Pricing & Credits

Headless Accounting uses a transparent, credit-based pricing model designed for developers. All operations consume credits from your organization's unified pool, with no hidden fees or surprise charges.

🎯 Credit System Overview

Basic Unit

• 1 Credit = $0.01 USD
• All operations consume credits from your master organization's pool
• Credits are attached to organizations, not users (perfect for multi-org setups)

Master Account Credits

• 500 credits provided when you create your first master account
• Credits stored on master organizations (billing roots)
• All sub-organizations consume from master organization's credit pool
• Auto-recharge toggle per master account (can be enabled/disabled)

Organization Base Cost

• $1.00 per month per organization ($12/year)
• 25 credits per week (prorated daily)
• Automatically deducted from your credit balance
• Ensures continuous service availability

💰 Pricing Tiers

Choose the package that fits your development needs:

📊 Operation Pricing

Free Operations (0 Credits)

• All read operations (GET requests, listing, searching)
• Data retrieval (account balances, transaction history, reports)
• System information (health checks, API status)

Paid Operations

Writes cost at most 1 credit ($0.01). Reports and other reads are free.

Core Accounting Operations

Document Management

Business Entity Management

API Management

Advanced Features

Recurring Transactions (Cron Jobs)

Multi-Currency Operations

Bank Reconciliation

🔄 Auto-Recharge System

Trigger Conditions

• Low Balance Alert: When credits drop below $4.00 (400 credits)
• Auto-Recharge: Automatically adds credits to reach $20.00 balance (2000 credits)
• Toggle Control: Can be enabled/disabled per master account
• Notification: Email alert sent when auto-recharge occurs

How It Works

1. When your credit balance drops below $4.00 (400 credits), auto-recharge triggers (if enabled)
2. Your card is automatically charged for the difference to reach $20.00 (2000 credits)
3. You receive an email notification of the charge
4. Service continues uninterrupted

Managing Auto-Recharge

You can enable/disable auto-recharge for each master account independently. This gives you full control over billing for different organizations.

💳 Loading Credits

Purchases (dashboard, API, or x402)

• Web app: Dashboard billing uses Stripe Checkout (POST /api/stripe/checkout on the Crane web app) with a minimum of 100 credits.
• REST API (Stripe): POST /organizations/{master_organization_id}/credits/purchase with Authorization: Bearer … and JSON organization_id, credit_amount, and optional success_url / cancel_url; response includes checkout_url.
• USDC on Base: optional x402 flow — see x402 credit top-up.

# Example: purchase 1,000 credits ($10) for the billing master org
POST https://api.craneledger.ai/organizations/ORG_123456/credits/purchase
Authorization: Bearer ha_live_...
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "organization_id": "ORG_123456",
  "credit_amount": 1000
}

Supported Packages

• Solo Dev: 1,000 credits ($10)
• Builder: 5,000 credits ($50)
• Scale: 25,000 credits ($250)

Enterprise Custom Packages

Need more credits? Contact us for custom enterprise packages with volume discounts.

📈 Billing Examples

Solo Developer (Monthly Usage)

• Initial Credits: 500 credits ($5.00)
• Base Cost: $1.00 (25 credits/week)
• 50 Manual Transactions: 50 credits ($0.50)
• 10 Invoices: 10 credits ($0.10)
• 5 Reports: 0 credits (free)
• Total: ~$0.60 usage + $1.00 base ≈ $1.60/month

Development Team (Monthly Usage)

• Initial Credits: 500 credits ($5.00)
• Base Cost: $1.00 (25 credits/week)
• 200 Manual Transactions: 200 credits ($2.00)
• 50 Invoices: 50 credits ($0.50)
• 20 Reports: 0 credits (free)
• API Integration: 50 credits ($0.50)
• Total: ~$3.00 usage + $1.00 base ≈ $4.00/month

Enterprise Platform (Monthly Usage)

• Initial Credits: 500 credits ($5.00)
• Base Cost: $1.00 (25 credits/week)
• 1000 Manual Transactions: 1000 credits ($10.00)
• 200 Invoices: 200 credits ($2.00)
• 100 Reports: 0 credits (free)
• Recurring Jobs: 100 credits ($1.00)
• API Integration: 100 credits ($1.00)
• Total: ~$14.00 usage + $1.00 base ≈ $15.00/month

🏢 Multi-Organization Billing

Master Account Structure

• Master Account: Root organization with billing setup
• Sub-Organizations: Child organizations that share billing
• Unified Credit Pool: All organizations in a hierarchy share the master account's credits

Billing Hierarchy Examples

Reseller Platform

Reseller Platform (Master - Billing Root)
├── Client A (Linked - isolated data, shared billing)
│   ├── Client A's HQ (Owned - consolidated with Client A)
│   └── Client A's Branch (Owned - consolidated with Client A)
└── Client B (Linked - isolated data, shared billing)

Corporate Structure

Corporate HQ (Master - Billing Root)
├── Division A (Owned - consolidated reporting)
│   ├── Dept 1 (Owned - consolidated with Division A)
│   └── Dept 2 (Owned - consolidated with Division A)
└── Subsidiary (Owned - consolidated with HQ)

Benefits for Developers

• Separate Billing: Different organizations can have different billing setups
• Client Isolation: Perfect for building accounting platforms for clients
• Flexible Architecture: Like OpenAI - multiple orgs, separate billing
• Cost Control: Monitor usage per organization or client

🔍 Monitoring Usage

Check Credit Balance

# Get organization billing info
GET /api/organizations/{id}/billing

# Response includes current credit balance
{
  "credits_remaining": 1500,
  "credits_total": 2000,
  "auto_recharge_enabled": true,
  "billing_organization_id": "ORG_123456"
}

Usage History

# Get credit consumption events
GET /api/events?entity_type=organization&event_type=credits_consumed

# Get organization-specific events
GET /api/organizations/{id}/events

⚠️ Credit Limits & Alerts

Low Balance Warnings

• Email alerts when balance drops below $4.00
• Auto-recharge (if enabled) prevents service interruption
• API warnings in response headers when balance is low

Service Suspension

• Operations are blocked when credits reach zero
• Read operations remain free to allow balance checking
• Service resumes immediately after adding credits

💡 Best Practices

For Individual Developers

1. Start with Solo Dev package for personal projects
2. Enable auto-recharge to avoid service interruptions
3. Monitor usage through the dashboard
4. Upgrade to Builder when working with teams

For Development Teams

1. Use Builder package for team development
2. Create separate organizations for different projects
3. Enable auto-recharge for production environments
4. Use the API to automate credit monitoring

For Enterprise Platforms

1. Choose Scale package for high-volume applications
2. Create master accounts per client for billing isolation
3. Use API integration for automated credit management
4. Contact sales for custom enterprise packages

Ready to get started? Create your master account and receive 500 credits to begin building!

• ✨ For LLMs/AI assistants: Read our structured API reference