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Managing licenses and maintenance

License records can enter LicenseTrack through CSV import, procurement conversion, an API integration, or direct creation in the License Overview. Whichever route creates the record, the same validation, completeness, access, and lifecycle rules apply.

Create a license directly

Use Add License when the purchase does not need to pass through the sourcing and pending-order workflow—for example a legacy entitlement, a freeware record, or a purchase already completed outside LicenseTrack.

Record the publisher and software description first, then add the commercial, ownership, date, and evidence fields available to you. LicenseTrack assigns the LT reference automatically. It cannot be supplied or edited manually.

The Review License Data step can create several license lines together. Use Add License inside that review to add another entitlement. Each eligible line has the same included support choice, and each eligible perpetual, OEM, or freeware/open-source line also has the separately tracked maintenance choice. Price fields use your personal number format. LicenseTrack saves all lines as one database operation: if any line fails, no part of the batch is created.

An optional Quote, Purchase Order, or Invoice selected for a multi-license batch is shared across the licenses created in that batch by default. Every staged Quote, Purchase Order, Invoice, EULA, or Entitlement category can instead be switched between the whole batch and one selected license. The document upload happens after the license batch is committed; if it fails, open the intended created license and retry the attachment from Documents instead of submitting the licenses again.

For freeware and open-source software, choose Freeware / Open Source in the ordinary License Type field. There is no separate acquisition mode. A directly created record can leave commercial references and prices empty. EULA, proof-of-entitlement, and publisher-contact completeness checks are not applicable to this type. Contract, PO, invoice, and quote checks are also not applicable while the record has no paid included support. Department and budget owner requirements still apply so the record retains useful organizational ownership.

Tip

Use the procurement workflow when a request should remain traceable even though the resulting entitlement is free. Freeware sourcing lines convert directly to the Registry without creating a pending order.

Edit and review

The Registry supports inline editing for quick corrections to ordinary fields. Open the License Details panel for a complete review, document management, contract links, custom fields, lifecycle actions, and maintenance relationships.

Some fields are calculated or protected:

  • LT Ref identifies the renewal chain and is read-only.
  • Expiration and completeness are derived from dates, lifecycle state, mandatory fields, and required evidence.
  • Total PO Value is calculated from license rows that share a PO number unless an Editor or Admin sets a shared manual override from License Details. Set, edit, or clear that override from any license in the PO; the same value is shown on every member.
  • Renewal-chain fields change only through renewal or repair workflows.

For fixed-term and recurring licenses, the end date cannot precede the start date. A recurring license without an end date remains active but incomplete; only genuinely non-expiring license types receive perpetual status. Historical records with an invalid date range remain visible so an editor can repair them.

Maintenance and support records

Separately purchased maintenance or support is represented by a maintenance license linked to an eligible parent. Eligible parents are active perpetual, OEM, or freeware/open-source records.

Choose Included when support belongs on the parent record. For perpetual, OEM, and freeware/open-source parents, its start/end dates define the coverage period and its price can be a flat coverage fee or a covered quantity multiplied by a support unit price. For subscription and SaaS records, included support follows the subscription dates and total acquisition value, so the coverage dates and support cost are derived automatically.

Choose Separately tracked to add a real maintenance line with its own procurement evidence and renewal lifecycle. You can create that line while sourcing, while editing a pending-order line, during direct license entry, or later from the parent license. From the parent license's Maintenance & Support section, choose whether to create a new maintenance record or link an existing maintenance record from the searchable list. The active maintenance record supplies the mirrored maintenance dates and cost shown on the parent.

One maintenance record can be linked to more than one eligible parent. This is useful when a later renewal covers several perpetual purchases under one support contract. Each parent keeps its own active-maintenance pointer, while the maintenance record keeps the parent list for review and history.

An imported maintenance record may be marked legacy unlinked when its original perpetual, OEM, or freeware purchase cannot be identified. It remains active and visible, but has no parent link or parent maintenance mirror until an editor or admin links it. Ordinary maintenance creation and API updates still require an eligible parent; the flag is not writable in normal license payloads. When a legacy-unlinked maintenance record is renewed, its successor remains legacy-unlinked if it is still unlinked at conversion time. Linking either the predecessor before conversion or the successor afterward produces the normal linked maintenance state and updates the parent's mirror.

When either kind of coverage is renewed, create a new line for the new coverage period. This preserves the cost and dates of the expired period instead of rewriting them.

License Details also exposes Coverage History. When included support is replaced by a separately tracked maintenance record, or one active maintenance record is replaced by another, LicenseTrack stores an immutable snapshot of the previous dates, cost, pricing basis, quantity, and currency. The history view shows those recorded periods beside the current contract and links to a visible maintenance license when one still exists.

Warning

A maintenance line is never linked by PO number alone. Select the intended parent explicitly so reused PO numbers cannot create the wrong relationship.

Disabling linked maintenance clears the current mirror from that parent. If the maintenance record is still linked to another parent, it remains active there. If no parent links remain, the maintenance record is retired to preserve the old single-parent behavior. Retired maintenance records remain historical and cannot be selected as a new active link.

Retired, legacy, and exempt records

  • Retired removes a record from active operational totals while preserving its history.
  • Legacy marks historical data that should remain visible without taking part in ordinary lifecycle processing.
  • Completeness exempt keeps the record active but removes it from mandatory field and evidence alerts.

Use these flags deliberately: they affect filtering, notifications, reports, and completeness calculations.

Delete a license

Deletion permanently removes the license, its license-owned document rows, and the corresponding managed files after the database deletion commits. Shared procurement evidence remains available while another license in its order or manual creation batch still owns that scope. It may be blocked when the record participates in procurement, renewal, maintenance, or other protected relationships.

A record referenced only by cancelled renewal sourcing history can be deleted. LicenseTrack keeps the cancelled history but removes its reference to the deleted predecessor. Active renewal or procurement work still blocks deletion. If a deleted parent shares a maintenance record with other parents, one of the remaining links becomes the primary compatibility parent; if no links remain, the maintenance record is retired instead of being left active and parentless.

Danger

There is no recycle bin. Confirm your database and document-storage backups before deleting material records.

Continue with Renewal and lifecycle or learn how contracts and documents are scoped.