Passes are one-time payments and give your customers access for a defined time frame and/or a certain number of visits.
In this guide you'll find information on:
Preparation
If you plan on selling your passes online, please make sure to follow our guide to setting up payment options with Stripe and/or getting started with Square according to your Punchpass plan.
How to create a new pass
Navigate to the Manage > Passes page where you'll see a list of your current offers.
To create a new pass, press the + New Pass button.
This takes you to the pass creation page. You'll define how this pass will work, select the eligible classes, define the sales settings and press Save!
Passes can be edited at any time.
Types of passes you can create with Punchpass
Examples of passes and their settings
Here are examples of passes that are frequently made in Punchpass and an explanation of the settings they use.
Note: If you change the settings of an existing pass, the new start date will only impact any future passes assigned to customers - it will not affect passes that have already been assigned.
A pass that becomes active and available to use at the time of purchase
Passes with these settings might be a drop-in pass, a 5-class pass, or an unlimited pass that's valid for a month.
Use the following settings for any pass that you'd like to become active when purchased or assigned to the customer, and you'll see the expiration date on the pass listed at the time of purchase too.
Settings to use for a pass that becomes active at the time of purchase
When does this pass become active for attendance? To make the pass active at the time of purchase, select the option, "Immediately when assigned."
How long is the pass good for? Choose your preferred length. After selecting the pass length, you'll then be prompted to answer:
How should we calculate the pass expiration date? To have the expiration date set when the pass is purchased, select the option, "Set expiration date when pass assigned to customer."
Here's an example of a pass that becomes active when assigned and has the expiration date defined when purchased:
A pass with a future start date
You can create a pass that customers can purchase today and that becomes active to use on a date in the future.
For example, in December you start selling a January Special pass. You want this pass to become active and available for attendance on January 1st.
Limitations of these pass settings
If a customer purchases that pass, and then comes to class in December, that pass will not be used for class attendance. They'll need another pass to use for December.
On January 1st, the pass will become active and eligible to be used for attendance. You don't have to do anything to 'enable' the pass - it happens automatically!
Settings to use for a pass with a future start date and a fixed expiration date
When does this pass become active for attendance? Select the option, "On a specific date."
Date the pass becomes active. Select the appropriate start date, the date the pass will become available for the customer to use.
How long is the pass good for? Select your desired pass length. In this example, we chose the option for 1 month.
How should we calculate the pass expiration date? Select the option to "set the expiration date when the pass is assigned to the customer." This will set this pass to be valid for the entire month of January when purchased.
Here's an example of what this pass looks like when assigned to a customer:
A pass that allows reservations, but doesn't deduct credits until the first use
You can create a pass that customers can purchase today, and use to make reservations for future classes, but doesn't have an expiration date set until it's first used for attendance.
For example, a customer purchases a pass that has been configured so Punchpass will set the expiration dates 21 days after it has been first used.
A customer purchased this pass on December 1st,
The pass is 'active' and immediately available for making reservations after purchase,
The customer comes to their first class on December 10th, attendance is marked, and the expiration date is set to December 31st.
The main thing to be aware of is that the expiration date is set based on the date of the first class where the first attendance is taken.
Limitations of passes with an expiration date set to first-use
Someone with this type of pass can book classes, but the expiration date isn't determined until attendance is taken for the first use of the pass, so they'll be able to make multiple reservations until that first class attendance is taken. This means they might appear as needing a pass if they booked more classes than the pass allows.
You might consider setting the start date to be a specific date if you're looking for more control over the customer reservations.
Settings to use for a pass with a first-use expiration date
When does this pass become active for attendance? You can choose immediately when assigned for someone to start making reservations at the time of purchase or select a specific date.
How long is the pass good for? Select the length of the pass.
How should we calculate the pass expiration date? Select the option to "Set the expiration date after first use of the pass."
Here's an example of what this pass looks like when assigned to a customer before an expiration date has been created:
Creating a donation-based pass
You have the option to allow customers to pay what they wish from a range of prices. For example, a pass that's offered on a sliding scale, with payment options from $10-25.
When setting up a donation-based pass, customers will use the dropdown at checkout to select the amount they wish to pay. If you add tax to pass purchases in your account, the tax will be included in the pass price.
Considerations to make with donation passes
Passes with a donation range are not compatible with discount codes.
Settings to use for a donation-based pass
Are donations accepted for this pass? Toggle this to yes (the toggle will appear in green when active).
What is the minimum donation amount? Enter the minimum price for the pass, whole numbers only.
What is the maximum donation amount? Enter the maximum price for the pass, whole numbers only.
Creating a content-only pass
If your plan supports access to the Content Library, then you can add access to content collections to any of your passes or memberships.
When creating a new pass with access to Content Library there are a few things to keep in mind.
Recommended settings for content passes
Time-based vs never expires. When customers have access to the content library, they will have access to the content for as long as their pass or membership is active.
Viewing content doesn't deduct any class credits, so you'll want to consider making each pass or membership valid for a defined set of time.
Set passes to become active when assigned. If you're offering a pass with access to ONLY content library collections, we recommend when defining your pass to set the pass as active for attendance when it's assigned. This prevents customers from having a pass that never becomes active.
With a content-only pass, please make sure there are no eligible classes for the pass. (At this time, you can't have a pass with zero credits, but making the pass eligible for zero classes, will prevent it from being used for making a class reservation.)
Your content-only pass settings will look similar to this:
How customers buy a pass
With Punchpass your customers can purchase offers online using Stripe integration or purchase an offer through Square.
If you prefer to accept payments in person, via cash, bank transfer, or another method, we have you covered. You can also accept payments in person with Stripe.
If you're looking for information on how to set up a free pass, check out this guide.
Where to direct your customers to purchase a pass
Send them to the Purchase a Pass page,
Share and send direct links to a specific offer,
Admins can also manually assign customers a pass, a membership, or a ticket offer.
Here's an example of what your Purchase a Pass page might look like:
And each pass details page for offers sold online has a direct payment link you can share. From Manage > Passes, select the offer, and you'll see the purchase link:
How customers can see their passes
If you're on a Punchpass plan that supports customer accounts, when your customers sign into Punchpass, they'll be able to view any upcoming reservations by clicking on the My Reservations button.
Clicking the My Reservations button, opens a pop-up with all their upcoming class details, including online class links.
Deleting a pass from a customer account
Mistakenly assign a pass to a customer? No problem! You can quickly delete any pass that hasn't been used for an attendance.
From the customer's account, click on the three-dot icon on the pass, and you'll see an option to delete the pass.
Deleting a pass with Attendance
If a pass was used for attendance, you'll need to remove the attendances before you can delete the pass.
You can change the pass assigned to the attendance, or you can delete the attendance altogether from the class details page.
If the pass was purchased via Stripe, you can process a refund via Punchpass. Here's how.
Discontinuing a pass
After you have used Punchpass for a while you start to have Passes that you no longer offer and a few options for preventing pass sales.
To prevent any future sales, you can archive passes and memberships. This will remove the offer from the Purchase a Pass page and also prevent sales through the direct purchase link. Customers with the active pass on their accounts will be able to continue to use it.
Note: If you haven't assigned the pass to any customers then you will see the option to delete it to remove the pass from the system.
To archive a pass, click on Manage > Passes, select the Pass, click the Actions dropdown and select Archive:
Disabling pass purchases. Think of this as an emergency stop. This setting stops the online sale of any specific pass through the Purchase a Pass page and the direct purchase link, but will continue to allow paylinks for invoiced passes.
A good example of using this would be if you discover someone sharing the direct purchase link to a pass on social media and you want to stop people from purchasing, but not block those customers who have been invoiced.
Additional resources on passes
Frequently asked questions