If a user starts a Bentley product, the PreSurfer service verifies if a second entity of the same product is already in use on that client. If so, the PreSurfer informs the Client and releases the entity again, as it is possible to run an unlimited quantity of entities on one client.

In case the user does not have an entity of the product in use, the PreSurfer server will be asked for a license. If a license is available, it will be transferred accordingly. If there is no license available, the corresponding client receives a message and informes the user accordingly. The start of a Bentley-product will be interrupted. If a license is awarded by PreSurfer server, a minute-by-minute heartbeat will check, if the client furthermore is available. If there is no feedback from the client to the PreSurfer server, the server acts as if the client would have been shut down or in standby. The license only will be given, if the Bentley product on this client is closed.

In order to understand the current license capacity, the user might use PreSurfer WaveMonitor. It serves as a cockpit for the client and shows, beside the Bentley products in use, also other products and licenses currently used. It can be choosen between a tabularly and a graphical view. Supplementary the availability of licenses inclusive calculation of the „next availability“ can be shown.