KB240071859: Esko Cloud - Purchasing and Billing FAQ

The basics

What is Share & Approve?

Share & Approve is a cloud-based application hosted by Esko to upload, share, annotate and approve files.

It is only available in the subscription form (yearly plan and paid per year).

What is Esko Cloud?

Esko Cloud is a new set of applications that are hosted online by Esko.

You do not need to download and install these applications, you can use them anytime anywhere by logging onto Esko Cloud platform.

What is my Esko Cloud Account?

An Esko Cloud Account is required to access your Share & Approve application. It is the unique identifier of your Share & Approve application on the cloud.

All your files, user data and subscriptions are linked to your Esko Cloud Account.

For every Esko Cloud Account, you will have one order, with one billing and renewal cycle (one yearly invoice).

You can find your Esko Cloud Account Number and Esko Cloud Account Name in all emails from Esko and on My Account.

If you want, you can create multiple Esko Cloud Accounts, each with their own files, users and subscriptions.

Where is my Esko Cloud Account hosted and my data stored?

Esko Cloud accounts are hosted on servers in Amazon AWS. Depending on your location, your data is stored in:

• Oregon (US) for locations in North America and Latin America.
• Frankfurt (Germany) for all other locations.

How do I create my Esko Cloud Account?

You have two options to create an Esko Cloud account:

1. During trial:
   After you choose to try the application, you will be requested to sign in via your Esko ID and taken to the Esko Cloud page. There you can create the cloud account with a specific name of your choice.
2. During purchase:
   In the checkout page, you will be requested to link your order to an existing cloud account that you created during trial or you can provide a name to create a new cloud account. Your cloud account will be created as soon as you complete the purchase.

What is an Esko ID?

Esko ID is the one account that gives you access to all Esko services.

You can find more information here: 

• Page:
  KB93520328: What is Esko ID and why should I get one

About trials

Can I try Share & Approve for free before I purchase it?

Yes! We offer free access to a fully functional Share & Approve site for 30 days. We don't need your credit card information, and we won't charge you automatically after 30 days.

You can start your free 30-day trial here!

Included in the trial:

• 1 website that you can customize according to your branding.
• Unlimited number of uploads and approvals.
• Share files with users with or without Esko IDs.
• 5GB of storage.

Can I convert my trial into a subscription?

Yes! If the trial has convinced you of the benefits of Share & Approve, you can easily convert it to a subscription and continue working:

1. Click here, add the desired pack to your cart.
2. Select the Esko Cloud Account that you've created for your trial and complete your billing details.
3. You will get an email that the first subscription period has started, with a link to convert your trial website to a subscribed site.
4. Select your trial website and confirm.

If you don't want to keep your trial data, you can also create a new Esko Cloud Account during the checkout process.

Can I extend the trial period?

Trials are limited to 30 days. But after this, you can get a Starter Pack at a low entry price.

About purchasing and billing

How will I be billed?

Share & Approve is available with a yearly subscription with yearly payment, there are no setup or training fees. You can pay via credit card or via invoice.

You can start with the Starter Pack, which contains:

• 1 Power User subscription
• 1 website
• 100 transactions per month
• 50 GB storage free

Or you can customize your subscription:

• Power Users: Colleagues that manage your Share & Approve website(s), you always need at least one.
• Websites: You can create multiple websites with different branding and a different configuration according to your customer's needs, also one is required.
• Automation Engine connections: You can connect multiple Automation Engine instances when you would want to automate your approval cycles to Automation Engine.
• Transactions: You can select the tier of transactions per month, and upgrade or downgrade at a later stage to a higher or lower transaction tier.
• Storage: You can select your storage tier (available data storage - min 50 GB) and you can upgrade at a later stage to a higher tier.

Can I change components of my subscription (such as users, transactions, etc) during the year?

Yes you can. You can always add more users, websites, connections or upgrade your transactions or storage during the year:

1. Go to My Account > Subscription Orders and click Manage on the order that you want to adapt.
2. Select the components (users, transactions, etc) that you want to increase.
3. Choose actions: Add seats/licenses or Upgrade to higher tier and Confirm.
4. You will receive a confirmation email, and the additional elements will become available immediately.

We'll charge you pro-rata for the remainder of the contract period.

If any specific option (such as Automation Engine connection) is not available online, you can contact your local sales and we will change your subscription accordingly.

What are transactions and how are they counted?

Every time someone uploads a file or approves or rejects a file, it is counted as a transaction. Viewing and downloading files are not counted as transactions, any user having access to the system can do this without limitation (for the files or folders they have been given access to).

When you upload new version of a file, it is also counted as a new transaction. Similarly, if, as part of an approval cycle, multiple individuals are required to approve the file, these will be counted as separate transactions too.

What happens if I consume more than what I purchased?

Transaction usage is not evaluated on a monthly basis. Unused transactions are transferred to the next month, and overuse is only checked on a yearly basis, at the time of renewal of your contract. The amount of transactions actually used is then compared with the amount of transactions purchased, and any overuse will be charged at the same per-unit price as your current transaction tier.

At any time, as an administrator, you can monitor your actual usage on your Esko Cloud Account > Setup > My transactions. 

Example

• You have a subscription for 500 transactions per month, so 6000 transactions for the full year.
• During the year, you have used 6138 transactions (during Summer you have used less transactions, and the other months you've used more than your monthly allowance).
• At the end of the year you will receive an overuse invoice for 138 transactions, at the same price as your other 6000 transactions.

If you're already reaching your limit during the year, you can also consider upgrading to a higher transaction tier (which comes at a lower unit price).

About users

Do my users need to log in to use Share & Approve?

No, that is not needed. You can choose how your users work:

• Share links with people, so they can view the document and approve it without logging in, these users also do not need an Esko ID.
• Invite users and give them access to (parts of) the environment, so they can login to the system with their Esko ID, see their files, their approval history, view their files, download, etc...

What can the different users do?

Function	Users without Esko ID (access upon email invitation only)	Users with an Esko ID	Users with an Esko ID and Power User subscription
View files (incl 3D Viewer)
Approve/reject files	*	*	*
Download files
Upload files		*	*
Share files or start approvals
Create and share folders
Create and manage users and user access
Create and manage partners
Create Share & Approve site (incl branding)
Create Automation Engine connection
Create and manage groups and locations

Actions indicated with an "*" are counted towards the transaction allowance.

How do I manage my Share & Approve subscription?

• When you start a trial for a Share & Approve or buy a subscription and create a new Esko Cloud Account, you also become the administrator of your Esko Cloud Account. If you convert your trial to a purchase, you will also get the Power User subscription.

About cancelling

How do I cancel my subscription?

You can always cancel your subscription. Simply go to My Account.

• Click Software Subscription Orders.
• In Manage drop-down, there is Cancel button.
• You can click Cancel and you will be taken to the details of your order.
• Here, you may select the particular components that you want to cancel or select all if you want to cancel the complete order.
• Complete the process by clicking Next.

You will receive a cancellation confirmation email. Your subscription will remain valid until the end of the contract term, but will not renew.

We do not provide refunds.

The subscription for Share & Approve is for a yearly plan, can I cancel after a couple of months?

No, when you cancel your subscription during the year, it will stay active for the remaining period and you will still be charged for the remaining period. When the year is finished, your subscription will stop.

How does renewal work? What is Auto-Renew?

Unless cancelled, subscriptions are renewed automatically at the end of your plan.

When a renewal is due:

• Your credit card will be charged, if you paid via credit card.
• You will receive the next invoice, if you paid via wire transfer.

We cannot switch this off; it is industry standard. You don't have to worry that you might forget to cancel, we will warn you upfront when a renewal is due.

What happens with my data after I've cancelled?

Your data will remain available until 30 days after the contract end date. During this period, you will still have access to the system to download all your files.

More Information

Check our online course (http://signin.esko.com/Customer/Login?returnurl=https://learning.esko.com/course/view.php?id=58) for more detailed information on how to use Esko Cloud.