Postmark Invoices Explained
We've all, at some point in our lives, seen an invoice and, with a stumped face, thought to ourselves "What do these different things even mean?". We wrote this short guide to ensure reviewing your Postmark invoices is easy and stress-free.
Understanding your billing cycle#
Simply put, a
billing cycle is the period of usage for which we charge you.
Your billing cycle is
defined by the date of your first upgrade. When you first upgrade from a free Developer to a paid plan, we charge you for the billing cycle ahead of you, and continue to do so on your future invoices. For example, if you first upgrade to a paid plan on January 8th, your first charge will be for the cycle of January 8th through February 8th. We will continue to charge you on the 8th of each following month for the month ahead of you. If you first upgrade on the last day of the month, for example January 31st, we will charge you on the last day of each following month, whether that’s 30th or 31st (or in case of February, on the 28th or 29th), and the charge would be for the month ahead of you.
If you don’t change your plan, or consume any additional emails outside of your plan’s quota, the total on your invoice will be the same each month. However, if you do change your plan within an existing billing cycle (upgrade or downgrade), things get a bit more complicated.
Example invoice breakdown#
Let’s take a look at this invoice where an example customer was initially on our 125,000
legacy plan. They consumed 0 additional emails, and they decided to upgrade to a 300,000 plan on our new pricing.
1.
“Unused time on 125,000 (legacy) after 25 Jan 2023” indicates the credit we give back to them since they already paid for the 125,000 (legacy) plan in the current billing cycle with their previous invoice. But they haven’t stayed on the 125,000 plan for the whole duration of the current billing cycle. January 25th is the date of the plan change (upgrade).
2.
“Remaining time on 300,000 after 25 Jan 2023” indicates the amount they paid for the time they’ve spent on the new 300,000 plan in the current billing cycle.
3.
“Monthly plan (300,000 emails)”, is the full price of the 300,000 emails plan, and it’s what they pay for the billing cycle ahead of them. Reminder: the billing cycle ahead of them is based on the date of their first upgrade from the free Developer plan, not the Jan 25 upgrade. Any differences resulting from the January 25th upgrade have been accounted for by pro-rated amounts in 1 and 2.
4.
“Extra emails this period (0 emails)” is blank in this example. If they had consumed additional emails outside of the allowance in the 125,000 legacy plan after upgrading, these overages would’ve been absorbed into the new 300,000 plan and no overages would have been paid.
If they sent more than 300,000 messages, that number would’ve shown in brackets. The cost would have been calculated based on the overage cost for the 300,000 plan.
5. The “Total” is the sum of amounts indicated in 2, 3, and 4. The amount shown in 1 is subtracted.
Invoice with overages#
If you exhaust the emails included with your plan, your account will keep sending/receiving emails, and you'll see a charge for the additional emails you use on your next invoice:
