From time to time, you may wish to offer discounts to your customers. That might be in the form of a public discount code that is displayed in your advertising. When the customer enters that code at checkout, the relevant discount will be applied to their total. Or, maybe you wish to create a one-time use voucher code for a particular customer. Either way, you can achieve this with Checkfront.
Discounts are a special type of event that allow you to reduce the price of an item at the time of booking by supplying a unique discount or voucher code. You can use a discount code for general promotions or to track campaigns and referrals. They can also be used for creating general date discounts such as weekend specials or Monday Madness!
Discount codes can be used in your advertising and redeemed multiple times by multiple customers. Vouchers can be used to redeem purchased deals from syndication sites such as Groupon and Living Social (see group buy promotions). These codes are added to the system via an imported CSV file and can only be redeemed once. You can also use a voucher code to reward preferred customers with a one-time use special discount.
Creating a New Discount
Back to topTo create a new discount, click on + New Discount from the main discount home page.
You should then see the following options which can be configured as per your requirements:
A descriptive name for the discount (e.g: June Special). This is used internally for reporting and can be seen by the customer on their invoice.
Discount Code
Back to topA short, unique discount code to be used at the time of booking. The customer must enter this code, which is not case-sensitive, in order to receive the discount. If this field is left empty, an open discount will be created. This means the discount will be given to everyone automatically, during the period specified further down the page. The discount code should be alpha-numeric and not contain any spaces.
Upload Vouchers
Back to topInstead of supplying a single discount code, you may wish to upload a list of pre-defined voucher codes. The voucher list should be in CSV or TXT format and each code needs to be unique. The codes should consist of letters and numbers only. Use of any other characters may prevent the discounts from being applied properly.
1. Open your favourite spreadsheet program, such as Numbers or Excel.
2. List your voucher codes in column A, one code per row.
3. Save as a CSV or TXT file to your computer.
You can use a third-party solution such as randomcodegenerator.com to quickly compile an extensive list of voucher codes, or, see below for details on how to use Google Sheets for this purpose. Once you have your list of vouchers, you can upload it to the system by clicking on the Upload Vouchers button (1) and then the Choose File button (2), when it appears below:
After selecting the file from your computer, you should now see it attached to the upload field, as in the screenshot below:
Once uploaded, you can see a list of your available vouchers by visiting the Reports > Promotions menu in your Checkfront dashboard. This report will not only show you the vouchers but also when they were added, used and to which booking they were applied to.
You can come back here to add more voucher codes at a later date. Just upload another CSV or TXT file as before.
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When uploading a list of vouchers, you should leave the Discount Code field blank. Do not enter anything here or the vouchers will not work properly! |
If you're familiar with Google Sheets, you can use a free add-on called Random Generator to create a list of random voucher codes for use with Checkfront. Create a new sheet and click on the Add-ons menu at the top. Select Get add-ons...
Use the search box to find the Random Generator app and install it.
Returning to the Add-ons menu, you will now be able to launch the Random Generator app.
After launching, select the required number of cells in column A (1). Each cell will represent one random voucher code. From the Random Generator menu, select Strings (2) and check the capital letters and number strings, as well as setting a length of 8.
When ready, click the red Generate button at the bottom. You should now see your voucher codes on the sheet.
From there, all you need to do is download the sheet and upload it to Checkfront.
The discount you wish to apply to the booking. This can either be a percentage or a fixed amount. You may also apply the discount based on the individual items in the booking or the booking total, either before or after tax.
• Per Item
Calculates the discount based on the current price and quantity of each (applicable) item booked. For example, a discount of $5.00 will total $15.00 when 3 applicable items are booked at once.
• Per Booking, After Tax
Calculates the discount based on the order total, including any applicable taxes. For example, ($100 + 5% tax) - $10 discount = $95.00
• Per Booking, Before Tax
Calculates the discount based on the order subtotal, excluding any applicable taxes. For example, ($100 - $10 discount) + 5% tax = $94.50
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If offering a 100% discount, for example, the customer will still be responsible for the taxes if the discount is set to per booking, after tax. If set to per item, the customer will not owe anything upon checkout. |
Similar to events, you can configure discounts to be applicable at certain times only, and to specific items or categories.
• One Time Event:
A one-time event that will be active for the date range defined in the date drop-down fields.
• Weekly (by day of week):
A recurring event based on the day of the week, active for the dates defined. In this example, the discount will only work on Tuesdays, and Thursdays between September 7th and October 7th, 2017.
• Always (don't expire):
A permanent event that is not defined by date.
Attach a rule set to this event. By combining rule sets with events, you can create powerful inventory adjustments and enforce booking policies.
Apply To
Back to topBy default, events and discounts are applied globally to all items in your inventory. If you need only to adjust a certain category or item, uncheck the All Items and Categories checkbox and select your items/categories individually.
Sort By Date
Back to topFiltering your discounts by date is easy. Select one of the date options from the drop-down menu and your list of discounts displayed will be adjusted to reflect your choice. Selecting All will show discounts both past and current/going forward.
If you have a long list of discounts in your account and you'd like to filter them by status, you can do so by clicking on the Status button and selecting one from the drop-down menu. The three statuses you can choose from are Active, Disabled and All.
Another way to sort a longer list of discounts is by type. You may filter your list to display Discount Codes, Vouchers or Open Discounts. Click on the Type button and make your selection from the drop-down menu.
Search Discounts
Back to topIf you wish to find a specific discount(s) rather than a particular status or type, you can use the search box to enter your search term. Any matches will be displayed in the list below.
Columns
Back to topThe columns menu allows you to choose exactly which information is and isn't included in the report you are generating.
You can choose to display the standard system fields that come with Checkfront or remove them if they are not necessary in your view. Simply check a column to include it in the report or uncheck it to leave it out. To reorder the columns in your report, click and hold your mouse over the "dots" by each column title and drag it to where you'd like it to be. Click save when ready and your report should be updated with the changes you've made.
Export
Back to topYou can export a report from your customer directory using the link in the top right corner, next to the columns button.
You are able to enter a name for the report and choose the output format. Current formats include:
• MS Excel
• CSV
• XML
The report can be saved to your computer, an email or Google Drive.
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