Credit is money you hold for one customer, by name. It comes from a deposit or payment you've decided to give back, or from credit you add yourself, and it comes off their next bill. There's no code to type and it never expires: it's their money, kept with you until they spend it.
Where credit comes from
Wherever money goes back to a customer, you choose where it goes:
- When you cancel a booking from the desk, the dialog asks where the deposit goes: back the way it came, or as credit for next time.
- When a customer cancels online inside your free window, a deposit paid in person shows as Deposit to return. Open the booking and the return button asks the same question: hand it back, or turn it into credit.
- When you refund a deposit, a payment, a kept deposit or a charged fee, from the booking or from the Payments screen, the refund dialog asks where it goes. Whole or part.
- On the customer's profile, Add credit creates credit with no payment behind it: a make-good after a visit that went wrong, a prize, a thank-you. Add a reason for your own records; the customer never sees it.
Card money becomes credit only when you choose it. When a customer cancels online inside the free window, card money still goes straight back to their card, because that's what they were promised. A gift card's value always goes back onto the gift card.
The customer gets one email whenever credit is created for them, saying the amount and that it comes off their next visit.
How it's used
- At close-out and on a walk-in sale, the bill shows Use their $35 credit, switched on. Switch it off if they'd rather save it. Credit comes off after any money paid ahead and before a gift card.
- Online, a customer signed in to their BeNotely account sees Use your $35 credit at checkout, covering the deposit or the payment. Anything left over stays as credit for their visit. A guest never sees credit.
- On a pay link, when the credit covers the requested deposit, the page offers to pay it from credit with one tap.
Credit pays a bill exactly like a gift card does: it changes how the bill was paid, never what it cost. The receipt shows Credit under how it was paid, and the visit counts in your takings on the day.
Where it shows
- The customer's profile has a Credit card: the balance, the history, Add credit and Give it back.
- The Payments screen shows Turned into credit on the payment it came from, Paid by credit on the sale it paid, and a Credit given back row whenever credit goes back as money, so your day balances.
- Takings counts credit as money out only when it's actually given back or refunded to a card, never when a deposit becomes credit.
- Reports, Gift cards carries a customer credit line: what's held right now, what was given, spent and handed back in the period. Like a gift card, credit counts as revenue when it pays a visit, never when it's given.
- A signed-in customer sees My credit in their account, per business.
Giving it back as money
From the profile, Give it back hands credit back as money, whole or part, recorded with how it went: cash, card on your own machine, bank transfer or other. The customer gets an email saying it was returned. When the whole balance is one untouched card payment, you can send it back to that card instead, and the credit is cancelled with it. Once any credit has been spent, it goes back by hand only.
Plans
Creating credit is part of the paid plan, with deposits and gift cards. Credit a customer already holds keeps working on any plan: they can spend it and you can hand it back.
FAQs
Can I turn a gift card deposit into credit? No. A gift card's value goes back onto the gift card it came from, ready to use. Credit is for money.
Does credit expire? No. It's the customer's money, held by you.
What if two customer records get merged? Their credit merges too: one balance, every history line kept.
Can a customer see why I added credit? No. The reason is for your records. They see the amount and the date.
What happens if I undo a sale that credit paid? The credit goes back onto their balance, the same way a gift card's money goes back onto the card.