Give (customer) credit where it’s due!
Want to add credit to your customer's accounts in Timely? Well, now you can! Wahoo!
Customer credit is a super handy feature if you have customers who want to pay in advance for future services.
A customer could choose to pay the exact amount for their appointments already booked in, or choose to add a fixed amount to their account for future use.
Let’s take a closer look at how it all works:
Adding credit to a customer account
There are two ways you can add credit to a customer’s account:
From the calendar
Click the Sale button from the calendar and choose ‘Credit‘.
Follow the steps below to set up your credit.
From the customer record
Head to Customers, choose a customer and go to the Credit tab. Click ‘Issue credit‘.
To issue the credit, add an Amount, a Customer, and a Reason for issuing the credit. Once that’s all entered, click Save and pay. You can also add an expiry date if you wish by going to the Expiry tab.
Like gift vouchers, you’ll need to raise an invoice and apply a payment before the credit can be issued. Once you’re ready, click Save and pay to raise an invoice and apply a payment.
You can add as many credits as you like to the customer’s account for redemption later on.
Tip: Check out our common questions about customer credit for suggestions on how to use this for free credit.
Now the customer has some credit, let’s learn how to use it!
Redeeming customer credit
When you raise an invoice, simply click the little bank note icon, choose the amount you want to redeem and click Apply credit.
A new line item for the credit will appear and discount the invoice by the amount specified. Hit Save, and if it’s paid up, you’re all done! If there’s still an outstanding balance, you can apply a payment for the balance as normal.
Things to consider
Customer credit is a liability on your balance sheet, much like a gift voucher is, so keep that in mind!
If you want to understand more about liabilities in Timely, check out this handy guide.
Can you please tweak this so we can also use this feature to refund?
Hi Toni, thanks for the comment! Refunds are a bit of a different beast, but you could add a credit to your customers account to refund the amount to them. If you'd like more detail, drop us a line on [email protected] :-)
Love these handy new features! It would also be nice at the end of the sale screen, when giving change, there was an option to instead credit the change to the customers account. :)
Excellent suggestion James! We reckon that would be a cool addition too. I'll pass it on to the Techbots for consideration :-)
Would prefer packages to be available to be bought and paid for online prior to this feature
Wondering when I put the credit in, how do I apply classes or private sessions to take out the amount of credit. This seems to be an easy thing to apply.
Hi Lisa, thanks for the comment! Credit is redeemed on the invoice raised for the appointment or class. Check out our guide to redeeming your customer's credit for more details :-)
When will you make it possible to add a credit or voucher without needing to apply a payment? That would be handy at times. You could make it that only the account owner can authorize it or only certain admins.
Hi Shane, good question! It's a tricky one as credit (and vouchers) are a liability from an accounting perspective, so it's important to have all the bases covered. Drop us a line on [email protected] if you have any more detailed questions :-)
Hi Shane, just a further note! One of the brainy Techbots suggested setting up a 100% discount which you could then apply to the invoice. Flick us an email if you'd like to know more! :-)
This is great! But can a customer then make an online booking and use this credit? That would be very handy for me. Currently if they buy a package of 3x sessions for example, then I need to make their appointments for them. Whereas I really want them to be able to do their own bookings, even if they've already paid in advance for a session or several sessions.
Hi Amanda, thanks for the comment! At this stage, customers won't be able to use credit balances for deposits or payment for online bookings. When we implement a customer login system we'd be able to make this happen, as currently there isn't a code a customer could use to redeem the credit :-)
Love that you guys keep rolling these new features out! This was one thing we really needed so thank you!
Good to hear, thanks Sam! :-)
Hi folks. IMHO This should be called "Payment on account" rather than "Credit". What would be really useful is a "Credit Note". The mechanism should be the same as an invoice but posts as a debit to sales and tax accounts and credits receivables (the customer). This, I believe, is what Shane was referring to.
Thanks for the comment Chris! Could you drop us a line to [email protected] so we could discuss this further? :)
I am just wondering if there is a way to process a sale with two or more methods of payment? Eg client has had a massage costing $120, they have a $100 gift voucher and want to pay $20 by eftpos. How do I record this? Or client comes in for pedicure, wants to pay $40 by cash and the remaining amount on eftpos? It only appears that you can select one method of payment? Would love to hear from you! :)
Hi Anna, I've flicked you an email with some instructions for doing this. Hope that helps! :)
EPIC, I've been waiting for this! :)
We think it's pretty epic too! Thanks! :)
Hi there, i just read a comment about part payment and was looking forward to reading your reply only to see you had emailed her the information. Can you perhaps share to the group or email me the details? thanks
Hi Claire, sure thing! We've got a guide to applying split payments here. Hope that helps! :)
this is a good start but too complex.
Should just be:
1. Find customer
2. Apply credit amount and which staff authorised credit -> save
3. Next time invoice is raised for a customer it will say the customer has $X in credit and a button apply credit to this invoice.
4. profit!
I know the process you have in place now for credit probably suits your system from technical point of view but not very good from business.
Thanks for the feedback Mina! I'll pass this on to the Techbots :-)
Is it possible with the current credit feature to redeem credit for payment of an existing invoice (outstanding invoice past due)?
Seems like this should be possible...and a follow up would be when do you anticipate the feature for paying multiple invoices at once with one payment?
Hi Cameron, thanks for the comment! You should be able to redeem credit on past invoices, but you'd need to Edit the invoice to apply it. I'm afraid we don't have an ETA on bulk payment of invoices at the moment.
Great progress. But I agree with a number of the other posts, being able to use for refunds or be able to issue a credit without taking payment would be a huge help (but will adopt the 100% discount workaround in the meantime).
Thanks Kelvin! :)
I like this feature but I would love to be able to use it to credit clients as a gift for birthdays etc. I would like to credit treatments at a value without having to put in a payment.
Thanks for the feedback Elise! I'll pass it on to the Techbots :)
"Customer credit is a liability on your balance sheet, much like a gift voucher is, so keep that in mind!
If you want to understand more about customer credit liabilities in Timely, check out this handy guide."
What handy guide?
Hi Lance! Whoops that was an edit we should have made - we didn't end up creating a separate guide, but everything included in this guide about gift voucher liabilities applies to customer credit as well :-)
need to send statements to customers every month... all they want is a statement with unpaid invoices and totals. Can we make this change soon.. My statement to clients are sometime 30 pages long and getting longer every month. they don't need to see every transaction sine the beginning of time
Hi Richard,thanks for the comment! I can totally appreciate this is an important one for you! I don't have an update on it at the moment unfortunately, but keep your eye on this request for any updates.
Online (Internet banking) option is urgently needed!
For people to purchase gift vouchers etc.
I don't seem to have the bank notice icon on my screen, and the credit seems to be showing as a balance the customer owes. So the customer had a $20 credit, and then had a $25 service, so the balance outstanding should be $5, but it's showing as $45. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Hi Mandy, so sorry I missed your comment! If you're still having trouble with this, drop us a line on [email protected] and we'll give you a hand! :-)
Hi, Am interested in using this credit function. However, how does this push through to Xero? Can you give me further details so i can see whether this will work with our system?
Hi Elaine, thanks for reading! Credit invoices sync through to Xero as a liability (much like gift vouchers) so you do need a liability account set up. Pop us an email at [email protected] if you'd like more information :-D