It’s this time of the year where we need to renew the FlowJo site license. With the new Portal system made available in 2020, users have a better handle of their own account. But let’s be honest: if you managed to defend your thesis and are preparing the next steps in your career, the last thing on your mind is to close your seat on the FlowJo site license.

So how exactly does billing work? The CAT Facility pays for all the seats at the beginning of the cycle, and it recharges users a year later depending on their usage. We recharge for active seats on a quarterly basis so that multiple users can share a same seat during the year, which lower the overall cost.

Here’s the issue we’ve been having: if a user leaves without closing his or her seat, I need to recharge for it regardless. Every year, we have unpleasant discussions about what to do about these unused seats and who should pay for them. The policy has been that the group from which the user was a member is still on the hook. But every now and then, funds are just no longer available and it’s the CAT Facility that takes the hit.

It’s not the most efficient way to go through life. I like the FCS Express system better, where the company still charge quarterly, but will not charge for quarters where no connection to the software has been recorded, and automatically closes the account after six months of inactivity.

This year, I decided to help myself a bit, and closed all the account that have been unused for at least a year. Turns out that represented 27 users, and $5859 worth of software fees that would not have been used. That will be our practice going forward.

Feel free to contact us with any issues you may have with the invoice for the site license.