Understand Base Tier, Effective Tier, All Access, and Max Preview

QCDS shows both a Base tier and an Effective tier because the plan you normally own and the features currently available can differ. All Access and the one-time 30-Day Max Preview are the two main reasons those values may not look identical.

Read the two fields together on Components > QC Digital Signature > Status before deciding whether a feature should be available.

What Base Tier Means

The Base tier represents the underlying entitlement QCDS should return to when temporary Max access is not active. For a normal paid product entitlement this is Basic, Pro, or Max. When entitlement comes through QuantaCade All Access, QCDS identifies the base as Max via All Access.

What Effective Tier Means

The Effective tier is the tier QCDS is actually allowing right now. Feature gates use the effective result, not merely the saved plan label. A healthy confirmed Basic installation normally shows Effective Basic; Pro shows Effective Pro; and Max shows Effective Max.

Effective access can temporarily fall back to Basic when entitlement cannot be trusted. In particular, QCDS requires a structurally healthy hourly Entitlement Revalidation task for any access above Basic. If that task is disabled, unpublished, missing, duplicated, or scheduled too slowly, QCDS resolves Effective tier to Basic until the task is healthy again.

How All Access Appears

All Access is resolved through the Authorized Domain entitlement service. QCDS treats the feature baseline as Max while retaining the All Access source. On the Status screen this can appear as Base tier: Max via All Access with the Effective tier reflecting the active All Access entitlement.

You do not enter a separate All Access key in QCDS. The domain authorization and entitlement response determine the result.

How the 30-Day Max Preview Changes the Effective Tier

An active one-time Max Preview can temporarily make a Basic or Pro installation operate as Effective Max without changing its underlying Base tier. For example:

  • Base Basic + active preview: Effective Max until the preview ends.
  • Base Pro + active preview: Effective Max until the preview ends, then Pro resumes if still valid.
  • Base Max or All Access: a preview is unnecessary because Max-level access is already included.

The preview begins only when an administrator explicitly chooses Start 30-Day Max Preview. Routine entitlement refreshes do not consume an untouched preview.

Validation Grace and Known Expiration

A temporary network or entitlement-service failure is different from a known expiration or revocation. If a paid tier or active preview was confirmed recently, QCDS can retain that previously confirmed access only within its bounded validation grace period. A known paid expiration or the fixed end of a Max Preview is never extended locally just because the service is unreachable.

When no eligible grace remains, or when the entitlement is explicitly invalid, expired, revoked, or otherwise terminal, Basic features remain available while paid features stay locked.

How to Read the Status Card

  1. Check Status and read Base tier.
  2. Read Effective tier to see the access QCDS is enforcing now.
  3. Read Verification to see whether the source is Authorized Domain, Authorized Domain + All Access, 30-Day Max Preview, a legacy key, or Basic.
  4. Check Last checked, Next automatic check, and the Entitlement Automation Integrity card if the Effective tier is lower than expected.
  5. Use Refresh Entitlement after correcting the domain or task problem.

Do not delete Templates, Requests, completed documents, Identity Verification settings, user-group limits, or saved Custom CSS simply because Effective tier is temporarily lower. QCDS separates entitlement access from historical signing data and preserves higher-tier configuration where the feature design calls for it.

Community Discussion

Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDS feature? Visit the QC Digital Signature Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.