In June 2017 we switched to a new credits-based billing system. In August 2017 we made changes to the credits-based billing, prompting an update to this blog article. For current pricing click here.

The purpose of this article is to discuss why or why not existing customers may want to switch to this new system.  But before we do this, let me clarify. No current customer has to make that switch. We appreciate your business, we value you as a customer, without you we wouldn’t be here.  If you don’t see any value now or at any time in the future to switch to the new credits-based billing, you are welcome to stay with what you have.

Here is what I will advise you to do:
Monitor how much you pay under your current plan and compare that to what you would have paid under the credit plan. Under Tools-Credits you can see how many credits you would have used every month. If you are interested we will provide a proposal of how we can turn your pre-paid annual plan or recent (last 6 months) purchases of premium keys into credits.

Here is a quick overview of the differences between the two plans:

 Feature/Benefit  New Credit Plan  Old Subscription Plan
Billing Frequency  Buy more credits when you need it. They are good for one year.  Annual or monthly; many annual customers receive a monthly bill for overage, which at times can be a bit of a nuisance when amounts are just a few $$.
 Seasonality  Credits are good for a year. Seasons of inactivity (i.e. no grading) do not incur any charges.  You pay for a fixed number of students depending on your plan, regardless if you are grading any tests or not.
 Premium Keys  All of our premium keys (answers are mapped to categories) are included  $45+ per premium key
 Diagnostic Test ‘Kit’  Print bubble sheets with ‘pre-registered’ student information (i.e. just a Student ID) and then add a name to that student ID after the student has taken the test.  Not available.
Student Self-Registration Let students register themselves on your web site. You can use this to offer a free* test to visitors to your site to turn them into a real lead. [*You are charged 1 credit for a test.] Not available.
Email Student Notifications Included $15/month
 Management of Student Status  Under the new system, a student has one of three statuses:

  • IDLE: no test graded for the student – no charge
  • ACTIVE (1): first test graded for that student; we start a one month clock = 1 credit
  • ACTIVE (unlimited): a second test was graded for that student within one month from that student’s status going to ACTIVE (1) = 1 additional credit; any additional tests graded while the student’s status is ACTIVE (unlimited) do not incur any additional charges

They system will change that status automatically. Unless you want to Archive/Lock student accounts, there is no need to spend time managing students’ account statuses.

  Need to manually deactivate students who are no longer using the system.
Student Access to Student Panel No additional charge. As long as you permit it, by not setting a student’s account status to Archived/Locked, a student can access their OnlineScoreTracker student portal. We like to think this presents an opportunity to stay in front of previous customers for potentially more business. You are billed for one student/month to give a student access to their student portal, whether or not the student actually logs in or not.