2021 Traditional Plan Changes

Traditional licenses are no longer available for purchase. Traditional plans are available for clients who previously purchased a traditional license.

The following information applies to clients with a traditional license. See 2021 Plan Changes if you have a SAAS licenses.

Webinar

Watch the recording of our March 18, 2021 webinar explaining our new plans and pricing.

New Plans and Prices Pre Show Slides (Keynote)

New Plans and Prices Pre Show Slides (PowerPoint)

New Plans and Prices (Keynote)

New Plans and Prices (PowerPoint)

What is changing?

• We are replacing our current plans for Traditional licenses with 3 plans
• We are consolidating multiples payments, enrollments, and renewal dates into a single price and renewal for all licenses
• Everyone is either gaining new features or saving money
• For nearly all, there is a more affordable lower tier if the price increase is too much

Why are you changing these plans?

Suran aims to achieve a number of goals with these changes:

• Simpler, consolidated billing
• Offer better value (more features for less money)
• Attract new clients
• Increase competition in our market, especially for smaller organizations
• Provide access to more services without needing to consider the buy-up cost
• Implement a price increase to reflect recent enhancements
• Fund new development and services

What are the new plans?

• Basic
• Budget
• Cloud

What do the new plans replace?

• CDM+ Premier Support
• CDM+ Payroll Support
• CDM+ Data Hosting
• Shared Hosting
• Engage Payroll
• Engage Complete
• Engage Complete (Additional Account)

There are dozens of different combinations of these plans in use today. The combinations will be reduced to the options listed above.

What do the plans cost and include?

Most plans have a base price that provides 1 program and 1 concurrent user license, then a separate price to add additional users, licenses, and organizations.

All pricing is listed monthly. Plans can be renewed monthly or annually. There is no discount for annual renewal. Multiply the monthly rate by 12 to calculate annual cost. 

	Basic	Budget	Cloud
Base Price (1 program, 1 user)	$10	$30	$45
Per additional program	$5	$10	$15
Per additional user	$5	$5	$5
Per additional organization	$15	$15	$15
Upgrades
Hosting
Help Center Support
Email and Phone Support	$125/instance	Unlimited	Unlimited
Mobile and Engage
Programs	Any	Any	Any
Training/Consulting	$125/hour	$125/hour	$125/hour; Includes 1 hour per program per year

Additional programs can be purchased for $200/program regardless of the plan.

What are the available programs?

• Membership/Attendance
• Contributions
• Accounting/Payroll
• Event Registration
• Roommate Facilities Manager
• Check-In/Check-Out
• Sales Orders
• Regional
• Essentials (limited version of Contributions and Event Registration)

How do user licenses work?

CDM+ Desktop uses a concurrent license model. You can install CDM+ on as many computers as you need, but only a certain number of users may use the program concurrently (unless you are on CDM+ Essentials or our unlimited Complete plan).

When the maximum number of users are logged in, the next login attempt will notify you that you’ve reached this maximum. Ask another client to log out or increase your licenses to bypass this message.

There is no limit to the number of Engage or CDM+ Mobile users, concurrent or otherwise.

How do per-user costs work?

• There is no up-front cost for additional concurrent users.
• For all plans each user is $5/month.
• For those without any plan, user licenses can be purchased for a one-time charge of $60/license. There is no one-time charge to add a license if enrolled in any plan.
• Licenses can be dropped and added at any time.
• When enrolling in a new plan, licenses can be dropped but must be re-purchased at $60/license if you later drop your plan and want to re-add the licenses.

How do per-organization costs work?

Additional organization licenses are not available for the CDM+ Essentials and CDM+ Starter plans. Each organization must enroll in its own CDM+ plan.

Organizations with distinct Federal Employee ID Numbers (FEINs) that share administrative staff can enroll all organizations under a single plan. Examples of these organizations include:

• A cluster of churches that share administrative staff
• A church with attached childcare that has its own FEIN
• An organization whose staff administer a separate foundation or ministry with their own FEIN

Each additional organization adds $15/month to their plan. All organizations have access to the full set of features and the programs owned by the parent. Each additional organization can have their own merchant account.

There is a maximum of $30/month for additional organizations (unless the additional organization adds its own merchant account; see below for How do additional merchant accounts work?):

• 1 additional organization: $15/month
• 2 additional organizations: $30/month
• 3 additional organizations: $30/month
• 4+ additional organizations: $30/month

How do additional merchant accounts work?

A separate merchant account for giving/payments can be added to an account for an additional $15/month. This will result in a separate/account database. There is no limit to the number of additional merchant accounts that can be added, and there is no limit to the $15/month cost for each organization.

The following combinations constitute one (1) merchant account:

• Giving/Payments only
• Payroll only
• Giving/Payments + Payroll

It is advised to use a single merchant account and separate income using CDM+ Accounting instead of creating separate merchant accounts.

What are the transaction fees?

• $0.30 per transaction plus 2.9% (Visa/MasterCard/Discover)
• $0.30 per transaction plus 3.5% (American Express).
• $0.30 per transaction plus 0.8% (eCheck/ACH)
• $1.00 per batch plus $0.30 for each employee bank account (Payroll Direct Deposit)

Some clients may be eligible for special Flat ACH transaction fee pricing. Contact our sales team for more information.

 Are there fees for Text Giving?

Carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) require SMS messages like text giving to come from a registered sender. This registration process incurs additional fees, which are passed along to your organization.

Visit Text Giving Fees to learn more.

How do I know what my current plans and configuration are?

In CDM+, go to CDM+ (macOS) or File (Windows) → About CDM+ → System Information. You can see your programs, user licenses, Engage plan, and license model. Check your renewal notices or contact us at sales@cdmplus.com to determine if you are enrolled in support, payroll support, and/or data hosting.

How does per-instance support work?

For the Basic plan there is a charge for each support instance. A support instance is:

• The first interaction with support relating to a specific issue
• Any follow-up interactions required to resolve the issue

When you contact support you will be required to provide a payment method before working with a support technician. You will be billed once the issue is resolved. Consult the pricing table above for the per-instance support rate for your plan.

Credit or debit card payment is required for per-instance support.

Some issues are not billable, such as:

• Connecting to your hosted data
• Issues arising from a bug in the software

If you are self-hosted then issues connecting to your data ARE billable. This includes assistance transferring from hosting to a self-hosted instance.

Per-Instance support is ONLY available for the two most recent major CDM+ versions (e.g. 12.0.x and 11.2.x). Clients needing support on older version must purchase one year of basic support to upgrade to a supported version.

This purchase will include a support instance, excluding assistance connecting to a self-hosted instance of CDM+. There is no charge for assistance connecting to CDM+ Data Hosting.

Can I obtain support without a plan?

Yes, under the same per-instance rate and rules as the Basic plan.

What is the difference between support, training, and consulting?

Training

Training is conduced online via screen-sharing or in-person and is usually arranged in advance to teach staff about the use of CDM+. Training teaches Suran's best practices for how to use our products, but can be adjusted to your specific needs. In short, training answers the question:

How do I perform this task?

Consulting

Consulting is also conducted via screen-sharing or in person and is often project based. Consulting works directly with your specific situation and data by connecting you to CDM+ experts. These tasks can be small and simple, or large and complex. Consulting answers the request:

Help me achieve this result.

Support

Support can answer the same questions as training and consulting, provided they are on a small scale. Support can also help explain certain program behavior, provide technical assistance with installations, troubleshoot bugs or in general assist you accomplish your work in our software. Support answers the following questions/requests:

How do I perform this task?

Help me achieve this result.

Why does the system behave this way?

What determines if support becomes training or consulting and is therefore billable?

Ultimately Suran's support technicians determine if a support instance should be classified as training or consulting based on the content and length of resolving the issue. However, there are a few guidelines we also follow:

• Training is often explicitly arranged for new staff or product purchases and designated as "training" in advance
• Large-scale assistance with Accounting or Payroll issues tend to because consulting, usually based on the scope of the work
• Phone calls that exceed 30 minutes in length

As soon as a support technician determines an issue should be classified as consulting or training, we will communicate that designation to you to negotiate agreement of training/consulting and to arrange payment (including use of bundled training/consulting hours with your plan).

What happened to the Engage Plans?

In September 2020 we announced three Engage Plans:

• Engage Standard
• Engage Payroll
• Engage Complete

All three plans have been combined and there are no longer 3 levels of Engage. All Engage features—including online giving, billing, and payroll direct deposit—are now included in every Cloud Plan.

If you downgrade to a Budget or Basic plan you will no longer be able to use Engage.

Is Mobile no longer available to anyone on hosting?

CDM+ Mobile was previously included with any Data Hosting subscription. Moving forward, you will need a Cloud plan to use CDM+ Mobile.

If you downgrade to a Budget or Basic plan you will no longer be able to use CDM+ Mobile on your devices.

What happened to the extra $60/year payroll support fee?

We've merged the payroll support fee into these new plans.

Is hosting required?

No, but all plans include hosting. Hosting is strongly recommended to provide universal access to your data and secure, off-site backups.

Data hosting will be required for major versions following CDM+ 12.1. Please read the End of Life for Self-Hosted Installations of CDM+ blog post for more information.

Am I required to be on a software plan?

Clients who generate payroll or 1099 tax forms are required to have an active plan. Any plan is will meet this requirement.

This requirement is similar to the previous requirement to have an active payroll support or premier support enrollment when calculating payroll. As before, there is a 30 day grace period after your plan lapses during which you can calculate payroll and access tax forms.

Once you exceed this grace period you can view existing payroll but will be unable to calculate new payroll or access any tax forms.

What if I want to transition to a different plan?

Simply contact sales to notify us you want to move to a different plan with your next renewal and we will move you to that plan. Your available features will update to match those of the new plan immediately.

You can only downgrade to a cheaper plan once every 3 months.

If you pay annually you will owe the pro-rated difference between the old and new plan. If you downgrade to a cheaper plan from a pre-paid plan there will be no refund.

How do I cancel my plan?

Contact CDM+ Sales to arrange cancellation. If we currently host your data will will make arrangements to transfer your data to an in-house server.

For annual plans there will be no refund issued upon cancellation. 

What is the cost to upgrade from an older version of CDM+?

If you are on a plan there is no cost. All plans include all software upgrades.

If you are not on a plan, you will need to enroll in one year of the basic plan to receive the update. This enrollment includes all benefits of basic, such as hosting. You will be able to upgrade CDM+ immediately upon enrollment.

The first year of basic must be paid up-front. You can then

1. Continue to renew annually, or...
2. Switch to monthly payments for auto-renewal, or...
3. Elect to not renew your plan

You can also pay for one year of budget or cloud instead of basic and receive the upgrade.

If you want to pay monthly for budget or cloud, you can:

• Pay for one year's worth of basic
• This total will be pro-rated at the budget or cloud rate
• Once the basic payment has been used, you will begin monthly payments on budget or cloud

For example, 2 programs and 1 user license is $15/month for basic and $60/month for cloud. To upgrade and go on monthly payments for cloud, you would:

1. Pay $180 (12 month of basic)
2. Wait 3 months ($180/$60 = 3)
3. Pay $60/month beginning in the fourth month

When will pricing these new plans go into effect?

• Your April 2021 renewal for monthly payers
• Your next renewal for annual payers
• If you pay annual and monthly, you will be transitioned to monthly at the new rate when your annual renewal expires. In the interim, your monthly renewal will be unchanged
• If you renew 2 or more plans annually in different months (e.g. Support in Jan, Hosting in April) we will calculate a new single renewal date based on your current renewals
• If you pay monthly on different days of the month the new plan will become active on the latest day of the month on which you current pay (e.g. Data Hosting on the 5th and Premier on the 23rd becomes Cloud on the 23rd)
• You can transition to a different plan at any time

When will I receive the benefits of these new plans?

Immediately! Even if your pricing doesn't change for many months you still get access to new features today.

How will you align mixed annual renewal dates?

Two mixed annual renewal dates

We will use the following formula:

• Let FIRST_ANNUAL_RATE be the annual cost of the plan that renews first
• Let FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE be the renewal date of the plan that renews first
• Let SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE be the annual cost of the plan that renews second
• Let SECOND_RENEWAL_DATE be the renewal date of the plan that renews_first

NEW_RENEWAL_DATE =
	FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE + (
		(
			(SECOND_RENEWAL_DATE - FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE) *
			ROUND(SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2)
		) / (
			ROUND(FIRST_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2) +
			ROUND(SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2)
		)
	)

To break this down into steps:

1. Calculate FIRST_DAILY_DATE as FIRST_ANNUAL_RATE / 365
2. Calculate SECOND_DAILY_RATE as SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE / 365
3. Calculate TOTAL_DAILY_RATE as FIRST_DAILY_DATE + SECOND_DAILY_RATE
4. Calculate RENEWAL_GAP_DAYS as the days between FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE and SECOND_RENEWAL_DATE
5. Calculate RENEWAL_GAP_PAYMENT as RENEWAL_GAP_DAYS * SECOND_DAILY_RATE
6. Calculate RENEWAL_GAP_PAYMENT_AT_TOTAL_DAILY_RATE as RENEWAL_GAP_PAYMENT / TOTAL_DAILY_RATE
7. NEW_RENEWAL_DATE = FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE + RENEWAL_GAP_PAYMENT_AT_TOTAL_DAILY_RATE 

A good way to explain the formula is:

• Determine how much you've paid for the days past the first renewal using the second renewal daily rate
• Divide that total by the daily rate for both renewals
• Add the result in days to the first renewal

For example:

• Your hosting renews July 21, 2021 at $341.43
• Your premier support renews January 16, 2022 at $510.00
• Your new renewal date will be November 5, 2021

It doesn't matter which plan renews first—hosting, support, or Engage.

The following animation walks through this formula.

Three mixed annual renewal dates

We will use the following formula:

• Let FIRST_ANNUAL_RATE be the annual cost of the plan that renews first
• Let FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE be the renewal date of the plan that renews first
• Let SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE be the annual cost of the plan that renews second
• Let SECOND_RENEWAL_DATE be the renewal date of the plan that renews second
• Let THIRD_ANNUAL_RATE be the annual cost of the plan that renews third
• Let THIRD_RENEWAL_DATE be the renewal date of the plan that renews third

NEW_RENEWAL_DATE =
	FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE + (
		(
			(
				(SECOND_RENEWAL_DATE - FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE) *
				ROUND(SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2)
			) + (
				(THIRD_RENEWAL_DATE - FIRST_RENEWAL_DATE) *
				ROUND(THIRD_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2)
			)
		) / (
			ROUND(FIRST_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2) +
			ROUND(SECOND_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2) +
			ROUND(THIRD_ANNUAL_RATE / 365, 2)
		)
	)

This formula follows the structure of the two renewal formula but calculates the RENEWAL_GAP_PAYMENT independently for the second and third renewals. These totals are then summed before dividing by the daily renewal rate for all three plans to calculate the new renewal date.

How will I be transitioned to the new plans?

You will receive communication from Suran detailing:

• Your current plan and configuration
• Your new plan
• Your new rate
• When your new rate goes into effect

Plans will be transitioned as follows:

Anyone moving to Cloud whose total monthly costs exceeds $175.00 will move to CDM+ Complete.

If you have shared hosting or additional Engage accounts these will be added to your plan as additional organizations.

Why is my cost going up?

Not everyone's cost is going up. For those who are seeing an increase, there are 3 reasons:

Additional value

Anyone with a cost increase is gaining additional features. This could be program updates, hosting, or Engage. Consult the plan chart above to see what you've gained with the new plan.

We want to make the CDM+ Software an invaluable tool in your ministry. The best way to do this is to provide access to ALL of CDM+—program updates, hosting, mobile, and Engage. No matter what your increase is, you will have access to more CDM+ than you did previously.

Periodic increase

These plan changes also reflect value delivered in recent years and to fund new development going forward. Since our last price increase in 2018, we've delivered:

• Major updates to CDM+
• New programs such as Sales Orders and Mobile Receipts
• Significant expansion to Engage such as Fee Assist, optimizations, and Billing
• An overhauled and continuously-updated help center
• And more

While periodic price increases are a reality of the software industry, we do not make these increases lightly. Many of our clients are operating with constrained budgets, especially given the economic uncertainties inherent to the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand this challenge, and we've also seen our clients who embraced new tools in the past year succeed and thrive. For these reasons, everyone with a price increase is:

1. Gaining additional features at a rate lower than adding those features would've been previously
2. Alternatively has a more affordable lower tier available if you are willing to forego some features (the exception is Basic—see I'm currently on payroll support and moving to Basic. Why are you forcing a price increase?)

Self-hosted clients

CDM+ Hosting provides 24/7/365 access to your data from any Internet-connected computer. Hosting also provides secure, off-site backups and managed servers to ensure your data is always available. CDM+ Hosting is the best way to store and access your data to ensure you can always log in and get to work.

While the majority of our supported clients use CDM+ Hosting every day to access their critical information, a number of clients host their data in-house. Those self-hosting could be on a stand-alone computer, working between a couple computers, or using a dedicated server. We will continue to support these configurations, but we want to make hosting available to everyone without having to consider a cost increase. To make hosting universally available, we needed to build some of the cost of hosting into our plans even if you haven't yet made the move to hosting.

If you are a self-hosted user, the price increase to your new plan is much less than the cost of adding hosting under the previous pricing model. In addition, self-hosted environments can encounter specific challenges that impact consistent access to your data. Operating system issues, hardware failure, firewalls, and other environmental factors can make self-hosting challenging. By including hosting in every plan hosting becomes a problem-solving solution instead of an extra cost.

Hosting is available and recommended, but not required. See Is hosting required?

I can't afford the new pricing. What are my options?

For those who are not on Basic we've ensured there is a lower tier that offers most of your current services and is either a cost savings or a very small increase over your current pricing.

We strongly encourage you to consider all your software solutions and the new value these plans add to see if your total cost of ownership is increasing due to these new plans.

Hosting, online giving, online directories, mobile access, payroll direct deposit, and other included features may provide time savings or allow you to eliminate the cost of another software package, thereby reducing your overall expenses of time and money.

If you want to move to a lower tier simply contact our sales department as sales@cdmplus.com and we will be happy to facilitate this change.

I'm currently on payroll support and moving to Basic. Why are you forcing a price increase?

Previously, you paid $60/year for payroll support. Over the past two years, you've also been paying an annual fee to upgrade CDM+ to be able to generate payroll and access tax forms. An annual update for accounting and payroll software is an industry standard and helps us ensure the program stays compliant with changing government regulations.

With the new plan, we've also bundled hosting to ensure your data is secure and accessible from any internet-connected computer. 

Consider a 3 program and 1 user configuration:

• 2020 Payroll support and an update to CDM+ 11.1: $162.50
• 2020 Payroll support, an update to CDM+ 11.1, and 1 year of hosting: $446.93
• 2021 Basic support: $240.00

This annual increase of $77.50 represents a periodic price increase as described above PLUS increased value if you move to hosting.