Discounts, codes and automatic offers

Flat and percentage discounts, codes versus automatic offers, new-customer and returning-customer pricing, and discounts that apply themselves based on answers families give.

7 min read

Where discounts live

Discounts don't have a menu of their own. You create them where you use them: on a programme's pricing while you're setting it up, and on an invoice while you're building it. That means a discount belongs to the thing it was created on rather than sitting in a shared library.

The practical consequence is that the same offer used on three programmes is three separate discounts. They report separately, which is usually what you want — you can see which programme an offer actually shifted.

The Discounts tab listing sibling and early bird discounts with their generated codes, percentage or fixed values, validity period, usage limit and active status — Each discount gets a code you can hand out, plus a usage limit so it cannot run away.

Flat amount or percentage

A discount takes a fixed amount off, or a percentage. Percentage discounts can carry a cap, so "20% off, up to 50" behaves sensibly on your most expensive programme instead of giving away more than you intended.

The Pricing tab bar with Discounts outlined — Discounts live under Pricing, beside fees and tax.

Codes, or automatic

A discount either needs a code the family types in, or applies by itself when the conditions are met.

Codes suit campaigns you want to track and control — an email offer, a flyer, a referral. Automatic discounts suit rules that should always hold, like a sibling rate, because families shouldn't have to know a code exists to get a price they're entitled to.

The Add button outlined on the discounts screen — One discount at a time.

New or returning families

A discount can be limited to families booking for the first time, or to families who have booked before. First-time pricing helps convert a trial; returning-customer pricing rewards the families who already trust you.

This is checked automatically against the family's booking history, so you don't have to maintain a list.

The generated discount codes column outlined — Each discount gets a code you can hand out.

Minimum booking length

You can require a booking to reach a certain length before the discount applies — a term-long commitment gets the better rate, a single session doesn't. Set both the number and the unit.

The value column outlined, showing percentage and fixed amounts — Either a percentage or a flat amount off.

Discounts that respond to what families tell you

This is the least obvious option, and the one worth knowing about. If your booking form asks questions — a custom field for staff affiliation, a membership number, which school a child attends — a discount can be set to apply only when the answer matches.

So "staff children pay 20% less" becomes a rule the system enforces at checkout, rather than a promise someone has to remember to honour. The family answers the question they were going to answer anyway, and the price adjusts.

Validity period and usage limit columns outlined — Cap it, or it will run longer than you meant.

Usage limits, and getting them back

A discount can be limited to a number of uses — the first twenty families, and no more. When a booking that used one of those slots is cancelled, the use is returned to the pool, so a cancellation doesn't quietly burn one of your twenty.

Custom Input Fields outlined on a programme's Special Considerations step — Conditional discounts hang off a custom field's answers, so the field has to exist first.

Sibling discounts

Sibling rates apply across a family booking several children together rather than to one child in isolation. Because they're calculated on the group, they work whether the family books everyone at once or adds a second child later.