This help file will introduce you to using Discount Codes with your online Events Registrations to help automate and track discounts for your members, supporters, and community partners and sponsors.
Why You Might Need a Discount Code
Do you ever offer discount promotional codes for your events? Maybe guests can enter a special code to have their event price discounted by $10.00. Or you send a mailing out to a portion of your marketing list that includes an offer of "Save $5 by entering the call letters for this radio station when registering!" There's lots of ways that you can use discount codes for your events and you might be surprised to learn that you can increase your organization's revenue by strategically offering discounts for events.
3 Tips for Discount Codes
- Give your members special discount codes that they can use for guests at events to incentivize guest registrations - this is especially helpful during membership drive events.
- Create discount codes with limited uses and/or short active timeframes to include in your event promotional messages - drive early event registration with calls to action like: "Register by March 1st to receive this discount!" and "Only 25 people can register at this discount price".
- Make custom discount codes for each of your sponsors and media outlets to give out to their community to show your appreciation for their help promoting your event. The custom codes for each organization will let you track who's sending the most registrants to your events.
Tendenci can handle these Discount Codes easily within the standard event registration system automatically to save you time too!
Create a Discount Code
** Note: To use Discount Codes for an event or membership, you'll need to make sure that your event is configured to allow discount codes. Make sure that any events you'd like to use discount codes for have Enable Registration and Discount Eligible checked on the Event Edit Form as shown in this screenshot:
** Note: You'll need to be logged in as a Super User on your Tendenci website in order to create and edit discount codes. **
1) Navigate to the Discount Code Module from your Blue Top Bar menu:
2) Add a new Discount Code.
Click on the Discounts tab to drop down the menu options and selecting "Add Discount":
The Discounts tab also has options to Search Discounts and to Export Discounts.
3) Fill in the fields on the new discount edit form:
Discount Code - Enter a code here. You can use numbers, letters, and symbols.
** Note: capitalization matters for discount codes, ie: YourDiscount is not the same as yourdiscount**.
Discount Value - This is the dollar amount to discount from the event price. It must be a positive integer, ie to take $25 off an event ticket, you'd enter 25. Don't use a currency symbol (ie $) and don't use any decimal places (ie use 25 not 25.00)
Maximum Uses - Enter the total number of times this discount can be used. Tendenci will automatically stop accepting the discount code for event registrations once this number has been reached. Enter "0" for unlimited uses.
Never Expires - Check this box if you want the discount code to never expire, uncheck it to select a start and end timeframe for when the discount code is eligible.
Applications - Select the application that can use this discount. This will permit the user or members to apply this discount in different places, be it events, individual memberships or corporate memberships. To select all of the available applications, on your keyboard, press the ctrl and a (Windows) or command and a (MAC).
Start Date/Time and End Date/Time - Select a start date and time and an end date and time for when Tendenci should activate and disable this discount code.
**Note: make sure the "Never Expires" box is unchecked for Start and End dates to function.**
With the Start and End date feature, you'll save time and be able to create discount codes that practically manage themselves!
Discount Code Permissions
Public can view - Typically, you'll want to uncheck this box. If checked, then anyone can view this discount code, meaning they can see that it is an active discount code to use. If you're sharing discount codes selectively, then you want to make your discount codes private by unchecking the "public can view" box and using the Advanced Permissions option.
Advanced Permissions - Uncheck "Public can view" to show the advanced permissions options and select who can view and who can change this discount code. Super Users will always be able to view and change all discount codes.
Status Detail - This is purely used for administration notation so that your team can tell, at a glance, if the discount code is active, inactive, or pending.
Remember to Click --> and save your discount code!
Manage Discount Codes
This section will show you how to search, edit, delete, and manage your discount codes.
Search Discount Codes
By clicking on "Search Discounts" from the Discount Tab dropdown menu, you will be able to see a summary of your discount codes with information about each of them. You can also search for Discounts by name in the search bar.
The discount code list report shows you, at a glance, the key information you may need to manage your discount codes:
Code - this is the code that registrants need to enter when they register for an event to receive the discount. The code is case sensitive, and your event registrants can validate the discount code when they register.
Value - the value is the amount that is discounted from the total ticket price when the discount code is used. This value is a positive, whole number.
Uses - this value represents the number of times the code has been used by an event registrant
Cap - this value represents the total number of uses available. You set this value on the discount code edit form in the "maximum uses" field.
Status - this field tells you when the discount code becomes active or when it expires. Discount codes without an expiration date will say "never expires". If the code is active and has an expiration date, you'll see the date when the code expires. If the code has a future start date and time, you'll see the date the code becomes active, and once the start date has passed, this status will change to display the expiration date for the code.
Edit - click on the edit link next to each discount code to make changes to the code and click on the delete link to delete the discount code. If you delete a discount code, you'll have a chance to confirm your desire to delete on another page before the code is deleted. ** Note: once you confirm deletion, there's no going back! We recommend you ONLY delete codes that have never been used because future exports and reports will not include this code's history. Consider editing the code to make it to inactive instead.
If the event has discount code's enabled, there will be a place to add a discount code on the event registration form, below the guest contact information and above the payment option. There will also be a button to "check discount" that will validate the code instantly:
| Correctly Entered Discount Code | Incorrectly Entered Discount Code |
*Remember - discount codes are case sensitive!*
Discount Codes on the Event Registration Form
Your event attendees and your team can view the discount code used on the registration confirmation page for each registration. The price will reflect the total due after the discount code has been applied and marked with a small "d" icon. Below the price, there will be an additional line that tells you which discount code was applied. In the example screenshot above, the discount code was "Members-Only".
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