License keys

Your Solid Accounting license is a single key — a 32-character alphanumeric string — that you activate once on each machine where you'll use Solid. The key is yours forever; the activation is what tracks current usage.

What the license is

The key is sent in your purchase confirmation email and is also visible in your account at solidaccounting.com → My Account → Licenses (when launched).

Activating

On a fresh install, the first launch shows the license activation screen. Enter the key, click Activate.

What happens:

1. Solid sends the key + machine identifier to the license server (one-time internet connection)
2. License server validates the key, records the activation, returns an activation token
3. The token is stored locally on your machine
4. Subsequent launches don't need internet — the token is checked locally

If the activation fails:

• "Invalid key" — typo or wrong key. Double-check against your purchase email; keys are case-sensitive.
• "Too many activations" — you've used all the seats your tier allows. Either deactivate an old machine first, or contact support to deactivate from our side.
• "Cannot reach license server" — internet connection issue. Activation requires connectivity once; subsequent launches don't.

Activations and seats

Each tier includes a number of seats:

A seat is one machine running Solid Accounting under your license. If you buy Standard (3 seats), you can activate on three machines (your laptop, your home desktop, and your office workstation, for example).

Add-on users purchased at $100 each add seats to your license. After buying 2 add-ons, a Standard license has 5 seats.

Deactivating

Before retiring a machine or transferring to a new one, deactivate the old machine to free its seat:

Help → Deactivate License → Confirm

The deactivation:

1. Removes the local activation token
2. Notifies the license server that this seat is free
3. Solid Accounting on the deactivated machine becomes inoperable until re-activated (or a different key activated)

You can re-activate the same machine later by re-entering the key — Solid treats it as a new activation, using one of the available seats.

What if you can't deactivate (broken / lost / stolen machine)

If the old machine isn't accessible, email support@solidaccounting.com with:

• Your license key
• The hostname or rough description of the unreachable machine
• Why it's unreachable (broken, lost, stolen, sold)

We deactivate from the server side. Turnaround is usually same business day. If your machine was stolen, we recommend rotating your file's password too — anyone with both the file and its password can read your books.

Replacing a lost license key

The key is tied to the email you used at purchase:

1. Go to solidaccounting.com → My Account → Licenses
2. Sign in with the same email you used at purchase
3. Your active licenses are listed; copy the key

If you've lost access to that email too, email support with proof of purchase (the original confirmation email, a payment record from your bank/credit card statement, etc.). We can reset the key to a new one if needed.

License vs Updates plan — independent

The license and the Updates plan are tracked separately:

• License — your perpetual right to run Solid Accounting. Always valid; never expires.
• Updates plan — your annual subscription to new features, integrations, Cloud Backup. Optional; lapses if not renewed.

Lapsing the Updates plan does not deactivate the license. The version of Solid you have keeps running. New machines you activate after lapse run the version you were on at lapse — not the latest.

If you re-enroll in Updates after a lapse, you get the latest version installed. Going from a 2-year-old version to the current version may require some manual file-format migration; Solid handles common migrations automatically.

Multiple licenses

Some users have multiple licenses. Common cases:

• An accountant with one Accountant license for their firm + a Standard license for their personal books
• A holding company with separate licenses per subsidiary
• A bookkeeper who manages clients on the bookkeeper's Accountant license + has clients who want their own license to log into their own file

Each license is independent — separate keys, separate seat counts, separate Updates plans.

If you want a single account that manages multiple licenses, sign in to solidaccounting.com → My Account; the licenses dashboard shows all licenses tied to your email.

Transferring a license to a different person

Selling your business, succession, accountant retirement — sometimes the license needs to change hands:

1. Email support@solidaccounting.com with:
   • Your license key
   • Your current email
   • The new owner's name and email
   • Reason for transfer (sale, succession, etc.)
2. We initiate a transfer:
   • License is removed from your account
   • New license-holder gets a confirmation email with the same key
   • They activate on their machines as if they bought it fresh

The .solid file goes with the license (or doesn't — your call). The license transfer is independent of the file transfer.

What if your machine fails activation regularly

A few rare causes:

• Date is wildly wrong — the local activation token has a validity window; if your machine's clock is years off, it can refuse the local check. Set the clock correctly and re-activate.
• Hard-drive replacement — your machine identifier changed when you swapped drives. The license server sees this as a new machine and uses an additional seat. Deactivate the old activation (or contact support).
• Heavy VM or container churn — every fresh VM looks like a new machine. For development environments where you spin up fresh machines often, contact us about a developer-key arrangement.

Cross-references

• Renewal & maintenance — Updates plan separate from license
• Add-on users — buying more seats
• Migrating between machines — full move including license deactivation