Billing

Billing works the same way for projects and agencies. Three things belong together:

• The billing profile — the company on the invoice. Every project and every agency has its own.
• The bill recipient — the person who receives the invoices and pays them. One member of the project or agency.
• The payment method — card, SEPA direct debit or bank transfer. Payment methods belong to the bill recipient’s personal account.

TrustComponent serves business customers in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. All prices are net; VAT is added according to your billing address and VAT ID.

An agency’s client projects keep their own billing. The agency’s billing center shows their invoices together.

The billing profile holds the company details printed on every invoice.

Every billing profile is checked automatically when you save it:

• German VAT IDs are checked for validity.
• VAT IDs from other EU countries are checked against the official registry, including the company name and address. Enter them exactly as they are registered.
• VAT IDs from the United Kingdom and Switzerland are confirmed by our team.

While the check is pending or the result is invalid, no invoices are created — your charges wait and are invoiced as soon as the profile is valid. Until then they are listed under Outstanding line items in the bill recipient’s user profile.

If you change a valid profile, invoices keep using the previous address until the new one is confirmed. If the new details don’t match the registry, the page shows the notice Invoice information invalid with the comparison per field; correct the details, or choose Discard changes to return to the previous, valid profile.

The bill recipient is the person who is officially responsible for the invoices of a project or agency: they receive every invoice by email, find all of them in their user profile, and pay with one of their own payment methods.

Change it under Settings › Billing & Payment, in the payment section. You choose the new recipient and one of their payment methods — or bank transfer.

• The bill recipient of a project cannot leave the project, be removed or lose the Admin role until someone else is bill recipient. In an agency with booked add-ons, the bill recipient keeps the Billing role.
• Invoices already issued stay with the previous recipient. Charges that were already recorded before the change, for example on the first day of the month, are still addressed to them as well.
• If you’d like your accounting team to receive the invoices without being a member, add their mailbox as invoice copy in the billing profile.

• Card and SEPA mandates are added in your user profile › Payment & Invoices through a secure Stripe page — card data never reaches TrustComponent. You can store up to 20 payment methods.
• Payment methods belong to your personal account, because the bill recipient pays with their own methods. After adding a method, the dashboard offers to use it in the projects where you are bill recipient, and to pay open invoices with it.
• One method is your default. It is used when the method selected in a project is no longer available.
• You cannot delete a payment method while a project still uses it — the dashboard lists which ones. Select another method there first.

• Once a month, at the beginning of the month, you receive one invoice per project with all modules and add-ons.
• Plans and add-ons are billed in advance for the current month.
• Changes during the month — activating a paid plan, upgrading, booking an add-on, buying credits — are billed for the rest of the month and invoiced the next day as a separate invoice.
• Trials are free. When a trial ends, the module is billed from that day on.
• Cancelling at the end of the period means nothing more is billed afterwards. Ending something immediately is not refunded.
• Invoices are payable within 30 days.

Billing is monthly. A yearly invoice is only available as part of an individual contract — contact us.

• One line per module and add-on, with its period and whether it is billed in advance.
• Invoice number in the form RE-YYYY-MM-NNNN, net amounts, VAT and the total in EUR.
• The PDF contains an embedded e-invoice (ZUGFeRD / Factur-X, profile EN 16931) that accounting software can read directly. Agencies can additionally download the XML in the billing center.
• Your customer reference in the header and in the e-invoice.

Every invoice is also sent by email to the bill recipient and the invoice copy addresses.

Transfer the amount to the account printed on the invoice and use the invoice number as the payment reference. Payments are matched to invoices by this number; several invoices in one transfer work if the reference names all of them and the amount matches.

A card or SEPA payment fails. The invoice is marked Failed and a Needs attention item appears in the project or agency. Open the invoice, choose Switch payment method and pick another method — the payment is retried right away — or pay the invoice by bank transfer.

An invoice is overdue. A few days after the payment term has passed, the bill recipient and the invoice copy addresses receive a payment reminder, and a Needs attention item appears. It disappears as soon as the invoice is paid.

Please pay overdue invoices promptly. Invoices that remain unpaid can lead to further reminders and to restrictions of the project or agency.

Monitoring sends SMS and voice alerts from a prepaid credit balance per project. Buy credits under Monitoring › Credits (Product Manager or Billing role). Credits are available right away, never expire and are invoiced the next day. See Alert channels.

I haven’t received an invoice. Check the billing profile: if the VAT ID check is pending or the details are invalid, invoices are held until the profile is valid. Also check that the invoice copy addresses are correct and look into the spam folder. All invoices are always available in the dashboard.

My VAT ID is shown as invalid. For EU VAT IDs outside Germany, the company name and address must match the official registry exactly. Compare the fields shown in the notice, correct them, or discard your changes.

I received a payment reminder although I paid. Make sure the transfer used the invoice number as reference. Transfers without it cannot be matched automatically. If the reminder is wrong, open a ticket with the invoice number and the payment date.

I can’t add a payment method / the one I need isn’t offered. We accept card, SEPA direct debit and bank transfer. If the Stripe page rejects your card or account, try another method or pay by bank transfer — every invoice can be paid by transfer.

The invoice should go to another address or person. Change the address in the billing profile, the person by changing the bill recipient, or add an invoice copy address.

I need a purchase order number on the invoice. Enter it as customer reference in the billing profile. It applies to all following invoices.

Do you support XRechnung, Peppol or a Leitweg-ID? Every invoice PDF contains an EN 16931 e-invoice. For delivery through a specific e-invoicing network or with a Leitweg-ID, open a ticket.

Are prices net or gross? All prices in the dashboard, on our website and in these docs are net, per month. VAT is added on the invoice according to your billing address and VAT ID.

Can I pay yearly? Self-service plans are billed monthly. A yearly invoice is part of an individual contract.