to see this done at the account level as suggested.

Funnily enough I use a similar system for managing cell phone SIMS and which allows individual SIM control management and rules

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Here we simply pay a bulk upfront amount and usage is tracked. Now with APPSHEET it is far simpler as usage is only determined by user licensing by the APP creator so it should be fairly easy to do as I understand the front end is also written using APPSHEET!

Also do not believe that the APPSHEET bean counters do not deliberately know this.

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Quick update on this. Despite being escalated by @Steve there has been no repsonse