Overview
The key reason Booking Rooster clients choose to add the partner programme to their Booking Rooster software is to restrict 'payment on account' to those clients that are genuine account holders. It can be used for so much more. This article covers:
- How partners (usually your accountholders) are recognised by Booking Rooster
- How rules are used to apply your partner's privilege;
- Things to think about when planning your implementation.
- How to specify your partner rules.
- Where you can see your existing partner privileges.
- How to have partners added or removed, or privileges edited.
The aim of this service option is to save time and enhance financial control- ultimately to grow your bottom line.
How Booking Rooster recognises your partners
You provide Booking Rooster with a list of partners & associated email addresses - ideally in spreadsheet form. We check the spreadsheet and work with you to determine which partners are recognised by each of:
- the booker's domain (ie @xyzcompany.co.nz)
- the booker's full email address (ie xyzcompany@gmail.com)
- the invoice's domain
- the invoice's full email address
Whether your admin team adds a booking or customers self-book, their special privileges are applied based on what is entered as the booker and/or invoicee email address.
Partner Rules
Rules available in standard set-up
You choose which of these rules you want to apply as people book:
- Enabling "Pay on Account" for specified partners, while not allowing others this option.
- Enabling specific payment due dates for partners (often 20th of the following month, but you can specify the payment date associated with each payment method applied to partners).
- Making the PO a required field, just for those customers whose own business rules require it.
- Defaulting the invoicing address to the correct address for that customer (e.g. defaulting the invoicing address for all @xyzcompany.co.nz bookers to a specified address such as ap.invoices@xyz.co.nz)
- Applying discounts to clients who are on negotiated terms with you. Standard set-up allows you to set three discount tiers:
- Each tier should be specified as $ per ticket, % per booking or $ per booking
- These discounts can be applied to all courses, all courses delivered in-person, online and/or blended, all courses of specific types or all tickets of specific types. Booking Rooster works with you to set the rules.
- If you have more complex discounting needs or more than three specific tiers you will require custom rules.
Custom rules
It is also possible to add custom rules. These can help address particular challenges for your business and are added at current custom programming rates. Some examples include:
- Special invoicing exclusions - Imagine most of your clients are happy to be invoiced separately for each booking, they receive their invoice immediately when they book and it is put into your accounting system immediately. You might have some very special clients that insist on having only one monthly invoice. At the moment you might have your own 'work around' to achieve this or simply say 'no' when you want to say 'yes'. With the partner programme you can specify that these people are not sent an invoice at the time of booking and their invoice is not sent to your accounting system. You can also have a report for that client added to the reports tab or even sent to your accountant each month to help them create the invoice by upload, attachment or the likes.
- Special extra fields - Imagine you have a client that requires more than just a PO on their invoice. Perhaps they need to know the Staff ID numbers the booking relates to. The custom rules can be used to show this field to them and not to other bookers.
Things to think about
Some important things to consider when setting your rules:
- Do these privileges apply to all courses? They don't have to. Some organisations only allow credit terms on in-person and blended courses, not on in-person courses or specifically exclude some types of course from receiving some privileges, like discounts.
- Do these privileges apply to public and private courses? Some organisations limit discounts to public courses because discounts are built into private course pricing.
- If there is something not shown in the list of 'standard' rules, do ask if it is possible for it to be added.
How to specify your rules
The best way to specify which partners get which privileges is in a spreadsheet like the one below. Usually the best starting point for this is an export from your accounting software:
- Delete people that get no privileges, then add columns to show who gets what.
- Don't worry about reducing emails to just the domain, unless that's easy for you, as Booking Rooster can do this quickly using advanced excel skills and send the file back to you for checking.
- When specifying discounts in tiers, as in the example below, you'll also need to provide a list of what discounts each tier receives. Keep it simple.
- When specifying a method like "On Account Payment" note that the due date will automatically be picked up from the due date for that method on each existing event. You may like to specify the due date for on-account.
- If you arrange to call or zoom Booking Rooster before setting these rules, we will provide you with a spreadsheet template to suit your particular needs. I twill be something like the one below.
Where to see your partner list
If the Partner Programme is in place administrators can:
- See your partner rule summary in Organisations/Partners
- Search on an email address before making a booking.
The search is very useful as it allows an admin to check if PO is required for the booker before entering the booking.
If the PO is required they might like to add a 'draft booking' now and activate it when the caller provides the PO. Links enabling you to 'Add Booking' and "Add Draft Booking' on the course you are in when searching, appear with the search results.
Adding & removing partners or changing rules
Once your partner module is set up your monthly service plan includes both your continued access to this service and the ability to have new partners added or removed by the Booking Rooster team - no more than one 'list' of changes per month. It also provides for you to have minor edits made to existing rules. For example, if you didn't use the discounts option at set-up but are ready to add them now, these are included.
For rapid service, email support@bookingrooster.co.nz including one of the following in the subject:
- Add partners
- Remove partners
- Minor edits to existing rules
Include in the body of the email the details of the change you need. Note that your monthly partner programme service plan does not include adding new custom rules or significate rule changes.
Need to know more?
Email us your questions, call us, request a zoom demonstration or request a quote.
- Email: support@bookingrooster.co.nz
- Call : 07 575 6903
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