Slate Credits manage all in-Slate purchases, including:

• Certain communication methods, like SMS, print, and voice

• Identity Verification

Access your Slate Credit accounts in Database → Slate Credits.

Service rates

Select Service Rates for a list of all service rates.

Slate Voice durations

The cost of Slate Voice comes directly from the upstream telecommunications providers that count a partial minute as a full minute.

A call for 20 seconds counts as 1 minute, and a call for 1 minute and 20 seconds counts as 2 minutes.

Recipient data fees

The recipient may incur data and usage fees from their mobile provider for any text messages they receive, especially where they may not have an unlimited text messaging plan.

You must capture permission to text message an individual before sending any text messages. This is generally accomplished by creating a custom field that is added to all external forms, such as an inquiry form and event registration forms.

SMS segmentation

A single SMS segment allows for up to 160 characters in the GSM-7 character encoding, which includes US and Western European characters.

If an emoji or other character is included that requires Unicode encoding, the SMS segment switches to UCS-2 character encoding, which allows for up to 70 characters per segment.

An estimate of the credit cost of a given SMS message appears below the message field. This estimate reflects the character count, which treats merge fields as-is.

That is, {{Preferred}} is counted as 13 characters, not the number of characters in the final, rendered name. So, if a recipient has a longer first name, and your overall message is near the segment limit, you might see messages that require an additional segment where others don't. These limits are set by the technical specification for SMS and aren't specific to Slate.

💡 Slate Credits are used for both incoming and outgoing messages.

Creating a new Slate Credit account

By default, your database has one Slate Credit account, Default Account, under which all debits and credits fall.

You can create any number of additional accounts to segment your spend.

To create a Slate Credit account:

1. Go to Database → Slate Credits.

2. Select New Account.

3. Configure the following settings:

   • Status: Active

   • Folder: Select an existing folder, or select Other and enter a name to create a new one.

   • Name: Give the account an internal name.

   • Export Value 1-5: Enter up to five alternate values under which the Slate Credit account can appear as an export.

   • Notes: Add optional descriptive text to the account.

4. Select Save.

   

The account overview page

Select an account to get an overview, where you’ll find:

• Available Credits: The number of Slate Credits available for use. If this is a negative number, you’ve used more credits than you’ve purchased.

• Add Credits: Purchase Slate Credits as a block from a minimum of 100.  

• Transfer Credits: Move Slate Credits from one account to another.

• Account Ledger: A list of debits (negative) and credits to the account, along with the Service used. Select Customize View to edit the query pulling in this data.

Adding Slate Credits to your account

To add Slate Credits to an account:

1. Go to Database → Slate Credits.

2. Select a Slate Credit account.

3. Select Add Credits.

4. Select an amount.

5. Select a payment type. See payment options for more information.

6. Select Submit.

Your available credits appear on the account’s overview page.

💡 Slate Credits do not expire.

Using Slate Credits

• For communications: Slate Credits let you send and receive text messages, calls, and print mailings. Set up a phone number in Database → Deliver Configuration.

• For Identity Verification: You can use Slate Credits to confirm applicants are who they say they are.

Transferring Slate Credits between accounts

Once you’ve purchased Slate Credits for one account, you can transfer those credits to others.

1. Select Transfer Credits.

2. Select a Source Account to disburse the credits (defaults to the current account).

3. Select a Target Account to receive the credits.

4. Enter a Transfer Amount. 1 Slate Credit = $1.

5. Select Save.

Payment options

Payment for Slate Credits can be made by credit card or by invoice for payment by corporate check. Payments must be made within 30 days of purchase.

Can we add Slate Credits to our contract language?

This is not possible. Applicable fees charged by third parties for the purchase of communications such as telephony, print products, postage and text messaging fall outside of your license agreement. The fees for these communications are subject to change at any time and cannot be guaranteed for the duration of a license agreement. For this reason, we do not include these fees in our contracts.

🔔 Unused Slate Credits cannot be refunded.