Billing for free events

We’re trying this with a few teams first. If you’d like to know more, ask us in chat.

Free events are free for your participants. Inland charges your team $0.60 per participant for each hour they spend in your live room. That covers the live video, which is what costs us money when people gather.

It’s counted by the minute, so it works out to one cent per participant per minute. For example:

• 10 people for 30 minutes is 5 participant-hours: $3.00.
• 40 people for an hour is 40 participant-hours: $24.00.
• 100 people for 90 minutes is 150 participant-hours: $90.00.

Paid events work as they always have: Inland takes its share of each ticket and there’s nothing extra to pay. Replays are included and never charged.

Only participants. Hosts, everyone on your team and anyone from Inland are never counted.

• Someone with the room open in two tabs, or on a laptop and a phone, is counted once.
• Time counts from 15 minutes before the start until the room closes, so a tab left open overnight doesn’t add up.
• Someone who looks in for less than half a minute isn’t counted.

We read the time from our video provider’s records after each session ends. If those records are missing, we don’t charge you for that session.

Before you can publish a free event, a team admin adds a card or US bank account:

1. Open Settings and find Billing.
2. Click Add payment method. Stripe opens a secure page where you enter a card, or connect a US bank account.
3. When you’re done you come back to Settings, where you’ll see the card or bank and its last four digits, like Visa •4242.

To use a different one, click Replace payment method. If your bank account needs Stripe’s small test deposits to verify, Settings says so; it can take a day or two.

This is separate from payouts. Free events don’t need Stripe payouts set up, only a payment method.

Before you publish, the event form shows a Live video estimate beside Seats, worked out from your seats and session length.

After the event, open Past Events. The Live video column shows each free event’s total and where it stands, like $24.90, paid or $3.00, next charge. Click it to see the event’s usage: how many participants came, their time in the live room in participant-hours, the rate and the total, with a link to the receipt or invoice.

It says Counting for about half an hour after the event ends, while we read the room’s records.

Every charge and invoice is listed under History in Settings → Billing.

We charge your payment method after each event, once the session’s records are in (usually within half an hour of the end).

• If an event comes to less than $5.00, it’s added to your next charge instead, so you don’t get a string of tiny charges.
• At the end of each month we charge whatever is still waiting.
• If that’s under $0.50 (Stripe’s smallest charge), we waive it. It isn’t carried over.

After each charge, your team’s admins get a receipt by email: each event, how many participants came, their participant-hours, the rate, the total and the card or bank it was charged to, with a link to Stripe’s receipt.

If your bank declines a charge, your team’s admins get an email and your dashboard shows a banner saying Your last payment didn’t go through.

1. Open Settings and find Billing.
2. Click Replace payment method and add a card or bank account that works.
3. We try the payment again straight away. When it goes through, the banner goes and you get a receipt.

While a payment is outstanding you can’t publish new free events. Events you’ve already published go ahead as planned, and paid events aren’t affected. If you’re stuck, message us in chat.

Publishers and larger teams can ask to pay by invoice instead of keeping a card on file. Message us in chat and we’ll turn it on for your team.

Once it’s on, a team admin chooses Send me an invoice under How would you like to pay? in Settings → Billing, and can add an email address for invoices under Send invoices to. Then:

• You can publish free events without a card or bank account on file.
• At the start of each month we email one invoice for the last month’s free events, with a line for each event: participants, participant-hours and the rate.
• It’s due 30 days after we send it. Pay from the invoice by card or bank transfer.
• A month that comes to less than $0.50 is waived.

If an invoice is past its due date, your dashboard shows a banner with a link to it. If it’s more than 60 days overdue, you can’t publish new free events until it’s paid. Events you’ve already published go ahead as planned.