📝 Overview
Account credit is a balance stored on a customer's profile that can be put toward future purchases. When a customer with account credit also has an active recurring membership, the credit works slightly differently than it does for one-off purchases, as it is applied automatically without any action needed from the business or the customer.
This guide explains exactly how that works, when it doesn't apply automatically, and how to add credit to a customer's profile.
💡 For step-by-step instructions on adding account credit to a customer's profile, see the guide here.
🔄 How Credit Is Applied to Recurring Membership Bills
If a customer has account credit and owns a recurring membership, the credit will be applied automatically against their next bill or bills. Neither you nor the customer needs to take any action, as the system handles this when the next payment is due.
If the bill is larger than the available credit balance, the credit reduces the amount charged to the customer's payment method by the value of the credit. Any remaining credit will continue to be applied to following bills until it is fully used up.
⚠️ Important exception:
Account credit is not applied automatically to the first payment on a recurring membership.
If a customer has credit on their account and is purchasing a new recurring membership, they will need to apply the credit manually at checkout.
🧑💻 How Customers Apply Credit Manually (First Payment)
When a customer is purchasing a recurring membership for the first time and has credit available, the credit is not applied automatically, the customer will need to select it during the checkout process.
💡If a customer misses this at checkout and pays in full, the credit will remain on their account. It will then be applied automatically against their next bill once the membership is active.
📑 Using Credit Across Multiple Payments
Account credit does not have to be used all at once. It can be applied in full against a single bill, or it can be used across multiple billing cycles, depending on the credit on the customers account, and their monthly payment amount, the system will continue applying it to upcoming bills until the balance is exhausted.
🧠 Example:
If a customer has a monthly recurring membership which charges them £50 per month, and you apply a £125 credit to their account, then the credit will be applied to their payments as follows:
Month 1: £50 credit applied - £75 credit remaining - Customer payment method not charged.
Month 2: £50 credit applied - £25 credit remaining - Customer payment method not charged.
Month 3: £25 credit applied - £0 credit remaining - Customer payment method charged £25 (£25 credit + £25 from payment method = £50 monthly payment)
💡The credit on your customers account can be used for manual purchases also. So if a customer uses their remaining credit on store purchases, or a new membership (examples), then their credit may be used up, and there will be no credit left to be applied to their next recurring membership payment.
➕ How To Add Account Credit to a Customer
Account credit can be added to any customer's profile directly from your dashboard.
Navigate to Customers ➜ select the customer ➜ Payments tab ➜ click 'Add' next to Account Credits. Enter a memo and the credit amount, then click Save.
💡 You can view a customer's current credit balance and history from the Payments tab on their profile. For a full history of credits across all your customers, use the Account Credit History report.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Find answers to common questions or additional details that may not be covered in the main instructions.
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Click the arrow to view frequently asked questions
Will account credit reduce my customer's next membership payment automatically?
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Yes. If a customer has account credit and an active recurring membership, the credit will be applied automatically against their next bill or bills. The only exception is the very first payment when a customer is purchasing a new recurring membership — for that payment, the customer needs to apply the credit manually at checkout.
My customer had credit but it wasn't applied to their last payment. Why?
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If the payment was the customer's first payment on a new recurring membership, credit is not applied automatically — the customer would have needed to apply it manually at checkout. If the payment was not the first payment and credit was still not applied, please contact our support team through the chat widget on your dashboard so we can look into it.
Can account credit be used for purchases other than recurring memberships?
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Yes. Account credit can be applied manually by the customer at checkout for any eligible purchase. For recurring membership bills after the first payment, it is applied automatically by the system. The credit can be used in full or split across multiple purchases.
Where can I see how much credit a customer has?
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A customer's current credit balance can be viewed from their profile under the Payments tab. For a full history of credits added and used across all customers, use the Account Credit History report.
How do I add account credit to a customer's profile?
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Click the arrow to see the answer
Navigate to Customers ➜ select the customer ➜ Payments tab ➜ click 'Add' next to Account Credits. Enter a memo and the credit amount, then click Save. For a full walkthrough with screenshots, see the guide here.