Manage prepaid purchases accounts

An account for Prepaid purchases allows us to credit an amount that a customer can use to pay for future services, in return for an initial sale.

This system can be used in several situations:

• Advance payments: the customer pays in advance for a product or service, and the amount will be deducted from the final sale (e.g. hotel night, delivery of goods).
• Subscriptions: the customer purchases a package of services at a set price (e.g. 12 treatment sessions for the price of 10). Their account is credited with an amount corresponding to the 12 sessions.
• Prepaid accounts: the customer adds a sum of money to their account, which is invoiced when payment is collected and can then be used to pay for future services.

Prerequisite: this feature requires the Premium option.

Under 'Settings/Users/Access management', enable the following permissions:

• 'Manage prepaid purchases'
• 'Credit prepaid purchases'
• 'Adjust prepaid purchases'

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#1. Crediting a prepaid purchases account

Crediting the account must always be linked to an initial sale, such as the sale of a subscription or invoicing an amount received in advance.

1. Create the initial sale and assign it to the relevant customer.
2. If necessary, issue the invoice corresponding to this sale.
3. Open the customer's profile, then go to the 'Prepaid purchases' section.
4. Select the initial sale and enter the amount to credit to the account.

The credited amount can be the same as or different from the amount of the initial sale. For example, a subscription sold for €100 may entitle the customer to €120 worth of prepaid services.

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#2. Using a prepaid purchases account

The account is used by applying a deduction to the final sale.

The deduction must be linked to a product in your database:

1. Create a dedicated product (e.g. Advance payment, Subscription or Credit) in the Products section of your account. Link it to the standard tax rate for your business.
2. Under 'Customers/Customer settings/Prepaid purchases', enter this product's ID.

To deduct the amount used from the prepaid purchases account:

1. Create a sale and add the relevant products or services.
2. Assign the sale to the customer.
3. Go to the 'Payment' section of the sale.
4. If the customer has a positive prepaid purchases balance, click the 'Prepaid purchases account' button.

The deduction product is then added to the sale as a negative amount, up to the value of the sale or the available balance.

When the sale is finalized, the customer's account is debited by the amount actually used.

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#3. Cancelling a remaining balance

If a customer does not use their entire balance (for example, when a subscription expires or in the case of a non-refundable advance payment), you can cancel the remaining balance.

To do so, open the customer's profile, then go to the 'Prepaid purchases' section. You can then:

• delete the prepaid purchase entry that was initially added;
• or add a new prepaid purchase entry with a negative amount corresponding to the balance to be cancelled.

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#4. Exporting prepaid purchases account balances

To obtain a balance report for customer accounts:

1. Go to the 'Customers' section.
2. Click 'Advanced search' at the top of the page.
3. Sort the results using the 'Prepaid purchases' criterion.
4. Check the 'Export results' box.
5. Download the generated file.

The export lists the relevant customers and displays their prepaid purchases account balance in a separate column.