Why can't a learner start a simulation? Billing messages explained

When a run is blocked for billing reasons, the learner sees a specific message. This article maps each message to its cause and the fix. Most billing fixes live on Organization Management → Credits → Budget management — see the billing overview for orientation.

Balance problems

Learner sees	Cause & fix
No credits available	The pool (or the budget funding this space) is out of credits. Add credits to the budget from the pool, or request more credits for the pool with Buy more credits on the Overview tab of the Credits page. See The Credits page.
Budget used up	The activity creator's personal allowance is exhausted. Raise their allowance or reset their usage on the User budgets tab. User budgets: spending allowances for creators
Budget frozen	The budget funding this space is frozen. The app has no unfreeze control for organization admins; ask Cesura through Contact support under Get help in the sidebar, or bind the space to another budget.
Usage bank expired	The budget has passed its expiry date. Renew it (Edit → expiry) or rebind the space.
No budget set up / Billing not set up	The organization's pool or billing account was never provisioned. Contact Cesura support.

Assignment problems

Learner sees	Cause & fix
No usage bank assigned	The activity isn't linked to any pool. Check the space's budget binding on the Project budgets tab.
No budget assigned	Your organization requires a dedicated budget and this space isn't bound to one. Bind the space to a budget. Project budgets: dedicated balances for teams & courses
Activity unavailable, and the space shows Runs blocked	The space’s owner does not belong to the space’s organization, so no budget can pay for a run and every run is refused. Anyone who can edit the space sees a Runs blocked chip and a banner saying so. Fix it by transferring ownership to a member of that organization: open the space’s Members tab and select Change owner — an organization admin can do this without waiting for Cesura staff. How sharing works
Budget unavailable	The person is not allowed to spend from the budget that would pay for this run, because it is restricted to specific members. This applies to usage started outside a space; runs inside a space bound to the budget are always allowed. Adjust Assign on the budget, or contact support.
Activity unavailable	A setup issue — the space's owner can't be resolved for billing (for example, the owner's account no longer exists or no longer belongs to the space's organization). Transfer the space to a current member with Change owner on its Members tab, or contact support.

Access and space problems

These messages are not about credits, but learners often read them as billing problems.

Learner sees	Cause & fix
Access expired	The learner’s membership in the space has passed its expiry date. Cesura enforces expiry everywhere the space can be opened, including LMS links, and finishing a run does not renew it. To renew it, open the space’s Members tab, select Edit expiration on the learner’s row, and set a later date or No expiration.
Access turned off	The learner’s role in the space is set to Disabled. If that was a mistake, change their role back on the space’s Members tab. Launching from the LMS does not turn access back on.
Space Inactive	The space is not active. This also appears when the space’s owner has been deactivated: runs bill to the owner, so the space refuses new runs. Reactivate the owner, or open the space’s Members tab and select Change owner to hand it to an active member.

Limits (temporary — they reset)

Learner sees	Cause & fix
You've reached your limit for now	The per-user session cap for this pool was hit. The message tells the learner when they can try again. Cesura sets this cap; if it is too tight, ask through Contact support to raise it.
You've reached your usage limit	The learner used all the runs available to them for this simulation.
Run limit reached for now	The pool's total session cap (Max sessions per rolling window) was reached. It resets automatically. Cesura sets this cap; ask through Contact support if it needs raising.

Fair use

Fair-use limit reached appears when a member exhausts the organization’s fair-use allowance, which applies to every member over a rolling window and governs the usage that costs you nothing. It resets on its own, and the message says when: “You reached the fair-use limit for this period. It resets …” Credits are not the cause, so adding credits does not help. While paused, the member’s credit chip at the top of the app reads Paused until the reset time. See Fair use and the credit chip. Usage counts in units: a Professor Cesura build 5, a Personal Simulation 6, an ordinary run 1, a voice run 2, a testing run 1, a translation 0.05. A voice run counts double wherever fair use applies. Only Cesura can raise the policy; ask through Contact support under Get help in the sidebar.

Cap settings are shown, read-only, on the Limits tab: Pricing & Limits: what each pool costs and what stops a run.