Your plan, SMS bundle and billing

Settings → Plan & billing is where the owner chooses the plan, picks how many texts it includes each month, and manages the card and invoices. Paying, invoices and cancelling go through Stripe, on FullColumn's own account (separate from any Stripe account you connect for your clients' payments).

#Who can manage the plan and billing

Plan & billing needs the permission "See and change the FullColumn plan, SMS bundle and billing". Owners have it; managers don't unless an owner gives it to them. Everyone else only sees the banner across the top of the staff app when the trial or plan has ended. FullColumn support never has this permission.

#How the FullColumn plan is priced

There's one plan, with every feature included. What you pay each month depends on:

• Team members with a column on the calendar: everyone with Takes appointments turned on. Reception and admin logins without a column are free, and you never pay for more than 10 team members.
• Your monthly texts: a bundle of texts you choose. The more you choose, the less each one costs.

Both go down a sliding scale, and the current prices are on the pricing page. Prices are in Australian dollars, and GST is added for Australian salons. Texts beyond your bundle cost 10c each, plus GST. Texts you don't use don't carry over to the next month. A text is up to 160 characters; longer ones, and ones with emoji, use more: see how texts and emails are sent.

#Your plan's status

The Your plan section shows where your plan stands:

#Choosing your plan

1. Open Settings → Plan & billing.
2. Check your team members and your monthly texts on the same page, and save any change.
3. Choose Choose your plan. Stripe's secure checkout opens.
4. Enter your card details and confirm.

You come back to Plan & billing with "Thanks! Your plan is being set up", and it updates within a few seconds. During the free trial, nothing is charged until the trial ends. After the trial has ended, the first month is charged straight away and the salon is unlocked.

If FullColumn has given you a discount, Plan & billing says "A discount from FullColumn is waiting for you", and it's applied when you choose your plan. You need at least one team member with a column on the calendar, or some monthly texts, to choose a plan.

#Team members on your plan

The Team members section shows how many team members are on the calendar. You don't set it: it updates by itself when you add someone, remove them, or turn Takes appointments on or off. Changes during the month are charged or credited for the days left, on your next bill. Team & roster takes you to your team: see adding team members.

#Choosing your monthly texts (SMS bundle)

The Texts and price section has a price calculator:

1. Under Texts a month, use − and +, the slider, or type a number. Bundles go in steps of 50. The page suggests a bundle for your team's size, and Use (with the suggested number) chooses it.
2. Check the monthly price and how it's made up underneath.
3. Choose Save.

When you'll get the new bundle:

• More texts apply straight away, and you're charged the difference for the rest of the month on your next bill. On the free trial, they apply from your first paid month.
• Fewer texts apply from your next month. You keep this month's texts.

Texts your clients get from you (reminders, confirmations, campaigns) all come out of the same bundle. See how texts and emails are sent.

#Limiting what extra texts cost

Limit what extra texts can cost each month caps what you spend on texts beyond your bundle. Every salon starts with a limit of $50.

• Once the month's extra texts reach the limit, campaigns and automatic marketing stop until next month.
• Appointment confirmations, reminders and form links always go, even past the limit.
• Set the limit to 0 for no extra texts on marketing at all, or turn the switch off for no limit.

A new limit applies straight away. Choose Save after changing it.

#Texts used this month

Texts this month shows how many texts you've used of your bundle, and how many are left, since your billing month started. During the free trial it counts the trial's 50 texts in total.

• Once you've gone over your bundle, it shows how many extra texts you've sent so far and what they'll add to your next bill.
• Free texts from FullColumn, if you've been given any, are added to your bundle for that month.
• If FullColumn has paused your marketing texts, it says so here: campaigns, automatic marketing and feedback requests don't go by text, but appointment texts do.

Extra texts are added to your next bill, or to a final bill when your plan ends. Now and then a text is counted after its month's bill was made: if it takes that month past its bundle, it's added to the next bill instead, on a line of its own for that month.

#Changing your card, downloading invoices and cancelling

Once you've chosen a plan, Manage billing opens Stripe, where you can:

• change the card you pay with,
• see and download your invoices (tax invoices, with GST for Australian salons),
• cancel your plan.

Your plan is billed monthly, in advance, to that card.

#When a payment fails

If Stripe can't take a payment, your salon keeps working while Stripe tries again over the next few days. The status shows Payment failed, and a banner asks whoever manages billing to update their card. Choose Manage billing and update it.

If Stripe still can't take the payment, your salon becomes read only ("Payments are overdue"). Choose Manage billing, then pay the overdue invoice or update your card, and everything carries on.

#Cancelling your plan

1. In Settings → Plan & billing, choose Manage billing.
2. Cancel your plan in Stripe.

Your plan runs to the end of the month you've paid for. Until then, Plan & billing says "Your plan is set to end on (date)". To keep it after all, choose Manage billing and renew it.

When the plan ends, your salon becomes read only, with the status Cancelled. Download your data first if you're leaving: see downloading everything. To start again, choose Choose your plan. 90 days after the plan ends, FullColumn deletes your salon's data: see when your salon's data is deleted.

#What happens when your salon is read only

A salon is read only when its free trial ended without a plan, when payments are overdue, or when its plan has ended. Then:

• Everyone can still sign in, look things up and export. The owner can download everything.
• Nothing can be changed. Trying to says the salon is read-only, and to sort out the plan in Settings → Plan & billing.
• No messages go: no confirmations, reminders or marketing. Only emails to choose a password still go, so the team can always get back in, and FullColumn's emails before your salon's data is deleted.
• Your booking page shows online booking as paused, with your phone number, and clients can't change their bookings online.
• A few things still work, so nobody's left out of pocket: declining online booking requests, refunding clients' account credit and card payments, removing shared devices, and letting FullColumn support in.

Choosing a plan (or paying the overdue invoice) unlocks everything straight away. Messages that waited more than a day while the salon was read only aren't sent late: they show as not sent in the message log, where you can send them again if they're still needed.

#When your salon's data is deleted

When your free trial ends without a plan, or your plan ends, FullColumn keeps your salon's data for 90 days, so you can download it or come back. Then it's deleted for good: clients, appointments, sales, messages, forms and photos. It can't be brought back after that.

• The banner across the top of the staff app says the day it will be deleted.
• Everyone who can choose the plan or download everything gets an email 30 days before, and again 7 days before. It's never deleted sooner than 7 days after the last email.
• Choose a plan before then and nothing is deleted.
• To keep a copy, download everything before that day.

A salon that's read only because payments are overdue keeps its data until its plan ends. To have your salon's data deleted sooner, an owner can ask FullColumn support.

#Common questions

#Do reception staff count towards my plan?

No. Only team members with Takes appointments turned on (a column on the calendar) count. Reception and admin logins without a column are free.

#Can I get a refund for part of a month?

Cancelling stops the plan at the end of the month you've paid for, and part months aren't refunded except where the law says they must be. See the Terms of Service.

#How do I delete my salon's data?

Cancel your plan, and FullColumn deletes your salon's data 90 days after it ends, emailing you before it does (see when your salon's data is deleted). To have it deleted sooner, an owner can ask FullColumn support once the plan has ended. Download everything first if you'd like a copy.

#Why can't I see Plan & billing?

It needs "See and change the FullColumn plan, SMS bundle and billing", which only owners have to start with. Ask your salon's owner.

#Why does my bill have extra texts "counted late"?

Now and then a text is counted after its month's bill was made (say, when counting it was held up). When that month's extra texts were already billed, any counted since are added to your next bill on a line of their own marked "counted late", which names the month and how many were billed before. Nothing is billed twice. If your plan has ended, they come on a bill of their own, to the same card.

#What happens to texts I don't use?

They don't carry over. Each month starts with your bundle again.

#I'm a manager and the banner says the plan has ended

Only someone who can manage billing can choose a plan. The banner says "Ask the salon owner to sort out the plan".