A usage spend limit sets a floor or a cap on what a customer pays for usage in a particular phase of a quote or plan. Minimum and maximum usage spend apply only to usage charges. Subscription fees, one-time fees, and committed usage do not count.
What counts toward a usage spend limit
These charges count toward a minimum or maximum usage spend:
Usage pricing charges
Percentage pricing charges
The overage portion of committed usage pricing: usage above the pre-purchased amount
These charges do not count:
Flat fee and license charges
One-time charges
The committed (pre-purchased) amount on committed usage pricing, and any usage that falls within it.
All usage products in a phase count together toward that phase’s limit. You cannot apply a limit to only some of the usage-based products.
A minimum usage spend is not a minimum invoice total. Turnstile adds a minimum spend charge on top of any subscription fees and committed amounts on the same invoice.
Add a usage spend limit to a quote
Spend limits are set per phase. If you created the quote from a plan that has spend limits, they are automatically added to the quote (except add-on spend limits), and you can edit them there.
To add a minimum or maximum spend to a quote:
Open the quote and hover over the product table for the phase you want to limit. Three icons appear below the last line item.
Click the Add usage spend limit icon (road barrier), next to the tag icon, and select Minimum usage spend or Maximum usage spend.
Enter the limit amount.
Click the cadence below the amount to choose how often the limit resets: per month, per quarter, per 6 months, per year, per term, or one-time.
The cadence defaults to the longest cadence of any product in the phase, including flat and one-time fees. If the phase has a one-time fee, the default is one-time, so check the cadence before you send the quote.
Optional: Rename the limit. It is named Minimum spend or Maximum spend by default. This name appears on the quote and on invoice lines.
Rules for usage spend limits on quotes
Each phase can have one minimum usage spend and one maximum usage spend.
The phase must include at least one usage, percentage, or committed usage product with overage.
The spend limit amount must be greater than 0.
The limit’s cadence must be equal to or longer than the cadence of every usage product in the phase.
If a phase has both limits, the maximum must be at least the minimum adjusted to the same cadence. For example, a $1,200 USD yearly minimum can be paired with a monthly maximum of $100 USD or more.
A quote that breaks one of these rules cannot be reviewed or sent until the issue is fixed.
Add a usage spend limit to a plan
On a quote created from the plan, spend limits carry the same name, amount, cadence, and description as the plan, and you can edit them on the quote.
To add a minimum or maximum spend to a plan:
Go to Catalog > Plans and open the plan.
On the Products & services tab for the phase, click Set spend limits in the Spend limits section.
Select Minimum usage spend or Maximum usage spend.
Enter a Name. This name appears on quotes and invoices.
Enable or disable Add-on:
Enabled: The spend limit is not added to quotes created from the plan. A rep can add it to a quote when a deal needs it, and the plan’s name, amount, and description fill in. The cadence uses the quote’s default, so the rep should check it.
Disabled: The spend limit is added to every quote created from the plan by default.
Optional: Add a Description.
Click Save.
On the Pricing tab, enter the limit amount and select its cadence.
New plan spend limits default to one-time.
Click Publish.
Rules for usage spend limits on plans
Each phase can have one minimum usage spend and one maximum usage spend.
The phase must include at least one usage, percentage, or committed usage product with overage.
All usage products in the phase must have the same cadence.
The spend limit amount must be greater than 0.
The limit’s cadence must be equal to or longer than the cadence of the usage products in the phase.
The maximum amount cannot be less than the minimum amount, regardless of cadence. For example, a $1,200 USD yearly minimum cannot be paired with a $100 USD monthly maximum on a plan, even though the same pair is allowed on a quote.
A plan that breaks one of these rules cannot be published until the issue is fixed.
How a minimum usage spend is billed
At the end of each cadence period, Turnstile adds up the usage charges that count toward the limit. If the total is less than the minimum, Turnstile adds a Minimum spend line for the difference.
The minimum spend line is billed in arrears with the usage for that period. With monthly billing, March’s minimum spend charge appears on the invoice issued at the start of April, alongside April’s advance charges.
If the minimum has a longer cadence than your usage billing, such as a quarterly minimum on monthly usage, Turnstile compares the minimum to the total usage for the whole quarter. The minimum spend line appears after the last month of the quarter, for the difference between the minimum and the quarter’s total usage.
Example: A quote has a $20,000 USD monthly minimum usage spend, a $5,000 USD monthly platform fee, and 2,000 committed units per month at $1 USD each ($2,000 USD per month). Overage is $1 USD per unit.
March: The customer uses 3,500 units, so overage is $1,500 USD. The minimum spend line is $18,500 USD. The April 1 invoice totals $27,000 USD.
April: The customer uses 1,000 units, all within the commitment, so overage is $0 USD. The minimum spend line is $20,000 USD. The May 1 invoice totals $27,000 USD.
In both months, the invoice is $27,000 USD, not $20,000 USD, because the platform fee and committed usage are billed on top of the minimum.
How a maximum usage spend is billed
When usage charges in a cadence period go over the maximum, Turnstile bills the usage at its full amount and adds a negative Maximum spend line for the difference.
The customer sees both lines on the invoice, and the net amount equals the maximum.
If the maximum has a longer cadence than your usage billing, the maximum spend line appears on the invoice for the billing period where spend first goes over the cap. It does not wait for the end of the maximum’s cadence period.
Once usage reaches the maximum, the cap stays in effect for the rest of that cadence period. Any further usage in the period is billed and then fully offset by a matching negative Maximum spend line, so it nets to $0 USD.
Example: A product costs $1 USD per unit, with a $50 USD monthly maximum usage spend. The customer uses 100 units. The invoice shows usage of $100 USD and maximum spend of –$50 USD, for a net charge of $50 USD.
Use a minimum and maximum usage spend together
A phase can have both a minimum and a maximum usage spend. If the maximum has a longer cadence than the minimum and spend reaches the maximum early, the maximum takes precedence over any remaining minimum spend charges for that period.
How the two amounts must relate differs between quotes and plans:
Spend limits in partial periods
Spend limits are not prorated. If a cadence period is shorter than usual, such as a partial first month when Invoice generation is set to On the 1st of each month, or a phase that ends mid-period, the full minimum or maximum applies to that period.
This applies even when proration is turned on for the quote. Proration settings affect product charges, not spend limits. Learn more about proration in our article on setting and managing invoice proration.