Upgrading, downgrading & managing billing
Your plan controls how much you can do in the app: how many team members and clients you can have, how many documents and emails you can send each month, and whether you get online payment links, automation, and custom branding. This guide shows you where to see your current plan and usage, how to upgrade or downgrade, and how billing works.
Finding the Plan & billing page
Everything to do with your subscription lives on the Plan & billing page. Open it from the main Settings page, where the Plan card at the top shows your current plan as a badge. Owners see a Manage plan button there; everyone else sees View plan, which opens the same page in read-only form.
The Plan & billing page has two parts. At the top is a card for your current plan: its name, the monthly price (or No charge on Free), and four usage meters. Below that is a Plans card with a side-by-side comparison of all four tiers, each with an Upgrade or Downgrade button.
- Go to Settings in the sidebar.
- On the Plan card, click Manage plan (owners) or View plan (admins and members).
- You land on the Plan & billing page with your current plan, usage, and the plan comparison.
Reading your usage meters
The current-plan card shows four meters so you can see how close you are to your limits at a glance: Team members, Clients, Documents this month, and Emails this month. Each meter shows how much you've used against the limit, and the bar turns amber as you approach the limit and red once you hit it. An unlimited allowance shows just the number used with a soft full-width bar and no cap.
The document and email meters reset at the start of each calendar month. Note that the document counter only ever counts up within a month, so deleting or voiding a document doesn't free up room against that month's allowance.
- Team members and Clients are running totals for your whole workspace.
- Documents this month and Emails this month reset monthly.
- If your plan's status isn't active, a small status badge (for example past_due) appears next to the plan name.
The plans at a glance
The comparison table lists all four tiers with their monthly price and what each includes. Your current plan is highlighted and marked Current. Prices shown are in your workspace's display currency.
- Free — $0: 1 team member, up to 3 clients, 5 documents/month, no email sending, no payment links, no automation, no custom branding.
- Starter — $12/mo: 2 team members, unlimited clients and documents, 100 emails/month, online payment links, custom branding.
- Pro — $29/mo: 5 team members, unlimited clients and documents, 1,000 emails/month, payment links, reminders & automation, custom branding.
- Business — $79/mo: unlimited team members, clients, documents and emails, plus all features.
- Automation (on Pro and Business) covers overdue reminders, scheduled sends, recurring invoices, and quote auto-convert. Custom branding adds your logo to PDFs and removes the Platybooks footer.
Upgrading or downgrading (owner only)
Only the workspace owner can change the plan. Admins and members can view the page and see the comparison, but the Upgrade and Downgrade buttons are disabled for them with a note that only the owner can change the plan.
Upgrading is straightforward: pick the higher plan and complete checkout (see below). Downgrading is checked first — the app looks at whether your current team members and clients fit inside the lower plan's limits before letting you switch. If you're over a limit, the switch is blocked and you'll see a message telling you what to reduce, for example which counts are over and by how much. Trim your team or clients down to fit, then try again. Moving down to a paid plan still runs you through checkout for the new plan; moving all the way to Free cancels your paid subscription instead.
- Sign in as the workspace owner.
- On the Plan & billing page, find the plan you want in the comparison table.
- Click Upgrade (for a higher plan) or Downgrade (for a lower one).
- For an upgrade or a move to another paid plan, finish in checkout.
- For a move to Free, the change applies immediately once your usage fits the Free limits.
The checkout flow (currently test mode)
By default the app runs billing on a test gateway, so no real card is charged. When you upgrade (or downgrade to a paid plan), you're taken to a hosted checkout page that clearly shows a Test mode — no real payment is taken banner, the plan you're subscribing to, your workspace name, and the monthly price.
The card fields are shown for realism but disabled. Click the Subscribe button to complete the change, or use Simulate failure to see how a declined payment behaves. On success you're returned to the Plan & billing page, it confirms with a Plan updated message, and your new limits and features take effect right away. When a real payment provider is switched on later, this same Upgrade button instead sends you to the provider's own secure hosted checkout to enter card details.
- Click Upgrade on the plan you want.
- Review the plan, workspace, and price on the checkout page.
- Click Subscribe to confirm (or Simulate failure to test a decline).
- You're returned to Plan & billing with your new plan active.
Managing your card, switching, or cancelling
How you manage card details and cancellation depends on the active billing provider. On the default test setup, you change or cancel your plan directly from the Plan & billing comparison table — Upgrade and Downgrade handle switching tiers, and downgrading all the way to Free cancels your paid subscription (subject to the same over-limit check described above).
Once the workspace is connected to a live card provider, a Manage billing button appears on the current-plan card for the owner only. It opens the provider's hosted customer portal in the same tab, where you can update your card, switch plans, or cancel. If you don't see a Manage billing button, your workspace is still on the test gateway and you manage everything from the comparison table.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I see the Upgrade, Downgrade, or Manage billing buttons?
Plan changes are owner-only. Admins and members can open Plan & billing and see usage and the comparison, but the plan-change buttons are disabled for them. The Manage billing button only appears for the owner, and only once the workspace is connected to a live card provider — on the default test gateway you change plans from the comparison table instead.
I tried to downgrade and it wouldn't let me. Why?
Downgrading is blocked if your current usage wouldn't fit the lower plan's limits — specifically your number of team members or clients. The app shows a message telling you what's over and by how much. Remove enough team members or clients to fit the lower plan, then try the downgrade again.
Will I be charged a real card right now?
Not by default. The app currently runs billing on a test gateway, and the checkout page is clearly marked Test mode — no real payment is taken. Your plan still changes and your limits and features update normally; it just doesn't take money. Real card charging applies only once a live payment provider has been switched on for the workspace.
When do my new limits take effect after I change plans?
Immediately. After a successful checkout (or after a move to Free), the page refreshes your entitlements and confirms with a Plan updated message, so your new team, client, document, email, and feature limits apply right away. The monthly document and email counters continue counting within the current calendar month and reset at the start of the next one.
Ready to put this into practice?
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