◫Licence and billing

The licence key is a signed text from which your instance reads the scope and term of your contract: which customer it applies to, which plan, which quantities are included, when it was issued and when it expires.

The Overview has its own tile for this; it shows the plan and the remaining term in plain language, and during the trial also the days left. You normally never have to touch the key itself — it is stored during setup and renewed automatically after that.

For Aurora Hive Sales there are three, plus the free trial:

• Start — the core for small teams: contacts, companies, campaigns, templates, inbox, tasks, opportunities, opportunity search, visibility.
• Agency — in addition, the areas that go beyond the core, including contracts and website building. Plus larger quantities.
• Agency Plus — the largest quantities, with no limit on users and sender mailboxes.

Aurora Hive Sites has its own tiers (Club, Basic, Plus and the agency tiers); Aurora Hive Live is billed per domain.

Each plan differs in two respects: which areas are included and how large the quantities are — user accounts, sender mailboxes, emails per month, research queries, website checks.

What applies to you is determined solely by the key on file. You can see the figures in your plan on the Overview under “The quotas in your plan”.

In two stages, and never all at once:

1. From the expiry date: sending and AI pause. Everything else carries on — you can sign in, read, search, edit, export.
2. After a 14-day grace period: the instance goes into read-only mode. Even then, sign-in, data access requests, export and unsubscribing always remain available.

There is one exception for the trial: there is no grace period there. After the last trial day, the instance is immediately in read-only mode.

Nothing is deleted, and nothing that gives you access to your own data is blocked. That is intentional: software that uses customer data as leverage would not stand up in a dispute, and we would not have wanted to build it.

As a rule, not by you at all. Your instance checks in with the licence server at regular intervals and fetches the renewed key there — as soon as the contract has been extended, this takes effect without you doing anything.

One exception: if the sync does not get through for a longer period, you can enter a key that has been sent to you yourself — the more recent of the two wins, so a manually entered key takes effect immediately.

The same applies if you have topped up a quota: the instance fetches the extended key at the next sync, usually just moments after the booking.

During the sync, the status of the licence goes back and forth: which instance is checking in, whether its key is still valid, and which version of the software it is running.

What is not transmitted: no contacts, no mail content, no candidates, no documents, no user names. The sync knows nothing about your work, only that your installation exists and whether it is licensed.

If you send an error report via the “Report a problem” button, that is something else: your description, the page and technical details about the operation go with it — visible to you before you send it.

You get a complete instance of your own for 14 days — not a demo account with functions switched off, but the same software you will work with later, under your own address and with your own data.

A counter runs at the top of the header: “Trial: x days left”. It appears on every page, so that nobody misses the end.

During the trial, smaller quantities apply than in the plans — among other things an upper limit on recipients per send. It is there so that a trial instance does not accidentally become a mass-mailing machine; the number is shown on the Overview under “The quotas in your plan”.

After the last trial day, the instance switches to read-only mode: viewing, searching and exporting continue, saving and sending do not. The header says so and tells you how to take it over.

If you take it over, the same instance with the same data carries on — you do not start from scratch, and there is no interruption.

Nothing happens silently, and nothing happens immediately.

The procedure:

1. After the last trial day, the instance is in read-only mode. It continues to exist; you can access all your data and take it out.
2. After about two months you receive a notice in text form that the instance is to be taken down.
3. It is only taken down after that — and only if a person explicitly triggers it. There is no automatic process that deletes an instance.

If you want to take your data with you, do it at your leisure: contacts, companies and opportunities as CSV, reports and contracts as PDF. Ask if you need a complete copy — that is provided for too.

AI analyses run via a paid service; billing is based on actual usage, not a flat rate per click.

So that this does not come as a surprise, there are three safeguards:

• Before the click, chargeable runs show the maximum that can be incurred.
• On the Overview, the running total for this month is shown.
• Where a budget is set, the run stops before it is exceeded.

What a single run actually costs depends on the amount of text — a cover letter is a fraction of a cent, a full CV with an assessment considerably more.

Yes. In Customer management, a monthly budget can be set for each instance. Once it is reached, chargeable runs are refused instead of carried out — all other work continues unaffected.

That is the right order: budget first, then the first large research run. A budget set after the expensive run only helps next time.

For search volume and backlinks in the Visibility area, a separate monthly limit applies: the Data queries. Its size depends on the plan. In the instance itself, it can only be set lower, not higher, under the Visibility settings.

Invoices come from your provider’s accounts department and not from the program — Aurora Hive Sales only prepares the billing.

For this, the vendor side has a Billing preview in Customer management: it shows for each customer what has accumulated in the period and provides a file for the invoicing program. As a customer, you receive the finished invoice in the agreed way.

There are three possible reasons, to be checked in this order:

1. Your plan. Areas that are not included in it are not available. Contracts and website building, for example, are included from Agency upwards.
2. The selection for your instance. Even within a plan, whatever you do not need can be switched off — a menu with twenty unused items helps nobody.
3. Your role. Some areas are only visible to administrators.

Your administrator knows which of these applies. If you want to add an area, this is done via your contact person; after booking, it appears at the next sync.

Yes. Each instance has its own database, own address, own users and own licence; they cannot see each other, even if they run on the same server.

This is the usual route when two parts of a company are to work separately or when one area is subject to stricter rules. A further instance is created via Customer management.

Cancellation goes through your contract, not via a button in the program — there is none, and that is deliberate: an accidentally clicked cancellation would be expensive.

After the end, the same staged model applies as on expiry: first sending pauses, after 14 days the instance becomes read-only. You take your data out during this time; that is expressly provided for and is not obstructed.

What applies to you is set out in your quotation or contract. This help deliberately contains no figures: they would be wrong on the day of the first adjustment, and the price depends on the plan, the number of users and what you book in addition.

What you will find here is the explanation of what costs can arise for:

• The plan — the monthly base price.
• Top-ups — additional user accounts, sender mailboxes, websites, storage and quotas. They exist for practically every quantity; which ones you need and what they cost is in your quotation.
• Usage — AI analyses and paid research queries run via the quotas of your plan.

Questions about prices are answered by your contact person, not by this page.

Everyone who sees the Overview — the tile is there next to system status and mailbox.

That is intentional: an expiring licence affects everyone who works with the system and should not only be noticed when sending has stopped. Who can change it is a different question — that goes through the provider.

Allow two weeks, not two days. The tile shows the remaining term; as soon as it shows a single-digit number of days, the subject belongs on the table.

This is not about the technology — a new key takes effect immediately — but about the process around it: quotation, approval, order. In most organisations that takes longer than everything else.

Sign-in, data access requests, export and unsubscribing always remain available — even after the grace period has ended.

In practice this means: you can get at all your data, view it and take it out, and recipients can still unsubscribe. What is suspended is everything outgoing: sending and AI.

This split has been built in deliberately. Software that blocks access to your own data in a dispute would not stand up.

Three things, because nothing restarts by itself:

1. The tile on the Overview — does it show the new term?
2. The campaigns — paused ones do not continue by themselves. Check and resume them.
3. The automations, if you use any (applications, research).

Point 2 is the one people overlook: sending then remains suspended, even though the licence has long been valid again.

Yes. Each plan includes a number of user accounts, and it is counted.

Once it is reached, no further account can be created — and the same applies to three routes you do not think of at first: reactivating a deactivated account, redeeming an open invitation and creating an account via the setup. Open invitations do not take up a place yet; only whoever redeems them counts.

The message tells you the way forward: every further account can be added by booking it. After the booking, the instance fetches the extended key, usually immediately.

How many accounts you have, and how many of them have never signed in, is shown by the user list on the Overview. It is worth a look before booking more: an account that has never been used is the cheapest place you can find.

On the Overview, in the section “The quotas in your plan”. For each quantity it shows how much has been used and how much is included — as x of y.

Included are, among other things:

• User accounts — how many people may work with the system.
• Sender mailboxes — from how many addresses you may send.
• Emails this month.
• Websites.
• During the trial, additionally the recipients per send.

Right next to them are the usage-based counters: Research queries, Website checks, AI measurements, Data queries and AI usage.

Take a look there once a month. A limit you see coming is a phone call; a limit you run into is a lost working day.

The operation concerned is refused, with a message saying which quantity is used up. Everything else continues to work normally — a used-up research quota does not stop a campaign.

You then have three options:

1. Wait. The usage-based counters start again from zero on the first of the month.
2. Top up. There is a top-up for practically every quantity — additional user accounts, sender mailboxes, emails, research queries, website checks, storage, websites. Some apply permanently (monthly), some only for the current month. What that costs is in your quotation, not in this help.
3. Change plan. If you regularly have to top up, the next tier is almost always cheaper. Your contact person will tell you when it starts to pay off.

Bookings go through your contact person. Your instance then fetches the extended key — with Aurora Hive Sales usually immediately, with Aurora Hive Sites at the latest at the next daily sync.

A note on topped-up emails: they are valid until the end of the month and lapse after that. On the Overview this is stated explicitly under “Emails this month”.