Packages — selling and redeeming prepaid sessions
Updated
On this page
Sidebar: Packages.
A package is a block of sessions a client buys up front — six grooms, ten daycare days — and draws down as they come in. You take the money now, they get a better rate, and they have a reason to come back.
Building one
A package needs:
- A name the client will recognise on an invoice
- The number of sessions it contains
- The price for the whole block
- A validity period in days — how long they have to use it, defaulting to a year
Price the block, not the session. Six grooms at £45 sold as a package of £240 is the offer; work out the per-session figure yourself and keep it to yourself.
Validity matters. Unlimited-life packages sit on your books indefinitely as a liability you have been paid for but still owe. A year is a reasonable default.
Selling one
Sell from the Packages page against a client. That raises an invoice and takes payment like any other sale, so it lands in your revenue properly rather than as an untracked credit.
Redeeming
When the client comes in, redeem a session against their booking. The session count drops by one.
A purchase can only be redeemed while it is active, unexpired and has sessions left. All three. A client with sessions remaining on a package that expired last month cannot use them — which is exactly what a validity period is for, but be ready to have that conversation kindly.
Keeping track
The Packages page lists what has been sold and the state of each purchase: sessions used, sessions left, and whether it has expired. Check it before telling a client "you've got two left" from memory.
What packages are not
- Not memberships. There is no recurring monthly charge that renews on its own. A package is a one-off purchase of a fixed number of sessions; when they are used, the client buys another.
- Not account credit. Sessions are tied to what the package covers, not a pot of money that can be spent on anything.
Practical advice
- Start with one package. The commonest mistake is launching five tiers nobody can choose between.
- Make the saving visible but modest. Enough to be worth prepaying for, not so much that your best clients are your least profitable.
- Redeem at the time of the visit, not in a weekly catch-up. Retrospective redemption is where miscounts come from, and the client remembers their own count.
- Watch for packages nearing expiry and tell those clients. A reminder that two sessions expire next month books two appointments; discovering it at expiry loses a client.