Act! Licensing Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Act! User Licensing
Act! is licensed on a per user basis. Not per computer, not per each device.
What does this mean?
You’ll need a license key for each individual at your company who would like to use Act! as their own calendar, adding/editing contact records, writing notes/histories, or just about anything else. Each user license provides the ability to add one unique user login to Act! with their own username and password.
We highly recommend you call us at (716) 837-5727 to talk about your specific situation! This guide is our best effort to help guide you on your own, but there are always some unique circumstances that we can address quickly for you.
Yes. By default, each Act! license can be activated three times, to accommodate the need for users with multiple computers. This limit of three activations can even be expanded via a request through Act! support. A common example setup could be for Act! installed on an office desktop computer, a laptop, and a server with one license.
Bear in mind that although a one user license could be installed on three computers, there would still only be one username able to log in to the database.
Technically Yes, with drawbacks. If multiple people shared one username and password in the database, then Act! will know no differently that it is actually multiple people. Everything will be treated as if it were one person doing all the actions. Scheduled activities would all go onto the only user’s calendar without distinction of who it was scheduled for. Notes & histories will all be logged as if they were recorded by just one person. You lose filters to see specific users’ actions in the database, record managers & creators, and more.
We occasionally see companies where this setup is favored. For example, a company may purchase an additional user license and name it “Reception”, and allow all multiple receptionists to use this account. If it is not critical that the individuals sharing the account have their own unique calendars & accounts, then it is acceptable to have all of these particular activities logged under a generic name.
Yes. No real problems with this that we’ve ever come across.
Act! versions 17 Premium and up brought a new option to the table – Unlimited, free, read-only browse users. These are available only in the Premium version, not Pro.
A browse user is absolutely restricted to the max – “read-only”. They can log in to Act! with their own unique username and password, and they can view contact records. They’ll have access to view any contacts, notes/histories, documents, and calendars that they are granted permission to see.
Browse users can make no edits to anything. They cannot schedule activities, nor have activities scheduled for them. They cannot export data, and are highly restricted all around.
Adding an employee as a browse user is a great way to grant access to your Act! database at no cost for people who may not be a part of the sales team, but would still like to view customer information.
Act! can access the database file across a local network. The master database will reside on one server (or a computer acting as the server). For stationary desktop computers within an office, this is the best method. As long as every computer is connected to the company network, then each machine can open the master Act! database and work within it simultaneously. All updates and work is saved in real-time.
Laptops work differently. Although they could access the database files across a local network the same as any desktop machine, this option is unfeasible because laptops often travel far outside the office. When they are no longer on the same network as the server, they cannot access the database. To solve this problem, Act! has a feature for remote databases and synchronization. A remote database is a duplicate copy of the database that stays on the laptop’s local hard drive. Read more here about sync.