Your Subscription, Chat and Notifications
Three things that sit slightly outside your day-to-day work: what your centre pays for EcoSync and what that plan unlocks, the chat you use to talk to startups and mentors, and the notification feed that tells you what needs attention.
What you will learn
- Where billing lives - it is not in the main menu
- What each plan tier includes and why some menus show a padlock
- How to change plan without losing paid-up days
- How chat is organised and who you can message
- How to use the notification feed as a work queue
Finding the account area#
Billing is not in the left-hand menu. Click your organisation's name in the top bar and the menu that opens has the account items below the list of organisations.
| Menu item | What it opens |
|---|---|
| Help Center & Support | Documentation and support. |
| Admin Portal | The account area - plans, billing, add-ons, profile. |
| Subscription Plans | Compare tiers and change plan. |
| Billing & Invoices | Current plan, next billing date and payment history. |
| Add-ons | Extra capacity or features on top of your plan. |
Good to know
These open a separate account portal with its own menu - Dashboard, Profile, Plans, Add-ons, Billing, Chat Support. A 'Switch to Incubation Portal' link at the bottom brings you back.
What you are paying for#
Billing & Usage shows your current plan, what it costs, when it renews, and every payment you have made.
- 'Renewals remaining' tells you how many billing cycles are left on your commitment.
- Recent Payments lists date, invoice number, description, method, amount and status.
- Manual payments extend your current cycle rather than replacing it - you do not lose days you have already paid for.
- Cancel Plan is beside Change Plan. Treat it with respect; it ends the subscription for your whole centre.
Plans and what they unlock#
Three tiers. Each sets how many startups and users you can have, how much storage you get, and - importantly - which parts of the portal are switched on at all.
| Bronze | Silver | Gold | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per month | ₹3,000 | ₹5,000 | ₹8,000 |
| Startups | 100 | 200 | 500 |
| Users | 20 | 50 | 1000 |
| Storage | 1024 GB | 1024 GB | 1024 GB |
This is why some menus have a padlock
A padlock beside a menu item means that area is not included in your plan. It is nothing to do with your role or permissions - no amount of permission-editing will unlock it. Compare the 'What's included' lists on the Plans page to see which tier covers the module you need.
Tip
Before upgrading for one feature, check Add-ons. It may be cheaper to add the single thing you need than to move a whole tier.
Chat#
Chat is for conversations with the people your centre works with - your team, your mentors and your startups. It is organised into categories so a mentor conversation does not get lost among startup ones.
- Existing conversations are filtered by All, Mentors, Sessions and General.
- Files can be attached to messages.
- Voice and video call icons sit at the top of an open conversation.
- The unread count appears against Chat in the left-hand menu.
Tip
Chat is for conversation; announcements are for things that need to be on record and read by a group. If you find yourself pasting the same message into five chats, it should have been an announcement.
Notifications as a work queue#
The notification feed is more useful than it first appears. Rather than a list of things that happened, treat it as the queue of things waiting on you - most entries end with an instruction.
- Eight category filters: Applications, Startups, Funding, Tasks, Facilities, Events, Payments and System.
- The count on each filter tells you where the work is piling up.
- Mark all read clears the backlog once you have worked through it.
- The bell icon in the top bar carries the unread count from anywhere in the portal.
Tip
If one category is carrying most of your unread count, that is your bottleneck. Sixty-two unread notifications almost all about office space requests means the requests queue needs a person, not a bigger inbox.
Keeping the account tidy#
A few habits that avoid unpleasant surprises.
Know your renewal date
Billing shows days remaining and renewals left. Worth knowing before a budget cycle rather than after.
Watch your limits
Startups and users are capped by tier. Hitting the ceiling mid-intake is avoidable if you check first.
Deactivate rather than accumulate
Users who have left still count. Setting them inactive frees a place without losing their history.
Check add-ons before upgrading
A single add-on is often cheaper than a whole tier for one missing feature.
Download invoices as you go
Your finance team will want them at year end. Collecting them monthly is less painful than retrieving twelve at once.
Restrict who sees billing
Billing, Invoices and Add-ons are separate permission areas. Most of your team does not need them.
Common questions#
It is not in the left-hand menu. Click your organisation's name in the top bar - Subscription Plans, Billing & Invoices and Add-ons are in that menu, below the list of organisations.
That area is not included in your subscription. It is not a permissions problem, so changing roles will not help. Check the Plans page to see which tier includes it, or look at Add-ons.
No. Manual payments extend your current billing cycle rather than replacing it, so paid-up days carry over.
Deactivating users who have left frees places without deleting their history. If you genuinely need more, compare tiers on the Plans page.
Chat is a conversation with one person or startup. Announcements go to a defined group, stay on record, and show you who has read them. If it needs to be evidenced later, it is an announcement.
Use the category filters to see where they are concentrated. That tells you which queue is under-staffed. Mark all read once you have actually worked through them.
Billing, Invoices and Add-ons are three of the nineteen permission areas. Most centres restrict them to the centre head and finance officer.
