Allowance is what provides your Users and Teams with the ability to consume Check-ins at your Location(s), make Resource Bookings, and/or purchase Products. It is comprised of hours, monetary currency, Uses, and/or your own Custom Allowance Unit that can be purchased by or assigned to a User or Team.
Adding Allowances to your Plans and Passes enables you to:
Offer flexible access: Give users prepaid hours, credits, or uses so they can book and check in without paying each time
Simplify billing: Reduce per-use payments by bundling usage into Plans or Passes
Control access: Define exactly which Resources, Products, or Check-in types each allowance can be applied to
Optimize usage for your members: Ensure bookings always deduct from the best available allowance automatically
How allowance works in Optix
How allowance works in Optix
When adding Allowance to a Plan/Pass, you can choose between Monetary currency, Hours, and Uses. You can also choose to charge Users by Check-ins. It is important to understand the distinction between Allowance and Check-ins prior to creating your Plans and allowing access to your organization.
Monetary Currency
You can set monetary prices for all of your resources (there's also a daily price cap for resources) and Products. Monetary currency added to a Plan or Pass provides a set amount of currency (e.g. $100) that your User can spend on Bookings or Products.
Hours
'Hours' added to a Plan or Pass provide a set number of hours that can be applied towards booking resources. This is most commonly used for booking desks, meeting, and conference rooms by the hour. Hours will be deducted from a User's Plan or Pass through the process of creating bookings in Optix.
Uses
'Uses' provide access to any of the resources or products and do not consider the price or hours. Here are some examples of when this could be used:
If you want to allow members on a specific Plan to be able to book a specific resource (i.e. Meeting Room) four times a month, and it doesn't matter whether that booking is 1 hour or 8 hours
If you want to include 6 check-ins on a Pass (1 use = 1 check-in)
Check-ins
Check-ins provide access to your facility and may be useful if you'd like to track who and how many people are accessing your space. If you have an open concept organization or have lounge areas or hot desks that aren't tied to Allowance, for example, you may want to simply charge your Users for a Check-in to access the shared space. You can add Check-ins to Plans or Passes, or charge your Users for individual Check-ins through a Day rate.
Keep in mind, consuming a Check-in requires Users to either:
Check in via Kisi (i.e. tapping the door to unlock)
Be checked in manually by an Admin through Users > select User's line > select Check-in from the right hand panel
Note: If a User has more than one Plan assigned to them with daily Check-in access, the first Plan where a Check-in would be be deducted from is the Plan that has a monthly or yearly billing cadence, followed by any one-time Plans. |
To learn more about how Check-ins work, check out this article here.
Example
A single Plan can involve both 'Hourly bookings' access and 'daily Check-ins' access. Consider the following:
You want to provide 10 hours of meeting room access/month and 15 days of hot desks
First layer of access on the Plan is 'Hourly bookings' where you provide 10 hours for 'Any meeting room'
Second layer of access on the Plan is 'Daily check-ins' where you provide 15 uses to allow the user to check in 15 times
How a User or Team can get allowance
How a User or Team can get allowance
There are three ways in which a User or Team can get Allowance:
How to view Allowance Usage
How to view Allowance Usage
Optix provides a detailed Allowance history panel so admins can understand when, why, and how a user’s allowance changes.
To view your User or Team's allowance history:
Navigating to Users
Selecting a User or Team
Navigating to Allowance and clicking the three-dot menu
Clicking 'Show activity'
This panel helps you see:
When allowance was added (e.g., plan renewals, pass purchases, admin adjustments)
When allowance was consumed (e.g., bookings, check-ins)
When the allowance expired
Who made the change (User, Admin, System, Automation)
The exact amount added or deducted
Upcoming scheduled events, such as plan cycle renewals or upcoming allowance expiry (filterable via the Date range filter)
Notes:
When several allowance changes happen, the usage panel refreshes after about 1 minute
Some allowance types (like unlimited allowances) do not create audit entries
Expiration of allowance creates a “virtual event” to show when unused allowance was removed
Future allowance events (e.g., next cycle start, next expiry) are visible when adjusting the Date range
How to set your Allowance Model (Allowance only vs Overuse)
How to set your Allowance Model (Allowance only vs Overuse)
Allowance with the overuse model
The Allowance with overuse model allows users to book, make purchases, or check-in beyond their allotted allowance (or if they have no allowance). This means that even when a user goes over their allowance limit in a given billing period, they’ll be able to continue making bookings, purchases or checking into your space by being charged an overage fee.
Allowance only model
The Allowance only model will prohibit users from booking over their allotted Allowance, meaning they’ll need to purchase additional Allowance to continue making bookings, purchases or check-ins. While Users can make multiple bookings at once using their Allowance, this model does not allow for Repeat Bookings.
Note: Ensure to include an hourly price in your resources even when your Allowance model is 'Allowance only'. Optix will choose the best price, Plan, or Allowance by default when Users create bookings. If a resource is $0/hour, Optix will charge them $0 regardless of if they have Allowance in their account to use towards this resource. |
To set your Allowance model, navigate to your Settings > Features > Plans & Passes.
FAQs
FAQs
Can unused allowance roll over to the next billing cycle?
No. Allowance included in Plans resets at the start of each billing cycle. Unused allowance from Passes will remain in the user’s wallet until consumed or expired.
Can I give different types of allowance in the same Plan?
Yes. Plans can include any combination of:
Hours
Monetary currency
Uses
Check-ins
Example: 10 meeting room hours + 15 hot-desk check-ins.
What happens if a user has multiple allowances that could apply?
Optix will always apply the best available allowance, following this logic:
Plan allowance (monthly/yearly)
Pass allowance (one-time)
Monetary currency allowance
User is charged (if Overuse Model is enabled)
How does allowance work for Teams?
Team members share a single team wallet.
Admins can assign:
Personal allowance
Team allowance
Or both
Team allowance is consumed first unless configured otherwise.
What is the difference between Allowance and Check-ins?
Allowance (Hours/Uses/Currency): Used for booking resources or purchasing products.
Check-ins: Used for access to your space (day passes or daily access).
A plan may include both.
Why is a user being charged instead of deducting from their allowance?
Common reasons:
The allowance does not include that resource/product/check-in type
The allowance is already depleted
The allowance has expired
The resource price is $0 (Optix treats it as free, not deductible)
The allowance model is set to Overuse
Why do I see an expiry event in the allowance history?
At the end of a plan cycle, unused allowance from Plans expires and is logged as an Expiry event so admins can track what changed and when.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
A user says their allowance was not deducted — why?
Check the following:
Is the resource/product included in their allowance?
Does the user have multiple allowances? (Optix chooses the best one)
Is the allowance depleted?
Is the allowance expired?
Is pricing configured correctly? – In order for Allowance to be deducted from your Users' accounts, there must be an associated price with the Resource, Check-in or Product that they have limited allowance for.
A booking charged the user unexpectedly.
Verify:
Whether the Plan/Pass includes that specific resource type
Allowance is still available
Allowance belongs to the correct location
The user isn’t using a Pass that has already expired
A user cannot book because “no allowance available”
Check:
Allowance model is set to Allowance only
Resource or check-in type is not covered by any of their allowances
Allowance has used Uses instead of Hours
Booking duration exceeds the remaining hours
Daily check-in limit has been reached
The allowance history doesn’t show recent changes
This is expected — the audit panel refreshes approximately every 1 minute to batch updates. Refresh the page after a minute to view the latest entries.
Upcoming allowance events not showing
Ensure:
You adjust the Date range filter to “This month,” “Next month,” or “Custom”
The plan cycle start is scheduled in the future
Future events (e.g., next renewal or future expiry) only appear when within the selected date window.
Why do unlimited allowances not appear in usage history?
Unlimited allowances do not generate usage entries because they do not increment or decrement. Only limited allowances (hours, currency, uses) create history logs.
Note: If you’d like to create your own branded currency (e.g., “Studio Credits” or “CoLab Coins”), you can enable Custom Allowance Unit as an optional feature. This lets users spend your custom unit instead of hours, uses, or monetary currency.