Some things you sell belong to one member: a child's season of classes, a pet's grooming pack. Others belong to the whole account: a family registration fee, a household membership. Purchase rules tell Bizzly which is which, so buyers are only asked "who is this for?" when the answer matters, and nobody is charged a once-only fee twice. You set them for each plan in its Buyers sheet.
Where to Find This
Open What you sell in your console and find Plans and packs. Press the plan to open its sheet beside the list, then press Who can buy. If you come by the Price sheet instead (press Name and description), the row waits with Save this first if that sheet has a change that is not saved. Only administrators can change a plan's rules. See Your Plans and Packs.
The sheet is headed Who can buy followed by the plan's name, with the line "Who it is for, and how often". Under Who can buy it, and how often? one sentence says the rule as it stands, with Edit:
- "Each child can buy it once."
- "The whole family can buy it up to 3 times in any 12 months."
- "Each child can buy it as often as they like."
Press Edit to change it. Press Save when you are done. A message at the bottom of the screen says Who can buy changed, with Undo.
A rule belongs to the plan, so changing it changes the rule everywhere the plan is sold. When other plans share the same rule, the sheet says "Other plans share this rule, so a change here applies to all of them."
Who Is This Purchase For?
The first choice is worded for the kind of customer your site is set up for. A kids' club sees Each child and The whole family, tutoring Each student and The whole family, pet care Each pet and The whole household, and vehicle services Each vehicle and The whole account.
- 1
Each member (the starting choice)
The purchase is recorded against one member and the entitlement is theirs. At checkout the buyer is asked Who is this for? and picks from their children, pets or vehicles (or adds a new one there and then) before paying. Basket lines then read "For Sam", and the sessions or credits belong to that member alone.
- 2
The whole family, household or account
The purchase belongs to the account, so the buyer is not asked who it is for. This is the choice for a registration fee, a joining fee or a family membership. An account purchase is once per account by definition: the sheet says "This plan is bought for the whole account, so it always has a limit. Once is the least."
A business with no children, pets or vehicles recorded, such as a cleaning firm or a salon, is offered Ordinary product and Joining fee, charged once per customer instead.
The line under the choice says "A registration or joining fee belongs to the account as a whole, not to one person." If your site does not book on behalf of anyone, buyers are never asked the question, whichever you choose.
How Many Times Can It Be Bought?
Under the choice, Limit how many times it can be bought is a tick. It is part of the Standard and Pro plans. If your Bizzly plan does not include it, the sheet shows a card headed Not in your plan yet. The card says "A purchase limit is part of a higher plan." and has a See plans button. You can still choose who the purchase is for.
Tick it and:
- set the number of times it can be bought, from 1 up. The line under it says "A full refund frees the allowance again. Partial refunds and expired credits still count as bought."
- tick Count only recent purchases to count only a recent period. Set In the last a number of Days, Weeks, Months or Years. "Purchases older than this period no longer count towards the limit." The period moves with the calendar rather than resetting everyone on a fixed date.
The limit counts per member when the plan is for each member, and across the whole account when it is for the account. Unticking the limit takes it off; where the rule was shared, the sheet says "This plan stops sharing the rule. The other plans keep it."
What your customers see when the allowance is used up
- A limit per member: that member's row in the "Who is this for?" window carries an already used label and cannot be chosen, so a buyer can still buy for a different profile.
- An account limit: the plan's card on your site reads Already paid.
- At checkout, a basket that breaks the rule is refused with a plain sentence, for example "That's a once-per-account item. It's already in your basket.", "You've already paid this. There's nothing more to pay." or "This has already been bought for this member. There's nothing more to buy." Nothing is charged.
This is how you sell a paid taster once per profile: choose Each child and tick Limit how many times it can be bought at 1. For a free first session, use the free trial setting on the class instead. See Adding and Changing a Class or Camp.
Keeping the Joining Fee Off a Taster
When your catalogue has a plan for the whole account (an account fee), every other plan's sheet gains More options, with a tick, Do not add the joining fee when someone buys this. The line under it says "A new customer pays the joining fee alongside their first purchase. Tick this to keep it off this plan, as a trial usually should. It still arrives with their first ordinary purchase."
Leave it unticked, and a new customer picks up the joining fee alongside this purchase. In the basket it is a clearly labelled, removable line. When someone buys straight from a card or booking window, it is a second line on the payment page. Tick it for tasters and trials, so someone trying a session is not charged to join. "Taster" means whatever you mark that way. There is no special plan name. This setting is not offered on the fee plan itself.
The setting is available on every plan, and works wherever the plan is sold: your website basket, a purchase made straight from a card, an enrolment, and an assisted checkout you compose.
The full behaviour is in Account Fees: Joining and Registration Charges and How the Basket and Checkout Work.
Tips
- Fees and memberships go to the account. Everything a person attends goes to the member. That one line covers almost every catalogue.
- Set the rule before you launch. Changing it later does not rewrite purchases already made.
- Check the wording your buyers see by opening your own storefront card: the question, the per-member rows and the "already paid" states are all driven by these settings.
Related Articles
- Account Fees: Joining and Registration Charges - The once-per-account fee, and every route it reaches customers by
- How the Basket and Checkout Work - The shared basket, and the joining fee that adds itself
- Your Plans and Packs - The Price sheet this opens from
- Purchase Eligibility on a Customer's Record - Seeing what a customer has used, and recording a past purchase
- Account Profiles - Recording the children, pets or vehicles a purchase can name
- Importing Customers From a Spreadsheet - Recording a fee someone already paid, for a whole list at once