Creating a Usage-based Entitlement is similar to creating any entitlement, with the addition of Usage Type and the cap fields. The setup takes 5 to 10 minutes per entitlement; bulk loads through Data Loader handle multi-account scenarios.
- Confirm Entitlement Management is enabled
Setup, Entitlement Settings, confirm the feature is enabled. Usage-based entitlements require the base Entitlement Management feature.
- Open the New Entitlement page
App Launcher, Entitlements, New. The form prompts for the account, entitlement process, start/end dates.
- Set the Usage Type
Pick Cases or Hours as the Usage Type. The choice is permanent for this entitlement.
- Set the cap (Per Incident Count Max or Per Hour Max)
Enter the maximum allowed: 50 for a Platinum tier with 50 included cases per year, 100 for a 100-hour support bank.
- Save the entitlement
Save. The entitlement is now ready to match cases and track consumption.
- Build the overflow handling Flow
Build a record-triggered Flow on Case Create that checks the entitlement's remaining count and surfaces a prompt or blocks creation when the entitlement is exhausted.
- Configure the consumption-tracking report
Build a report showing each entitlement's current usage and remaining capacity. Dashboard it for the operations team to monitor accounts approaching their limit.
- Plan the renewal reset
Decide how the entitlement resets at contract renewal: new entitlement record (preferred for audit), scheduled Apex job (efficient), or manual operations process (avoid for scale).
Cases or Hours. Determines which counter the entitlement tracks. Permanent after entitlement creation.
The cap on total cases (Cases usage type). Required for the platform to know when the entitlement is exhausted.
The cap on total hours (Hours usage type). Alternative to Per Incident Count Max depending on Usage Type.
The customer record the entitlement belongs to. Standard entitlement field, required regardless of usage type.
The contractual term. Cases consume the entitlement only within this date range.
- Usage Type cannot be changed after entitlement creation. Pick deliberately.
- The count decrements at case creation, not at case closure. Cases that are created and then deleted still consumed an incident.
- Without overflow handling, customers hitting their limit get no feedback. The entitlement silently stops matching, and the case has no entitlement context. Build the prompt or block deliberately.
- Renewal reset is not automatic. The operations team must reset the count or create a new entitlement at renewal time. Automate this path to avoid surprises.
- Hours-based entitlements depend on Time Entry records or custom field tracking. The platform does not auto-decrement hours; the case workflow must do the math.