📋 Overview
Your Search Atlas subscription renews automatically on a fixed billing date. If your quota is depleted before that date, certain features — such as heatmap reports — will become unavailable until the next renewal cycle. This article explains how renewal dates work, what to do if you need an earlier renewal, and how to request a billing date change.
🗓️ How Billing Renewal Dates Work
When you subscribe to a Search Atlas plan, your billing date is set based on the date you first activated your subscription. Each month, your plan renews on that same date and your usage quotas are reset. Key points to understand:
- Quota reset timing: Your feature quotas (including heatmap reports) reset at the start of each billing cycle — not at the beginning of the calendar month, unless your renewal date happens to fall on the 1st.
- Automatic renewal: For most plans, payment is collected automatically on your renewal date and access continues without interruption.
- Manual billing accounts: If your account is set up for manual payment, your access depends on payment being processed before your renewal date. Delays in manual payment can result in temporary loss of access to quota-dependent features.
⚠️ Why Features Like Heatmap Reports May Be Unavailable
If you are seeing a message that heatmap reports or other features are unavailable, the most common causes are:
- Quota depletion: You have used all of the allocated credits or report runs for the current billing period. Access will restore automatically when your plan renews.
- Pending renewal: Your renewal date has passed but payment has not yet been successfully processed, particularly on manual billing accounts.
- Billing date mismatch: Your renewal date does not align with the date you expected (for example, the 1st of the month), so your quota reset happens later than anticipated.
🔄 How to Request a Billing Date Change
Currently, billing renewal date changes must be handled by the Search Atlas support team. There is no self-serve option to adjust your renewal date directly from the platform. To request a change:
- Open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform.
- Type human teammate to be connected with a support agent.
- Let the agent know the renewal date you would like (for example, the 1st of every month) and your reason for the request.
- The agent will coordinate the change on your account and confirm the new billing date with you.
Important: Changing your renewal date may result in a prorated charge or a short extension of your current cycle to bridge the gap to the new date. Your support agent will explain any billing impact before making changes.
⚡ How to Request an Immediate or Early Renewal
If your quota is depleted and you need access to features like heatmap reports right away — without waiting for your scheduled renewal date — you can request an early or manual renewal. This will process your next payment immediately and reset your quotas. To do this:
- Open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform.
- Type human teammate to connect with our team.
- Explain that you need an early renewal and which features you need restored.
- The support agent will process the renewal manually and confirm when your quotas have been reset.
Note for manual billing customers: If your account uses manual payment, please ensure your payment method is up to date before requesting an early renewal. An expired or declined payment method will delay processing.
🛠️ Known Platform Limitations
Our engineering team is actively working on improvements to the billing date management system. Some known limitations you may encounter include:
- Changing the next payment date on certain subscription types may not immediately sync across all billing systems. Our team manually verifies these changes to ensure accuracy.
- Manual billing accounts have specific handling requirements; if you have experienced an access block due to an expired renewal date, our support team can resolve this directly.
These issues are being addressed in upcoming platform updates. We appreciate your patience.
💡 Tips to Avoid Quota Disruptions
- Monitor your usage: Check your quota consumption regularly inside the platform so you can anticipate when limits will be reached.
- Align your billing date early: If a month-start renewal date would work better for your workflow, request the change before your quota runs out rather than after.
- Keep payment methods current: Especially for manual billing accounts, ensure your card or payment details are up to date to avoid processing delays.
🙋 Need Further Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.