How do I manage discounts with coupons?

Learn about the coupon options in PayForCourses

Adding a coupon

Go to Coupons.

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Create a new coupon by selecting Add Coupon. Or hover over an existing one to Edit.

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  • Coupon code – Code used by the customer to apply the coupon. Must be unique as it’s used as an identifier.
  • Description (optional) — Info about coupon, e.g., Dates in effect, promotion, compensation, ticket number. For internal use only.

Under Coupon Data, there are three sections you can use to add restrictions and limits for the coupon: General, Usage Restriction, and Usage Limits.

General

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Discount type

  • Percentage discount – A percentage discount for the entire cart. For example, if the cart contains three (3) products @ £20 each = £60, a coupon for 10% off applies a discount of £6.
  • Fixed cart discount – A fixed total discount for the entire cart. For example, if the cart contains three (3) products @ £20 each = £60, a coupon for £10 off gives a discount of £10.
  • Fixed product discount – A fixed total discount for selected products only. Customer receives a set amount of discount per item. For example, three (3) products @ £20 each with a coupon for £10 off applies a discount of £30.
  • Coupon amount – Fixed value or percentage, depending on discount type you choose. Entered without a currency unit or a percent sign, which are added automatically, e.g., Enter ’10’ for £10 or 10%.
  • Allow free shipping – Not applicable to PayForCourses.
  • Coupon expiry date – Date the coupon should expire and can no longer be used. Expiry happens at 12:00 am or 00:00 on the date chosen. If you want a coupon to be valid through Christmas Day but invalid the moment Christmas is over, set the expiration date to YYYY-12-26 as it will expire on YYYY-12-26 00:00. It uses your site’s time zone setting.

Usage Restriction

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  • Maximum spend – Enables you to set the maximum subtotal allowed when using the coupon.
  • Individual use only – Tick the box if you don’t want this coupon to be used in combination with other coupons.
  • Exclude sale items – Tick the box if you don’t want this coupon to apply to products on sale. Per-cart coupons do not work if a sale item is added afterward.
  • Products – Products that the coupon will be applied to, or that need to be in the cart in order for the “Fixed cart discount” to be applied.
  • Exclude products – Products that the coupon will not be applied to, or that cannot be in the cart in order for the “Fixed cart discount” to be applied.
  • Product categories – Product categories that the coupon will be applied to, or that need to be in the cart in order for the “Fixed cart discount” to be applied.
  • Exclude categories – Product categories that the coupon will not be applied to, or that cannot be in the cart in order for the “Fixed cart discount” to be applied.
  • Allowed Emails/Email restrictions – Email address or addresses that can use a coupon. Verified against customer’s billing email. PayForCourses allows you to include a wildcard character (*) to match multiple email addresses, for example, `*@gmail.com` would make any gmail address valid.
  • Leaving “Products” and “Exclude Products” blank allows the coupon to be applied to the entire shop.

Usage Limits

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  • Usage limit per coupon – How many times a coupon can be used by all customers before being invalid.
  • Limit usage to X items – How many items the coupon can be applied to before being invalid. This field is only displayed if there are one or more products that the coupon can be used with, and is configured under the Usage Restrictions. (Note: Option is only available if you are creating a Product Discount coupon.)
  • Usage limit per user – How many times a coupon can be used by each customer before being invalid for that customer.
  • Once you’ve configured all settings, select Publish and your coupon is ready to use.

Sharing coupons

Once coupons are published, you can make them available to customers.

Applying Coupons To Orders

Coupons can be added to (or removed from) orders in the Edit Order screen. Orders must be unpaid and you need to know the coupon code you wish to apply.

FAQs

How do coupons impact tax calculations?

Coupons are applied to the product price before tax is calculated. To make sure taxes are then calculated correctly due to rounding, the discount is split across all items in the cart rather than simply deducting an amount from the total.

When you split a discount across the cart, naturally, half values could occur which in turn can cause rounding issues once everything is summed up.

To help mitigate this coupons only deal with pence values. Once split between items, any remainder is applied one line item at a time until exhausted. The final total will then equal the applied discount total. This is most important for fixed cart discounts.