ACTIVATING RESERVE – PAY LATER
Activating reservations (in terms of payment) for your organisation can be found in SETTINGS > EVENT/PRODUCT SETTINGS > RESERVE – PAY LATER. Here you can activate reservations for your backend only, as reservations are not available for online sales.
Once activated, you are able to set a default time (days and hours) that a reservation order must be finalised from the date/time the order was made. For example, you may want to put in 7 days. This will mean that the customer will have 7 days to finalise payment for their reservation before the reservation is cancelled, cleared and added back into your inventory. *Please note that this is only a default setting and you are still able to change it at an order level when making a reservation.
Next, you can set the number of days prior to the expiration of a reservation that the system will automatically send out a reservation reminder email to the customer. This is a general setting across your organisation and cannot be adjusted at the order level. Make sure to select the correct email template.
Next you will see a checkbox that says, “Allow Issuing of Ticket Before Reservation is Paid?” Allowing the issuing of tickets before a reservation is paid gives you the ability to print tickets from an order that may not have been completely finalised/payed for. For example, a group booking may have been put on reservation by a specific customer and each customer wishes to pay and pick their tickets up at different times. Activating this feature will enable you to print these individual tickets before the entire order is complete.
Lastly, you can add a description or any special terms and conditions for your reservations and simply add this “Tag” to your reservation email templates if required.
HOW TO RESERVE – PAY LATER
Once your RESERVE – PAY LATER feature is activated, you will be able to process reservations through your back-office sales (only) as long as you have that specific privilege assigned to your role.
Simply go through the STANDARD SALES process and once reaching your CHECKOUT page, you will have the option to RESERVE – PAY LATER on the bottom right of your page below your payment details. When making a reservation, there will be no need to select any payment type unless making a partial payment. Please always assign a customer profile against a reservation as this will make it much easier when tracking the reservation and also ensure the customer is receiving any confirmations and reminders.
When you select the RESERVE – PAY LATER button, you will have a pop-up that gives you the option to set a release date and time for your reservation. If you have added a default in your SETTINGS area, this will default here. Alternatively, you can customise the date and time by clicking on the calendar and selecting a date and then entering a new time. If you select ‘DO NOT AUTO RELEASE’, the system will retain the reservation without releasing it (back into inventory) and the responsibility will be on you to finalise the reservation. Once you are all set you can simply press CONFIRM.
If you wish to take a part-payment for your reservation, simply assign the partial payment amount in the PAYMENT DETAILS section by selecting your designated method of payment. You will then see that your BALANCE will still have a positive amount owing. You can then select RESERVE – PAY LATER, enter your release date and time (if required), and then press CONFIRM. This will then take the partial payment for the reservation and store your order data against your customer profile and reports.
HOW TO FINALISE A RESERVE – PAY LATER ORDER
When you are ready to take any payments for a reservation, simply go into the customer profile and select TRANSACTION HISTORY to view the list of previous transactions. You can also search for any reservations using the transaction search fields in SALES > CUSTOMERS & TRANSACTIONS, but it can be easier to search by a customer most of the time.
Once in the customer’s transaction history, you can see any reservations showing in BLUE. Even after your reservation has been completed, they will remain BLUE in the transaction history for easy reference. Simply EDIT the order to continue to PAY/EDIT the reservation.
You can also EDIT the expiry date for the reservation if you wish or view the payment details if any partial payments have previously been made.
Once you choose to EDIT the reservation, you will need to select/tick the ticket on the left-hand side, and this will enable buttons below the order which allow you to make changes to the reservation. These options allow you to PAY/EDIT the reservation or REFUND/CANCEL the reservation as required. Simply select the specific requirement and you will be taken to the CHECKOUT page where you will be able to finalise the order or add more partial payments.
