Billing

How do I pay for my account?

There are two ways to pay for your KnowledgeOwl subscription:

  • Monthly or annual credit card subscriptions (automatic billing)
  • Annual invoices which can be paid by credit card, bank transfer, wire transfer, check, or PayPal (manual billing)

To activate your trial subscription by credit card:

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Billing.
  3. Select Buy Monthly, or choose Annually and select Buy Yearly for a 10% discount. If you are a non-profit, you can check the box for a 25% annual discount.
  4. Complete the payment form to activate your trial account.

After payment, you will receive a receipt via email. Each time your subscription renews, a receipt will be sent to the billing email address on file. If you choose to pay annually, you will receive a reminder email a month prior to the renewal date.

To activate your trial subscription by invoice:

  • Contact us to request payment by invoice. Please specify which plan as well as how many knowledge bases and authors you want to start. We are happy to accommodate your billing process so let us know what you need (purchase orders, vendor forms, etc).
  • We will activate your account while we await payment.

When your subscription is up for renewal, we will send a new invoice to your billing email approximately a month prior to the renewal date.

Switching payment options

Contact us to switch from a credit card subscription to invoicing or vice versa. If you wish to switch to invoices, we will cancel your automatic credit card subscription and send you an invoice due on your next renewal date. If you wish to switch to automatic billing, we will switch your account back to a trial so you can upgrade to a credit card subscription or we can set up the subscription over the phone.

What types of discounts are available?

The following discounts are available for annual subscriptions:

  • 25% off annual subscriptions for non-profit organizations
  • 10% off annual subscription for all other organizations

These discounts can both be accessed in your Billing (accessible by selecting your profile icon/name in the upper right and selecting Billing).

The 10% annual discount is automatically applied when paying via credit card in the application. To get the 25% non-profit annual discount, check the box confirming you are a non-profit prior to paying. If you forgot to check the box, contact us so we can fix your subscription and apply a credit to your account.

When paying by invoice, we will automatically apply the 10% discount. Please let us know if you qualify for the 25% non-profit discount when requesting an invoice.

How do I update my credit card?

You can update your credit card in the application or over the telephone. Please do not send new credit card details by email.

To update your credit card in the application:

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Billing from the dropdown to access your account billing details.
  3. Click the Update Credit Card button.
  4. Input your new credit card information and save.

Your credit card will only be charged if you have an outstanding invoice due from a previous failed payment. The new credit card will be used for payments moving forward on your renewal date.

You must be an account admin to access the Billing menu from your profile icon/name in the upper right to update the credit. If you are not, we can help you update your credit card over the phone.

To update your credit card over the phone:


How do I add or remove knowledge bases?

Refer to Add and remove knowledge bases for detailed instructions for your billing type.

How do I add or remove author seats?

Refer to Add and remove author seats for detailed instructions for your billing type.

Where can I access my past receipts and invoices?

Invoices and receipts are sent by email to the billing email address on file. We do not currently have a place to access them online.

To request copies of past receipts or invoices, please contact us . We can resend receipt emails as well as attach copies.

How can I change the billing email address for my account?

Receipts are automatically emailed to the current billing email address, and past receipts are available upon request. 

You must be an account admin to change the billing email. If you aren't an account admin but do want to update the billing email, contact us and we can update the billing email for you.

To update your billing email, you can:

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Billing from the dropdown to view your account details.
  3. In the Account Info section, update the billing email.
  4. Be sure to select the Update Account Info button at the bottom to save the change.

All future billing emails will be sent to that address!

Switch from monthly to annual billing

How do I make the change? 

You will only be able to switch from monthly to annual billing if you have Full Admin privileges on your account. If you don't see the Account option in your profile icon/name dropdown, you are not an Admin. Contact an Admin author on your account to switch from monthly to annual billing.

You can switch from monthly to annual billing at any time. To do so, once you're logged into app.knowledgeowl.com:

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Billing from the dropdown to view your account details.
  3. The credit card displayed here is what we'll charge for the annual subscription, so be sure you have the correct credit card info added before you follow these steps.
  4. On the right hand side, toggle from “Monthly” to “Annually - 10% discount”.Click the Annually option on the righthand side
  5. Once you select Annually, the Plan Cost information will update to show your yearly cost (with the discount), and an Upgrade button will appear below the Plan Cost.
  6. If you are a non-profit organization, you can check the box to receive a 25% annual discount. 😉
  7. Click the Upgrade button to finalize the change.
  8. A confirmation pop-up will appear which will show your yearly total. The actual amount charged may be less than this total if you are part-way through your billing month (please see "If I switch to annual, how soon will I be billed?" below).

If I switch to annual, how soon will I get billed?

Right away! If you choose to switch from monthly to annual billing, you will be charged immediately for a full year of service with a 10% discount. However, if you are part-way through a month of service that you’ve already paid for, our system will generate a prorated refund for the unused time on the monthly charge, and offset that against the annual charge.

Will I be billed for a full year from today's date?

You will be billed for a full year from the date you make the switch, and that date will become your new annual renewal date. You will be charged for an additional year of service each year on that date.

Is the 10% discount one-time or recurring?

Once you’ve made the switch, it’s all yours! You will continue to receive a 10% discount for as long as you stay on an annual plan. If you move away from annual billing, you will no longer be eligible to receive the 10% discount. 

Can I switch back to monthly at a future date?

Absolutely! Please email us at billing@knowledgeowl.com if you would like to switch back to a monthly subscription. If you choose to switch back from annual to monthly billing, our system will generate a prorated refund for the unused time on the annual charge. That can be held in credit on your account, or refunded back to your payment method, whichever you prefer.

However, keep in mind that if you switch back to monthly billing you will no longer be eligible to receive the 10% discount. 

If I switch to annual, am I locked in for a full year?

No matter whether you subscribe to monthly or annual billing, you are free to cancel your account at any time.

See Cancel my account for full cancellation steps.

What are my payment options?

If you switch from monthly to annual billing, your annual charge will be made to the same card you have registered on your account for your monthly payments. We also offer invoiced billing - see below for details.

Can I pay by invoice?

Yes! We offer payment by invoice on all annual accounts. Please email us at billing@knowledgeowl.com to request the switch.

Can I pause or suspend my subscription?

We understand projects get put on hold. If you need to pause or suspend your account without cancelling, please contact us to let us know what you need. We are happy to help in any way we can!

Cancel my account

While we'd hate to have you go, you can cancel your subscription at any time. 

Prior to cancellation, you can export your content in various formats:

As soon as you cancel, all access to all of your KBs will end and any API keys for the account will stop working, so please be sure you've taken any exports you need and/or disabled any integrations or jobs you have that use those API keys before cancelling!

To cancel your subscription

You must be a Full Admin in order to cancel your subscription.

If you are paying for your subscription via invoice, contact us about canceling.

If you're paying for your subscription via in-app credit card:

  1. Select your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Billing from the dropdown to view your account details.
  3. Select the Cancel Account button in the Current Subscription Info section.
    The Account Details page. An arrow points to the Cancel Account button in the Current Subscription Info section.Select the Cancel Account button
  4. This will open a Cancel Account pop-up. Select the Reason for cancelling. We appreciate your feedback in providing a reason, since this helps us know where we can improve!
    The Cancel Account pop-up. The pop-up has a warning at the top to explain what actions cancelling will kick off and a multiple choice list for you to select the reason you're cancelling.Sample cancellation confirmation
  5. Once you've selected your reason for cancelling, select the Cancel My Account button.
  6. Once cancelled, you will be logged out and your account will no longer be accessible.

Upon cancellation, your account will be scheduled for permanent deletion in 60 days. You will be able to reactivate your subscription during that 60 day period without losing anything. After 60 days, you will need to create a new account.

Delete your data

Once you've canceled your account, you can request that we purge all of your account data as soon as you'd like. When you request this, we'll delete:

  • All content in your knowledge base, including articles, categories, snippets, tags, and files
  • The email addresses of your readers and authors
  • Any other data stored in your account

Basically, it will be as if your knowledge base, your readers, and your authors never existed in our systems.

To request this complete data purge, please contact us and request an immediate full account data purge.

Not recoverable
This purge removes all evidence of your account from our systems. It is not reversible. Please make sure you have exported everything you need before submitting your request!

Resolve payment

When we have not received your payment on time, we have two additional statuses we might trigger for your account:

  1. Overdue
  2. In Arrears

Overdue

When an account is marked as Overdue, any author who logs into the KnowledgeOwl app will see a red notification dot over the notification bell in the top navigation:

Clicking on that bell will display the full alert about the account being overdue:

Sample overdue account banner

If you see this notification, it means that we have not received payment, or when we have tried to process your payment via credit card, it has failed.

Your knowledge base is still fully functioning and available when you see this message. It's just a warning that your payment is overdue.

How you resolve this depends on whether you are paying via credit card in your Billing or whether you are paying via invoice.

To resolve an overdue credit card payment:

  1. Click the link in the banner (or click on your profile icon/name in the upper right and select Billing from the dropdown).
  2. Review the credit card information and billing information we have on file and update as necessary. Specifically, please confirm:
    1. The credit card has not expired (update to a new credit card if it has)
    2. The card number, expiration date, and CVV are correct
    3. The billing zip code is correct
    4. If all of these are correct, please contact us so that our billing team can help sort out why the payments are failing.
  3. Once you update your credit card, we'll remove the overdue notice once we've confirmed the payment has processed.

To resolve an overdue invoice payment, please contact us with any questions so that our billing team can help.

In arrears

The "in arrears" status is used when an account is considerably past due. This is our big warning to you before we disable your account and knowledge base completely.

When an account is marked as In arrears, we will prevent all authors from taking any action within app.knowledgeowl.com by displaying a blocking message. You'll only be able to access the Billing page; all other pages will be disabled with this pop-up:

Sample in arrears message

Your knowledge base will still be live and accessible to your readers, but your authors are prevented from making any changes to it until we receive payment.

To resolve issues with your payment and regain author access to app.knowledgeowl.com, please contact us for all payment arrangements.

Why is an American company charging me, a non-American, sales tax?

KnowledgeOwl uses a Merchant of Record for our billing. They collect and remit taxes internationally. 

When you're checking out, you will need to choose your location at the top right: 

This will change the currency and tax rate based on your location. 

For countries like Canada, with varying tax rates/types across the country, the rate will update based on your province or territory when you add your postal code.  

Under the total, you can add your company's tax ID number to be sure your tax payment is remitted properly. 

If you need our Merchant of Record's tax ID for your records, you can find the ID correlating to your country or region here

It requests a GST number of Canadians, which acts as a stand-in for HST, GST, PST or QST, since each province and territory has a different sales tax setup.