Software licences, seats and renewals
Keep every software licence your company pays for, with its seats given to people or laptops. You can never give more seats than you bought. The person looking after a licence is told 30 days before it ends. When HR relieves a leaver, their seats are freed at once.
PLANSFrom Growth
Why it matters
Most companies pay for software seats long after the people using them have left. Nobody in IT hears about an exit in time, and the renewal comes round with the same number of seats. In SmartMy HRMS the licence register sits beside the exit itself. When HR relieves an employee, every seat given to them is freed on their last day and noted on the separation. Free seats show at once, so you give them to the next joiner instead of buying more.
The problem it solves
- You pay for 40 seats of an accounting or design tool and nobody can say who holds them.
- People leave, but their seats stay assigned until someone in IT happens to notice.
- A subscription renews on the card before anyone asks whether all the seats are still needed.
- Licence keys sit in an email thread that half the office can read.
How it works
- Open Invoicing > Fixed Assets > Use and Upkeep > Software Licences > New. Type the software and edition, the vendor and the kind (Per User, Per Device, Site / Unlimited or Concurrent Users). Add Subscription or Bought Outright, the seats, the period and the cost.
- Add the licence key on Key and Notes; only Asset Managers see it. Press Start.
- Under Seats Given, give each seat to a person or to a laptop in your asset register, with the date. You cannot give more seats than the licence has.
- When someone moves to a role that does not need the software, press Free on their seat.
- When HR relieves a leaver in Exit, every seat given to their user is freed with their last working day. The separation notes which licences.
- Thirty days before a licence ends, the person looking after it is told. Renew makes a draft copy for the next period, with the seats still in use carried over.
Everything it does
The licence
- Software, edition, vendor, entity
- Kind: Per User, Per Device, Site / Unlimited, Concurrent Users
- Billing: Subscription (the default) or Bought Outright, which can point to its fixed asset to be amortised
- Seats (1 to start with), Seats Used and Seats Free; a site licence has no seat limit
- From, Until (empty for a licence that never ends), cost for the period or once
- Looked After By: whoever made it, to start with
- Draft, Active, Expired (set daily by date), Cancelled; Start, Renew, Cancel, Back to Draft
Seats
- Each seat goes to a person (a user) or a computer in the asset register, with Given On and Freed On
- Giving more seats than the licence has is refused with a message to free a seat or buy more
- A laptop's asset shows Software on It
- Search licences by person or computer; filters Active, Over-used and Expired; group by vendor or kind
Leavers
- Relieving an employee frees every seat given to their user, dated their last working day
- The separation records which licences were freed
- Seats given to a laptop stay with the laptop
The key
- The licence key is shown only to Asset Managers
Who uses it
IT or admin (Asset Manager)Keeps licences and keys, gives and frees seats, renews.
HRRelieves leavers; their seats are freed by that step.
Person looking after the licenceIs told 30 days before it ends and decides the renewal.
Where you use it
- Web: Invoicing > Fixed Assets > Use and Upkeep > Software Licences (the Asset Manager role is given in the user's access rights)
- Web: Exit, where relieving a leaver frees their seats
- Not in the SmartMy HRMS app: employees do not see their seats there
- Not built: reading seats from the vendor's own admin console; seats are given here by hand
What you control
Settings
- Per licence: kind, billing, seats, period, cost, Looked After By
- Reminder: 30 days before the end, once (fixed)
- Seats freed on relieving: always on
Notifications
- Software Licence Ending: to the person looking after the licence, 30 days before it ends, in the app and by email
- Each person can switch off the email for themselves; in-app notices always arrive
Questions
Can a seat go to an employee who has no login?
A seat goes to a user or to a laptop. For someone without a login, give the seat to their laptop in the asset register; it is not freed by itself when they leave.What happens to seats when we renew?
Renew makes a draft licence for the next period with the seats that are still in use. Check the count, then press Start.Does it cancel the account in the software itself?
No. It frees the seat in your register so you know it is spare. Remove the user in the vendor's console yourself.Which plan has it?
Growth and Scale.Related features
LETTERS, CARDS, DOCUMENTS, ASSETSAssets issued to employeesLaptops, phones, SIM cards, keys and uniforms go out on a request that is approved, handed over and acknowledged by the employee. When they come back damaged or not at all, the charge is recovered from salary, at once or in monthly instalments.EXITResignation, exit interviews and clearanceAn employee resigns, or HR records a termination, retirement or other separation. The notice comes from your policy, the manager and HR approve, every department clears the leaver, and the exit interview is on record.ASSETSPhysical verification of assetsCount the laptops, phones, monitors and furniture in an office by scanning their QR tags. See what was found, what is missing, what turned up in another office and what is not in the register. Each count keeps who saw each asset and when.EXITFull and final settlementOne settlement brings together what you owe the leaver and what they owe you. It covers held salary, leave encashment, notice pay or recovery, gratuity, loans, clearance dues and the final TDS. HR approves, then accounts, then payroll marks it paid.ACROSS SMARTMY HRMSNotificationsSmartMy HRMS tells each person what needs them: a request to approve, a decision, a payslip, a holiday declared today, an exit task, an interview. More than 200 events, each with its own recipients and channels, by email and in the app inbox, with a log of every message.
See your own month run in it.
Tell us how many people you have, how you take attendance and how your salary is structured. We will show you SmartMy HRMS set up that way.