Credit is money you keep for one customer, by name. It comes from a deposit or payment you've decided to give back, from credit they buy, 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, 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.
- When they buy it. Credit sells on any bill, like a gift card: at checkout or on a New sale, choose + Add item, then Credit, type the amount and take the money any way. It's for the customer on the bill, so a New sale needs its customer chosen first.
- When they pay cash and leave the change, tick Keep $12.45 as credit under Change due. See Cash received and change.
- On the customer's profile, on the dashboard or under Credit in the app, Add credit offers Sell credit, which opens a New sale with the credit on the bill, or Add without payment: 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.
When you have their email address, 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 checkout and on a walk-in sale, the bill shows Use their $35 credit, switched off. Switch it on to spend it. Credit comes off after any deposit and before a gift card.
- Online, a customer logged 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. Credit can't pay for credit (or for a gift card or package), and neither can a gift card: take money for it. The receipt shows Credit under how it was paid, and the visit counts in your sales on the day.
Where it shows
- The customer's profile has a Credit card: the balance, the history, Add credit and Refund credit. Credit they bought reads Sold · sale #212 in the history. Anyone who checks out can sell credit; adding it without payment and refunding it is for owners and managers.
- The Payments page shows Turned into credit on the payment it came from and Paid by credit on the sale it paid. Whenever credit goes back as money, its Payments tab lists Credit given back on that day, so your day balances.
- The Sales report counts a sale refunded as credit on the day of the refund, and credit you add yourself on the day you add it, so spending it later never counts twice. Credit they buy counts as a sale when it's spent, like a gift card, and Payments shows its money the day they paid. The money itself only counts as going back on Payments when credit is handed 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, sold, 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.
Refunding it
From the profile, Refund credit gives credit back as money, whole or part. Credit sold on a bill can also be refunded from its sale in Payments, whole, while it's still on their balance. Choose I've handed it back in person and say how you paid it back: cash, card on your own machine, bank transfer or other. When the whole balance is one untouched card payment, you can refund all of it to that card instead. Once any credit has been spent, it can only be refunded in person. Either way, the customer gets an email when you have their address.
Plans
Creating credit is part of the paid plan, with deposits and gift cards. Credit a customer already has keeps working on any plan: they can spend it and you can refund it.
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, kept 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.
What if I undo a sale that sold credit? The credit comes off their balance with it. Once any of it is spent, the sale can't be undone, as with a gift card that's been used.