Add agent capacity and onboard teammates with the right billing checks

Updated Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · Marcel Gravelle

Adding a teammate involves two separate jobs: ensuring the account has the required licensed capacity and creating a correctly configured agent profile. Start with the account’s current agent counts and billing arrangement. This helps a B2B support team plan a rollout or coverage expansion without assuming that permission to create agents also grants permission to purchase capacity.

At a glance

For: support operations managers, account owners, billing administrators and agent administrators. Applies to: Supportbench Core.

Start here: Settings → Account → Billing & invoices; then Settings → Organization → Agents

Plan the required capacity before opening checkout · Prepare billing and agent-administration access · Review the account’s Billing & invoices page · Confirm capacity, then create the agents · Understand agent-limit messages and related actions · Example: add a specialist team for a customer rollout · Recover from common capacity and billing problems

Plan the required capacity before opening checkout

Write down the required total number of agents, not only the number of people joining this week. Compare that requirement with the account’s displayed Active agents and Authorized agents. Have the billing owner confirm the applicable contract, package and purchasing authority before committing to a change.

Question	Why it matters
How many agents are active now?	The current active profiles contribute to the capacity check. A planned change must account for the existing team.
How many agents are authorized?	This is the account’s displayed licensed allowance; it is separate from the number of profiles you hope to add.
Who may approve the expense?	The person configuring agent permissions may not be the billing owner or an authorized purchaser.
Which billing arrangement applies?	The account can use a provider portal, a purchase-order arrangement or a migration/setup path. The available actions differ.
What access will the new agents need?	Capacity does not assign an agent role, Division, team, queue eligibility or customer access. Plan those separately.

For example, if eight active agents are shown and three additional people will be active, the operational requirement is capacity for eleven active agents. Confirm the actual plan rules and quote; this arithmetic is a planning example, not a Supportbench package or price promise.

Prepare billing and agent-administration access

Use the intended Supportbench account and confirm its identity before reviewing subscription information.
Billing access requires the account owner or Administer billing. If you do not have it, involve the authorized billing owner rather than asking for broad administrative access merely to complete one purchase.
Agent creation uses separate agent-administration permissions. Agree who will create the profiles after capacity is confirmed.
Have the required total count, purchase approval and billing contact ready. Review any unpaid-invoice or account-limit message before starting a new checkout.
Use the account’s actual provider quote and contract for price, timing, taxes, renewal and any prorated adjustment. This guide does not establish a universal billing calculation.

Review the account’s Billing & invoices page

Open Settings → Account → Billing & invoices.
Review the displayed subscription, Active agents and Authorized agents. Note a mismatch or pending confirmation before initiating another change.
Review Billing information and Billing history where offered. These are separate from confirming a new provider transaction.
Choose the next step from the action actually shown for this account, using the table below. There is no universal Core sequence of Edit Subscription, a numeric seat field and Save.

Displayed action or arrangement	What to do
Manage subscription	Open the authorized Chargebee customer portal. Review the changes, quantity, price and terms that the provider offers for your subscription before confirming an approved change. The available provider controls depend on the account.
Purchase Orders	Contact Supportbench to arrange the licensed-count change under the applicable agreement. Do not assume a self-service provider checkout is the approved purchasing route.
Move billing to Chargebee	Treat this as a billing-provider transition. Read the transition disclosure and use Continue securely only when that transition is intended and authorized; it is not an ordinary seat-count Save button.
Add a monthly plan / Save with a yearly plan / custom checkout	These can be initial-plan or provider-setup paths. Verify whether you are establishing a plan or changing an existing one before proceeding.
No applicable change action	Check billing authority, account state and the billing arrangement with the owner. Use Supportbench assistance for an unsupported or unclear change path.

Review the provider result before repeating a purchase

A provider confirmation, the Supportbench subscription record and the agent-creation check are separate observations. Keep the confirmation reference and return to Supportbench to verify the resulting allowance. A page that has not refreshed is not proof that the payment failed.

Confirm capacity, then create the agents

Complete only the approved change through the offered provider or assisted process. Keep its confirmation details in the appropriate billing record without sharing payment credentials in a support discussion.
Return to Billing & invoices and refresh the page. Check the resulting subscription and Authorized agents against the intended total.
If the provider reports success but Supportbench confirmation is pending, choose Confirm subscription when shown. Retry confirmation, not payment; do not start another paid checkout.
If the count remains incorrect, stop additional purchasing attempts and contact the billing owner or Supportbench with the account, expected count and provider confirmation reference.
After capacity is confirmed, open Settings → Organization → Agents and choose New Agent. Follow the agent configuration guide for profile identity, role, Division, team and availability.
Save the intended profile and verify it appears with the correct access. Check the account counts again after the planned onboarding. Confirm operational readiness separately: the person should be able to perform their intended work and should not gain unrelated customer or administrative access.

Understand agent-limit messages and related actions

New Agent checks the account’s active profiles and authorized/package limits. A limit dialog can direct an authorized user to Buy more agents, identify missing billing authority, report unpaid invoices or require an assisted Supportbench change. Follow the actual message for the account rather than applying one workaround to every situation.

Do not delete historical agent records simply to get past a capacity prompt. Review normal offboarding, activity and ownership responsibilities with the responsible administrator. Removing or deactivating a person and changing a paid subscription are different decisions; one should not be assumed to complete the other.

The billing page’s Cancel account action submits a cancellation request. It is not an immediate self-service downgrade or a mechanism for reducing one agent seat. Read the action and its confirmation carefully, and use the appropriate subscription process for the intended change.

Example: add a specialist team for a customer rollout

A support lead plans three new specialists for an enterprise rollout. They record the existing active-agent count and the required total, and identify the billing owner.
The billing owner opens Billing & invoices and confirms whether the account uses Manage subscription or a purchase-order arrangement. They review the applicable quote or assisted change before committing.
After the provider or Supportbench confirms the change, the billing owner verifies Authorized agents in Core and shares that capacity is ready with the agent administrator.
The agent administrator creates the three profiles, using a reviewed specialist role, intended Division and team membership. Purchasing capacity does not automatically configure these settings.
The team checks that the specialists can see the correct customer work and participate in the intended routing. It checks an excluded customer or Division where that boundary matters.
If capacity confirmation is delayed, the lead keeps the onboarding status explicit. They avoid another purchase attempt and resolve the existing confirmation with the billing owner.

Recover from common capacity and billing problems

Problem	Checks and next action
I cannot open Billing & invoices	Ask the account owner to verify Administer billing or handle the change. Agent-administration access alone is insufficient.
There is no seat-count box	Core exposes provider-dependent actions. Use Manage subscription or the assisted purchase-order path actually offered; do not look for a universal native quantity editor.
Payment succeeded but agents are still blocked	Refresh Billing and compare Authorized agents. Use Confirm subscription when offered to retry confirmation, not payment; retain the provider confirmation and request assistance if reconciliation remains pending.
The account reports an unpaid invoice	Have the billing owner inspect the actual billing state and resolve the message through the appropriate process before starting unrelated purchases.
The requested count is rejected	Check the current active count and the plan’s permitted limits. Do not remove required agents or guess another quantity merely to bypass validation.
An added agent cannot perform the work	Check their role, Division, team and relevant feature permissions. Capacity and business access are different controls.
I want to reduce capacity or end service	Review the applicable agreement and offered account-specific process. Cancel account submits a request; it does not instantly perform a seat downgrade.
The provider screen differs from another guide	Use the controls and quote offered for the current account. Provider screens and configured capabilities can differ; contact the billing owner when the intended change is unavailable.

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