Managing eRoom.net communities and billing accounts

Overview

Your eRoom.net community is the set of eRooms and members that Documentum hosts for your organization. All eRoom.net members belong to one home community, but can be guests in other eRoom.net communities.

Trial vs. paid communities

At eRoom.net, you can set up a community on a trial basis, or you can start paying for a community right away.

• Trial communities are free for up to three weeks (21 days). During that period, there are some restrictions as to the number of members you can have, eRooms you can create, and disk space you can use, but otherwise you have full use of all eRoom.net features. A trial community is automatically deleted at the end of its trial period unless it is paid for before it ends.

Note: If you are the owner of a trial community, you can delete it any time before its trial period ends. Open My Billing, locate the community in the Trial Communities section, and click in the title bar.

• Each paid community at eRoom.net has one billing account, and any billing account can pay for more than one eRoom.net community. You can set up your billing account using the account wizard the first time you create a paid community, or when you pay for a trial community. Each billing account is administered by one or more account owners. The person who creates an account is the initial owner of that account.

Billing account

 A billing account consists of

• billing contact information (the name, address, phone number, and email address of the person responsible for paying the eRoom.net bill)

• a pricing plan ("project" or "term")

• a payment method (credit card or purchase order)

• at least one account owner (the account creator is its initial owner)

Billing account owners and community creators

Associated with each billing account are two roles that eRoom.net members can be assigned to:

• Account owners are members in at least one community paid for by the account who can modify all account information. Account owners have "Create a Community" and "My Billing" links on their My eRooms pages.

• Community creators are members who can create communities that are paid for by the account. Community creators have a "Create a Community" link on their My eRooms pages.

Note: Community creators cannot be account owners, but account owners can create communities.

Creating a community

You can create a community from either the eRoom.net home page or from your My eRooms page. Only eRoom.net members can create a community, so for anonymous users (those who don't yet have an eRoom.net member account), the create community wizard includes a 'new member' step.

Once you create a community, you are its first member and administrator. As such, links on your My eRooms page lead to the community's administration pages (Community Settings). You can manage membership in your community using Community Settings.

To create a community as a new member:

1. If you don't have a member account, go to the eRoom.net home page.

2. Click "Create a Community".

3. On the Create an Account page, provide your member information and click "Next" when you're done.

4. On the Community Name page, type a name for your community and click "Next".

eRoom.net creates your community.

5. When the page titled "Your community has been created" opens, click "Next".

6. On the Purchase Options page, decide whether to create the community and pay for it now, or use it on a trial basis, and then click "Finish".

• If you choose to pay for the community now, the eRoom.net account wizard opens.

• If you choose to create a trial community, eRoom.net asks if you want to use the plug-in, and lets you enable password recovery (two options you can change later on your member information page). Your My eRooms page opens, which includes a link to the new community's administration pages. Since you are the owner of the trial community, you also have a My Billing link that you can use when you want to pay for the trial community. If you do not pay for the trial community before the trial period ends (after 21 days), the community is deleted and you receive no charges for its use.

To create a community as an existing member:

Only eRoom.net account owners and community creators can create new communities, as follows:

1. Go to the eRoom.net home page and click "Create a Community". On the "Create an account" page, click the "login" link.

Or, go to the eRoom.net home page and click "Enter eRoom.net".

Or, direct your browser to your eRoom.net My eRooms page.

2. On the Welcome to eRoom.net (or Login) page, enter your login name and password.

3. If you clicked "Create a Community" from the eRoom.net home page, the Community Name page opens.

Otherwise, your My eRooms page opens. In this case, click "Create a community".

4. On the Community Name page, type a name for your community and click "Next".

eRoom.net creates the community.

5. When the page titled "Your community has been created" opens, click "Next".

6. On the Purchase Options page, decide whether to pay for the community now, or to use it on a trial basis, and then click "Finish".

• If you choose to pay for the community now, and you are an account owner, either pick an existing account, or start the account wizard to create a new one.

If you choose to pay for the community now, and you are a community creator but not an account owner, pick an existing billing account.

• If you start a trial community, you return to your My eRooms page, which includes a link to the new community's administration pages. Since you are the owner of the trial community, you have a My Billing link that you can use when you want to pay for the trial community. If you do not pay for the trial community before the trial period ends (after 21 days), the community is deleted and you receive no charges for its use. If you are an account owner, you also have a "Create a Community" link on your My eRooms page.

Paying for your community

When you create a paid community, the eRoom.net account wizard walks you through the steps in setting up your billing account. If you are an existing account owner, you can start the account wizard from your My Billing page by creating or editing a billing account.

To complete the account wizard:

1. Pick either a project or a term pricing plan. For details about project and term plans, refer to eRoom.net's billing policy at http://www.eroom.net.

• For a project plan, you do not commit to a minimum usage term and can only pay via a credit card. To end a project plan, you must delete the billing account that pays for your community.

• For a term plan, you commit to a fixed-length usage term (semiannual, annual, biannual) and can pay for your community via credit card or purchase order. Pick the combination of 'number of users' and 'number of months' that best fits your needs. (For example, if you are creating a community for 25 persons working on a project that is expected to last six months, you would pick the term named "Team - 25 - 6".)

2. If you chose a term plan, pick the renewal option that specifies what you want to do when the term plan expires. You can

• Convert to the Project plan at the prevailing rate. (the default)  

• Close the billing account.  

• Renew the plan automatically at the prevailing rate.  

• Switch to another Term plan. (pick one)

3. Enter a Promotion Code, if you have one.

4. Click "Next".

5. On the Payment Method page, decide whether to pay by credit card or purchase order. (If you chose a project plan, you can only pay by credit card.) Read the applicable conditions and then click "I agree to the conditions".

6. On the Description page, type any information that helps to classify the billing account (in addition to the number each account is automatically assigned).

This description appears on your My Billing page under the title bar for the account you are creating or editing. It also appears next to the account number on pages that show your account, such as when you reassign the payment for a community to a different account.

7. Click "Next" to open the Payment Details page.

8. If you are paying by credit card, enter the card number, expiration date, billing contact information, and so forth.

If you are paying with a purchase order, enter your billing contact information. You must fax a valid purchase order to the eRoom.net Billing Department. Once you submit the purchase order number, eRoom.net will validate it and contact you accordingly. If you are switching from a credit card to a purchase order payment method, your credit card will continue receiving charges until the purchase order is validated. (For more information about how to submit a purchase order, refer to eRoom.net's billing policy at http://www.eroom.net.)

9. Click "Next".

10. If this is a new billing account, the Finished page opens so you can review your account information. Click "Edit" to make any changes (eRoom.net saves the information you have already entered). Otherwise, click "Finish". Read information on the Account Owners page about adding another owner to this billing account (via My Billing), and then click "OK" to exit the account wizard.

If you are paying with an existing billing account, the Confirmation page opens. Click "Finish" to exit the account wizard.

If you are a new member, confirm (or change) your Time Zone. When the Password Recovery page opens, either enable password recovery now, or click "Cancel" to do it later on your member information page.

You are now logged in and your My eRooms page opens (or you return to My Billing if that's where you started). Since you are now an account owner, you have "Create a community" and "My Billing" links on your My eRooms page.

Working with your billing accounts

Your My Billing page consolidates all account information and charges and payment history for the accounts you own and the communities they pay for.

Note: For help with billing-related questions see the eRoom.net FAQ at www.eRoom.net, or contact the eRoom.net Billing Department at billing@documentum.com, or +1.925.600.5434 (Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm PT).

To open your My Billing page:

1. Go to your My eRooms page.

2. Click "My Billing".

Your My Billing page opens.

My Billing has three sections:

• The Billing Account section shows each billing account you own. Each account summarizes billing information for that account. In this section, you can

• edit account information

• create a new account

• close an account

• delete a community from an account

• assign a community to a different account

• add or remove members as account owners or community creators

• The Trial Communities section lists any trial communities you have. You can pay for a trial community using the procedure described below (later on this page).

• The Charges History section details the usage and charges to date for all your accounts and the communities they pay for.

To create a new account:

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. At the bottom of the Billing Account section, click "new account".

The account wizard opens.

3. Enter the account information in the wizard, and click "Finish" when you are done.

Your new account appears on your My Billing page and you can assign communities to it.

To edit an account you own:

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the account you want to modify.

3. In the title bar for the account, click .

The account wizard opens.

4. Go through the wizard and make the desired changes.

5. Click "Finish" when you are done.

To close an account you own:

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the account you want to close.

3. In the title bar for the account, click .

• If the account has a project pricing plan and doesn't pay for any communities, eRoom.net deletes the account.

• If the account has a project pricing plan and it pays for at least one other community, the account cannot be deleted.

• If the account has a term pricing plan that has not yet expired, the account cannot be deleted. However, you can set the plan's renewal option to Close the billing account. In that case, eRoom.net will close the account when the current term expires.

To change your pricing plan or payment method:

Account owners can modify their pricing plan and payment method.

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the account you want to change.

3. In the title bar, click to open the account wizard.

The Choose a Plan page opens.

4. If you are on a project plan, you can switch to a term plan. However, you can only switch from a term plan to a project plan by setting its renewal option to Convert to the Project plan at the prevailing rate. In that case, the project plan will take effect when the current term expires.

5. Click "Next" to open the Payment Method page and proceed with the account wizard.

To modify the list of account owners:

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the Owners heading for the account you want to modify.

3. Click next to the names of existing owners.

4. On the Owner List page, you can

• Add an account owner by clicking "Add an Owner". On the Add an Account Owner page, type the email address of the member you want to add.

If the email address matches an eRoom.net member in a community paid for by this account (and who is not already a community creator), click "OK" to add the member to the list of account owners.

If the member is already a community creator for the account, you can make the member an owner instead (members cannot be both owners and community creators). Click "OK" to make the member an owner instead of a community creator; click "Cancel" to keep the member on the list of account owners.

• Remove an owner by clicking next to their name. If you are removing yourself as an owner, you must confirm first. eRoom.net prevents you from deleting the only owner of the account -- in this case, you must add another owner first.

5. Click "OK" to return to My Billing.

To modify the list of community creators:

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the Community Creators heading for the account you want to modify.

3. Click next to the names of existing community creators (if any).

4. On the Community Creator List page, you can

• Add a community creator by clicking "Add a Community Creator". On the Add a Community Creator page, type the email address of the member you want to add. If the email address matches an eRoom.net member in a community paid for by this account (and who is not already an owner of the account), click "OK" to add the member to the list of community creators.

• Remove a community creator by clicking next to their name.

4. Click "OK" to return to My Billing.

Working with communities you own

To pay for a trial community:

1. Open your My Billing page.

If you already have a billing account, it is listed in the Billing Accounts section. Otherwise, you can either create one now by clicking "new account", or you can do so in the next few steps.

2. In the Trial Communities section, locate the trial community you want to pay for, and click .

3. On the Choose an Account page, either pick an existing account to pay for the community, or create a new one. If you create a new one, the account wizard opens.

Note: If you are a community creator but not an account owner, you must pick an existing billing account.

4. Click "Next" to continue, and either proceed to the account wizard, or click "Finish" to confirm that the account you selected will start paying for the community. Billing for this community is retroactive to the first day of the trial period.

To modify the list of trial community owners:

Trial communities have owners, similar to account owners. If you create a trial community, you can modify its list of owners. Any trial owner can create a billing account to pay for the community before its trial period expires and eRoom.net deletes the community.

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Trial Communities section, locate the Owners column for the trial community whose owner list you want to modify.

3. Click next to the names of trial community owners.

4. On the Owner List page, you can

• Add a trial community owner by clicking "Add an owner". On the Add an Owner page, type the email address of the member you want to add. If the email address matches an eRoom.net member in your trial community (who is not already an owner of the account), click "OK" to add the member to the list of owners.

• Remove a trial owner by clicking next to their name.

5. Click "OK" to return to My Billing.

To assign a community to a different account:

If you own more than one account, you can change the account that pays for a community.  

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the account that pays for the community you want to reassign.

3. Locate the list of "Communities paid for by this Account".

4. In the "(reassign)" column for the community you want to reassign, click .

The Reassign Community page opens and lists the accounts you own that are not currently paying for the community.

3. Pick the account you want to assign the community to, and click "OK".

4. Click "OK" to confirm that you want to transfer the responsibility for paying for the community to the account you picked.

The reassigned community is now listed in the account table you picked.

To delete a paid community:

1. Open your My Billing page.

2. In the Billing Account section, locate the account that pays for the community you want to delete.

3. Locate the list of  "Communities paid for by this Account".

4. In the "(delete)" column for the community you want to remove, click .

Deleting a community is simplest under these conditions:

• None of the community's native members are account owners or guests in other communities.

• The pricing plan for the account that pays for the community is either a "project" or "term" plan, and it's used to pay for at least one other community.

The following table describes possible conditions when deleting an eRoom.net community, and the corresponding choices you can make and their results. Note that you can always click "Cancel" to terminate the deletion.