The Starter plan

Starter is for new businesses of up to three people: instead of a price per person, you pay a small share of the payments you record.

Who can do this: Admins choose Starter. Admins, dispatchers and accountants can see the fee.

Also called: revenue share.

On a computer: Left menu → Settings → Plan & billing On a phone: More → Settings → Plan & billing

Everything else is the same as Standard: the same features, the same included texts and the same phone add-ons at their normal prices.

How the fee is worked out

Each billing month you pay 5% of the payments you record, before tax:

Every way your client pays counts: card, e-transfer, cheque, cash or anything else. Deposits, part-payments and instalments each count in the month they’re entered.
Tax is left out. If tax is more than 30% of a bill, it’s treated as 30%.
The fee is at least $15 a month, even in a month with nothing recorded, and the $15 isn’t reduced for a part month.
The fee is never more than Standard would cost your team that month. For one person that’s $65.

For one person: $1,000 recorded makes a $50 fee. $200 recorded makes $15 (the minimum). $3,000 recorded makes $65 (the most it can be).

A deposit counts its before-tax share when it’s paid, and the invoice it comes off counts what’s left, so the two never count twice.

Standard's monthly price for the team, the most a Starter fee can be

These don’t count: payments brought in from Jobber; payments entered before your first billed Starter month, including during the free trial; card payments still waiting for the card company to confirm them (they count once confirmed); and payments the card company rejects.

Choosing Starter

When you sign up: the Starter button on the pricing page opens sign-up with Starter chosen. Tick the box to confirm how the fee works.
From the billing screen: Starter appears under Choose your plan only if your business can have it. Choosing it shows how the fee is worked out and asks you to click I agree — choose Starter. During the free trial the switch is immediate; once you’re paying, it starts with your next billing month.

Starter can’t be chosen by a business that signed up before Starter launched, by one that has already left Starter after being billed for it (or whose owner runs one that has), on a yearly or committed term, or while your plan is set to end. Starter is paid monthly only.

The Choose your plan card; this business can't have Starter, so only Standard is listed

Seeing your fee

On Starter, the plan card’s Your rate reads “A share of the payments you record, worked out each month”, and Next Starter fee (estimate) shows the figure and when it’s charged. A Your Starter fee card then shows:

This month so far: the month’s dates, the payments counted and the fee so far (an estimate until the month ends), and how much more you’d need to record to reach the upper limit.
What counted this month: every payment behind the figure, with the invoice or quote, the client, how they paid, and when it was paid and entered. Changes under $1 are grouped as small rounding changes.
Past months: each closed month with what counted, its fee, its receipt number, What counted and Download, plus Download all months.
How your last three full months compare with Standard’s price for your team.

When you’re charged

The fee is worked out after your billing month ends and charged on its own receipt, with sales tax added as for any plan. The billing screen shows the date. Phone add-ons are charged on their own dates as usual.

It’s charged in Canadian dollars. If you invoice in another currency, your payments are converted at the day’s rate, and the screen shows both figures and the rate. While you’re on Starter, contact support to change your currency.

Refunds and changes after a month is billed

A refund, or a payment removed or reduced, in the same month just lowers that month.
If the month was already billed, the change comes off your next month instead, in proportion to what was actually charged for that payment. A billed month is never reopened, no fee is refunded, and the next month is still at least $15.
Undoing a refund adds back exactly what it took off.
Voiding an invoice doesn’t change the fee: the money was still received.

Moving to Standard

Starter moves you to Standard automatically, always at the start of a billing month, when either:

a fourth person joins your team. Adding them asks you first, with the date and the new price, and a Move to Standard button. Or
the 5% fee for your last three full months (before the $15 minimum and the upper limit) averages more than Standard would cost your team.

Support can also move you, with the same notice.

You get an email when a move is decided, and a heads-up when a single month goes over. A banner says “Your plan moves to Standard on” the date, with “Nothing for you to do.” If your team drops back to three before a fourth-person move happens, the move is cancelled.

During the free trial there’s no waiting: a fourth person, or choosing Standard, moves the trial to Standard straight away.

Cancelling

Your final Starter fee is worked out when your plan ends, from payments entered before then, and it’s at least $15. The billing screen says “Your final Starter fee (at least $15) is worked out and charged on” that date.

Questioning a fee

Download the month from the Your Starter fee card and email support@astragalhq.com with the month and what looks wrong.

Checked against Astragal on October 17, 2026