10 min · 2026-09-02 · ChiptuningLab desk
Credits that never expire: how a workshop file desk actually bills
One credit is one euro at pack price. They sit in the workshop account until you open a job. No monthly burn, no surprise invoice for a file you asked to fix.
Reviewed by the lab desk before it went live. We write files; we do not rubber-stamp brochure numbers.
Most file portals sell you a subscription you forget, or a per-file checkout that turns reception into a cashier. We did the boring version: buy a pack, credits land after Stripe or PayPal, they stay until a request is opened. They do not expire in March because you had a quiet February.
On the public price list one credit tracks one euro. Packs of 100, 200 and 500 stay at that rate. Larger ones take a few percent off — 1 000 credits at minus 2 percent, 2 500 at minus 5, 5 000 at minus 10. Those workshop and lab packs are the ones shops actually leave sitting on the account. A Stage 1 still costs what the catalogue says for that year band. You see the deduction on the ticket before you confirm.
Rejected work puts the credits back. That matters more than the discount, if we are honest. If the dump is unreadable or the hardware on the ticket does not match the file, we would rather refund the slice than invent a map. Three revisions on Stage 2, Stage 3 and TCU base sit inside the same job. They are not a new cart every time second gear feels wrong.
Invoices come out as PDF in the account. Purchases in the same calendar month (UTC) group on one running total, which is the only reason a bookkeeper will tolerate this hobby. Reception can follow it without a spreadsheet: pay, open job, cloud link, file back.
What credits are not: a coupon for street use, a promise of horsepower, or a lock-in if you stop sending cars. You can sit on a hundred credits through winter. When the first track build of spring shows up, they are still there. Never expire is on the homepage because workshops asked for it after burning unused months on other desks.
A Stage 1 on a car up to 2014 is 60 credits. 2015 to 2018 is 70. From 2019 it is 80. Stage 2 is a hundred. The original-file line is cheaper than either, which is why we keep telling people to store the first dump. You are not paying a mystery tuning tax. You are paying the line you ticked.
If you want the shop name on the door instead of ours, that is the white-label page — different product, credits still live in your account. For the ordinary desk, start with a small pack, send one clean Stage 1, and see if the queue feels like email or like a ticket.
Circuit and motorsport only. The billing is simple so the legal sentence can stay loud. You pay for a file written to the dump you sent, not for a story about public roads.