How price locking works
Overview
When you activate a plan in ClarityCalc, the client-facing price per seat is locked. This means your client's rate is set at the moment of activation and doesn't change when vendor costs shift, labor rates are updated, or you adjust your catalog pricing. The locked rate is the contract rate — the number you quoted and the number they pay.
This reflects how MSPs actually sell: "Your managed services plan is $90 per seat per month. If you add a seat, your bill goes up by $90." The client doesn't see or care about the internal cost breakdown. Price locking makes ClarityCalc match that reality.
What gets locked
ClarityCalc locks pricing at two levels when a plan is activated:
The client-facing rate is the price per seat on the plan. This is what drives MRR. When a client's seat count changes (they hire someone, decommission a workstation), total MRR scales proportionally at the locked rate. The rate itself doesn't change.
Each line item in the composition table also gets an individual lock. Every bundle and catalog item on the plan has its per-unit price frozen at the moment of activation. This gives you visibility into how your internal costs are moving relative to what you locked in — which lines are still profitable and which ones are eroding.
Why two levels of locking
The plan-level lock (price per seat) is for the client relationship. It's the number you agreed to.
The per-line locks are for your internal margin analysis. If a vendor raises the cost of an endpoint security catalog item by $2/unit after you've locked a plan, ClarityCalc shows you exactly where your margin shifted. The client's bill doesn't change, but your profitability picture does. This is the kind of visibility that lets you make informed decisions at renewal time.
How to tell when prices are locked
Locked lines in the composition table display a blue padlock icon next to the item name. If you hover over the padlock, you'll see when the price was locked. If the catalog price has drifted since the lock was applied, the tooltip will note the current catalog price so you can see the gap.
What happens during renewals
When you create a renewal from an active plan, the renewal inherits the old locked prices. This is intentional — it shows you what the client was paying under the previous contract.
From there, you have two options:
Keep the old rates and activate the renewal as-is. The client stays on the same pricing and a fresh lock is applied.
Update to current catalog pricing by clicking the button in the top action bar. This clears all locked prices and recalculates from your current catalog. You can then review the difference — "Last year this plan was $90/seat, current costs put it at $95/seat" — and decide how to price the renewal before activating it.
Either way, when you activate the renewal, a fresh lock is applied at whatever the effective prices are at that moment.
What happens during revisions
When you revise an active plan (adding or removing bundles and catalog items), existing locked lines keep their locked prices. Only newly added lines use live catalog pricing. This means a mid-contract change like "add antivirus to the plan" gets priced at current rates, while everything the client was already paying for stays at the agreed rate.
Seat counts are never locked
ClarityCalc locks prices, not quantities. Seat counts always reflect the client's current environment. When a client adds users, devices, or mailboxes, total MRR adjusts at the locked per-seat rate. This is by design — the price per seat is contractual, but the number of seats is reality.
Frequently asked questions
What if I activated a plan before price locking was available? Plans activated before this feature was released don't have locked prices. Their pricing continues to calculate live from the catalog. To apply a lock, you can create a renewal from the plan and activate it — the activation step writes the lock.
Can I unlock prices on an active plan? Not directly. Locked prices on an active plan stay locked for the duration of the contract. If you need to reprice, create a renewal, use "Update to Current Catalog Pricing" to clear the inherited locks, adjust as needed, and activate the renewal.
Does the lock affect my catalog? No. Your catalog prices are completely independent of plan locks. You can update vendor costs, adjust margins, and change catalog pricing at any time. Those changes affect new plans and unlocked plans. Active locked plans are unaffected.
What about discounts? Plan-level discounts (percentage off) are applied on top of the locked price. If a plan is locked at $100/seat with a 10% discount, the effective rate is $90/seat.
Last updated April 10, 2026