The various line items that may appear on your aXcelerate invoices can be confusing, particularly how your learner numbers are calculated. We want to be as open and transparent as possible, and hope to shine some light on this topic in this article.
This article will provide general information about our billing systems, including definitions and an explanation of aXcelerate’s billing periods, a breakdown of the various line items that may appear on your invoice, and an overview of each different possible Licence Fee type. We also have separate articles for each billing model that will provide more detailed information.
Tip: If you have any queries relating to your current licence agreement or how we charge you for our service, please refer to the Pricing page on our website or contact our Customer Success team.
Definitions
A Long Course is defined as any form of training course exceeding 30 days, excluding online-only or self-paced courses. Courses in aXcelerate are considered a Long Course by default for customers on Long Course or Hybrid billing models. More information regarding Long Course billing can be found here.
A Long Course Learner is any Contact that is enrolled in a Workshop, Qualification or E-Learning activity with a commencement date and/or completion date that falls within (or spans across) your current annual period with aXcelerate.
A Short Course is defined as any form of training course (Workshop, Class, or E-Learning) with a scheduled End Date which is 30 days or fewer from the Start Date. We provide further guidance on enabling courses for Short Course billing in its own dedicated article.
A Short Course Learner is any Contact who has commenced a Short Course. Commencement begins on the Start Date as listed on the Short Course. For E-Learning courses, this is the date the Commencement status is added.
A Billable Placement is any Work-Based Learning Placement that has commenced within the current billing period. If the Placement was cancelled before it commenced, it will not be counted. Placements spanning multiple periods will only be counted once (upon commencement). You can read more about Work-Based Learning billing here.
An Agreement Commencement Date is the date an aXcelerate agreement commences and billing begins.
A Billing Month is the period from the date of your monthly invoice until the day before your following monthly invoice. For example, if you are invoiced on the 15th of every month, your Billing Month would be from the 15th of month until the 14th of the following month. The date of your monthly invoice (by default) is determined by your Commencement Date with aXcelerate. If you would like to adjust your dates, please contact Support.
Start and End dates of courses are defined below:
Workshop:
- Start Date: Workshop Start Date
- End Date: Workshop End Date
Qualification:
- Start Date: Earliest Unit of Competency Activity Start Date
- End Date: Latest Unit of Competency Activity End Date
E-Learning:
- Start Date: The Commencement Date, or if it doesn’t exist, the Access Start Date
- End Date: The Completion/Failed/Cancelled Date, or if none exist, the Access End Date
Warning: Booked E-Learning enrolments without a Commencement or Access Start Date are counted as a Billable Long Course Learner.
Invoice Line items
aXcelerate’s invoices are split into a few categories to make it easier to distinguish ongoing costs from initial costs. Some line items appear in your agreement as one-off or annual amounts. Generally, these are invoiced in monthly instalments over your initial 12 months. Depending on your Agreement, the invoices are comprised of one or more of the following:
Implementation Fees
Normally paid in monthly instalments over 12 months, these fees are for professional services chosen by you at the start of your agreement.
The categories typically consist of:
- Onboarding - for training, configuration and project management services
- Data Migration - for importing data from your existing SMS to aXcelerate
- Online Enrolments - for a custom WordPress site, generally embedded into your core website to enable your cohorts to view and enrol into courses
Annual Recurring Fees
Annual Recurring fees typically include any maintenance fees that may apply to your contract for ongoing service. Generally, Annual Recurring fees will consist of Short Course service fees, or Online Enrolments maintenance fees. Although they appear as an annual rate, they are typically paid in monthly instalments.
Licence Fees
Three types of aXcelerate billing models currently exist, and which one is optimal for you will depend on your needs. It’s possible to utilise any combination, or all of the three. Licence fees are typically charged monthly.
- Long Course Learner Billing: These fees are based on an annual amount determined by the Learner Tier selected at the start of an Organisation’s billing year, and can be paid monthly. This licence fee is invoiced in advance, meaning you pay for the month ahead. There are additional fees if you exceed your nominated tier. These will appear as an additional line item on your invoice, typically in the month that they occur. More information about this billing model can be found here.
- Short Course Learner Billing: These fees are variable and are based on monthly learner commencements into short courses, described in this article. Short Course licence fees are invoiced in arrears for the prior calendar month.
- Work-based Learning: Work-Based Learning fees are variable and are based on annual Work-Based Learning Placement commencements. Whilst the rates decrease over the course of your annual billing period, you will be invoiced for them when they commence. Work-Based Learning fees are invoiced in arrears for the prior calendar month. You can read more in this article.
- Hybrid: If you have a blend of any of the licence fees listed above, you will see each fee listed as separate line items on your invoices.
Third-Party usage fees
These are fees payable for optional services offered by aXcelerate for third-party plugins, for example, Rustici’s SCORM E-Learning modules. Generally, these services are invoiced monthly, based on your usage for the prior month. Read more about these fees in the section below.
File Storage fees
You receive up to 100GB of file storage included with your regular licence fees. Some examples of files that count towards this limit are documents stored in the Resources Library, files uploaded as Assessment Evidence, and files attached to Contact Notes.
Above the free 100GB limit, there is an annual fee of $100 per 200GB increment (or part thereof). Your file usage can be found in the ‘Account Statistics’ section of your System Settings. The entire Additional File usage fee is charged on the first invoice of your billing period, even if you pay your licence fees monthly.
Tip: File Storage fees were sunset in May 2023.
Invoice Dates
Each invoice cycle is based on the Agreement Commencement Date. If the Agreement Commencement Date was the 28th of January, the billing month occurs from the 28th of the month until the 27th of the following month.
Long Course licence fees are invoiced in advance. So if your invoice date is the 28th of January, the Long Course licence fees displayed are for the 28th of January until the 27th of February.
Short Course licence fees are invoiced in arrears for the prior calendar month. So if your invoice date is the 28th of January, the Short Course licence fees displayed are for the 1st of December until the 31st of December.
For Customers on the Short Course Billing model, this means that at the end of your Agreement, there will be a final invoice due for the Short Course Learners in your last month with aXcelerate.
Tip: If your Agreement Commencement Date is on a day in the month later than the 28th (e.g., the 31st), you will have a somewhat variable invoice date, as the invoice will be brought forward to the latest day in the month if the current month is shorter.
Billing Periods
aXcelerate Billing periods are 12 months in length, even if you are paying licence fees monthly.
For Long Course learner licence fees, learners are counted over 12 months. If you need to move up a tier within the 12 months, you will need to pay an adjustment amount to align your total year fees with the cost of being on the higher tier from the beginning of the period.
This is because the total licence fees are based on a per-learner rate. By upgrading midway through the period, an adjustment is necessary to ensure the overall per-learner rate for the new tier is correct.
Third-Party usage fees
Some of aXcelerate's features are powered via third-party plugins, and their usage attracts an additional licence fee. For example, aXcelerate leverages Rustici's SCORM Engine, which is currently the only billable third-party plugin.
SCORM usage is charged at a rate of $0.50 per unique contact commencement (or $0.80 for customers on aXcelerate Standard). SCORM usage calculations are calculated as follows:
- SCORM enrolments with a status of Commenced or greater count towards the fee - a Booked status does not count.
- Cancelling a Booked student will prevent a SCORM fee from being incurred. Cancelling a Commenced student will NOT prevent the SCORM fee.
- A student with Multiple SCORM enrolments will still only be billed once (similar to how Long Course Learners are calculated).
The SCORM usage charge functions in a similar fashion to the way Long Course Learners are calculated:
- SCORM commencements reset at the beginning of your billing period. So if a Learner launches the same SCORM package in two separate billing periods, they will attract the fee twice.
- If a Learner is enrolled in 3 different SCORM packages in the same billing period but doesn't attempt any of them, you will not be charged for their enrolment.
- However, if the Learner commences one of those 3 SCORM packages, you will be charged for their enrolment. If the Learner commences any further SCORM packages within that billing period, you will not be charged again.
Payment Methods
You can pay your aXcelerate fees via Direct Debit or Credit Card. To setup your automated payment method, please contact our Customer Support team.
Automated payments attract the following additional fees to cover the cost of processing the payment. The payment processing fees vary depending on the payment method, but are currently:
- Direct Debit: $0.00
- Visa & Mastercard: 1.58% + $0.30
- American Express: 1.75% + $0.30
- International: 2.90% + $0.30
Tip: aXcelerate bears all fees related to Direct Debit payments - there is no fee charged to you.
Note: Payment will be triggered automatically 15 days after the Invoice Date. You will receive an email notification that this has occurred.
Warning: Please note that these fees are subject to change in line with the fees charged by our payment provider, Stripe.