Seats Overview

What is the Seats Overview?

The Seats Overview is where admins can track and manage seat usage, licensing, and permissions across the entire intranet environment. By keeping this area well-managed, organizations ensure that access is fair, secure, and aligned with business needs — preventing unused licenses from going to waste while making sure the right people can always participate.

Why seat management matters

Monitoring seat usage isn’t just about license numbers — it directly impacts whether people can access the intranet when they need it. Proactive management helps avoid last-minute scrambling for seats, keeps costs in line with agreements, and ensures access scales with your organization’s needs.

What is a seat?

A seat in Happeo represents a user license. Every seated user can log in, access content, and collaborate inside the intranet. Your environment will always have a certain number of assigned seats: some may already be occupied, some reserved for pending invites, and others available for new users.

Managing seats effectively helps balance cost control with inclusivity, so you can extend access to everyone who needs it without overspending.

The Seats Overview

In Admin Settings > User Management > Seats Overview, admins get a complete picture of licensing in use. This includes:

• Seat usage metrics: See the percentage of seats currently in use.
• User list: View all users and their statuses (e.g., seated, invited, awaiting).
• Permissions: Manage user-level access rights directly from the overview.

By centralizing this information, Happeo makes it easier to align license usage with how your people are actually collaborating.

Seat usage breakdown

The Seats Overview categorizes seat usage into clear metrics so you can see where licenses are going:

• Total seats: The maximum number of seats available in your environment.
• Assigned seats: Seats currently in use by active users.
• Reserved seats: Seats held for pending invitations.
• Available seats: Seats ready to be assigned to new users.
• Usage percentage: A visual indicator of how close you are to capacity.

Seeing this breakdown makes it simple to spot trends — for example, whether you’re consistently hitting the cap during hiring waves or if there are unused seats to reallocate.

Seat capping

Seat capping lets admins define a hard limit on the number of seats that can be assigned. This feature ensures you don’t exceed the licensed amount outlined in your contract. 

💡 If you want a deeper dive, see our Seat Capping article.

How seating works

Happeo integrates with identity providers to streamline seat assignment:

• Google Workspace:
  • OU-based seating: Assign seats automatically based on organizational units (OUs).
  • Individual seating: Assign seats manually to specific email addresses, regardless of OU.
• Microsoft Entra ID and Okta: Access is managed via the Application Connector, where admins define the groups or users that sync into Happeo.

What if there are no available seats?

• Auto-seating disabled: Admins must manually purchase more seats. You’ll see a warning if you try to exceed your contractual seat limit.
• Auto-seating enabled: Users waiting for seats will appear in the “Awaiting” list, and a notification will display in the Users tab until more seats are added.

This setup ensures admins know exactly when capacity has been reached, without anyone silently being blocked.

Adding more seats

When adding seats:

• Cap increases: Additional seats are active until your subscription renews.
• Billing: You’ll receive an invoice upfront.
• Renewals: Your environment carries the new seat cap into the next term automatically.
• Authority: Admins must confirm they’re authorized to make the change (purchase order numbers can be added if needed).
• Confirmation: An invoice and confirmation are sent within 30 days.

Auto increase total seats

The Auto increase total seats toggle, enabled by default, automatically adds seats when new users are added.

When active:

• Pending and invited users are accounted for.
• Seats increase automatically to match demand.
• (Google): Users in OUs with auto-seating are immediately seated.
• Seat counts update after a refresh.

Other options:

• Purchase history: See past increases near the Add more seats button.
• Logs: Track when the toggle was switched and by whom.
• Limit checks: If your contractual cap is lower than the number of seated users, the toggle disables automatically.

This helps organizations scale without constant admin input while still respecting licensing agreements.

Manual seat assignment

For users outside auto-seating rules, you can assign seats manually:

1. Go to the Unassigned filter to see users without seats.
2. Open the menu (three dots) next to a user.
3. Select Permission management → change type to Seated.
4. Save your changes.

Invited users and seat reservations

Inviting a user reserves a seat immediately, guaranteeing they have access once they accept.

• Reserved seats: Displayed in the overview.
• Canceling invites: Frees up reserved seats.
• Email delivery: Invites are sent even if notification emails are turned off under Admin Settings > Security.

This makes onboarding smoother, especially when multiple new hires are expected at once. 

💡 For more detail, see Invited Users.

Permission management

From the Seats Overview, you can jump directly into managing user permissions. Filters let you refine by group, OU, or status so you can update access levels while reviewing seat usage.

💡 For more, see User Permission Management.

Exporting user lists

Admins can export all user and seat data to CSV — useful for audits, compliance checks, or regular license reviews. 

💡 Instructions can be found in Export Data from Happeo.

FAQ

Billing & contracts

How is billing calculated when seats change mid-cycle?

• Monthly billing: Charges are prorated based on when seats are added or removed. For example, adding a seat halfway through the month means paying a partial amount for that seat.
• Annual billing: Added seats are billed for the remainder of the subscription term. Removed seats don’t generate refunds but are reflected in the next renewal.

What exactly is a “seat cap,” and how is it determined?

A seat cap is the maximum number of licenses you can assign. It’s set either by the contracted amount of seats set or the last number of seats invoiced (if they are higher than the contracted amount).This prevents accidental overuse of licenses.

Auto-seating & OU management

If I disable auto-seating for an OU, will current users be unseated?

No. Disabling auto-seating only stops new users in that OU from being automatically seated. Existing users remain seated until you unseat them manually.

Invitations & reserved seats

What types of error messages might appear when inviting users related to seat availability?

• “No seats available”: Triggered when there aren’t enough seats to cover invitations, due to the cap or no available seats.
• “Invitation already created”: The user has already been invited and can’t be sent a duplicate until the first is accepted.

Who can invite users, and what methods are available?

Only admins can invite users. They can:

• Send invitations individually via email.
• Upload a CSV file (up to 500 users) for bulk invites, with roles pre-assigned before sending.