Account credit is a plain dollar balance sitting on a client's account. It comes from a package cash-out or an overpayment. This article is about spending it.
What it does
Paying with account credit settles unpaid drop-in appointments out of that balance. It's the same path as the dashboard's Mark Paid → Pay With Account Credit control, so the money lands identically whichever way you do it: one payment per appointment, linked to that appointment, the appointment flipped to paid, and the payer's balance debited by the same amount.
The payer doesn't have to be the attendee
This is the whole point of it. "Cash out her package and put it toward the duet those two are taking on Thursday" is one action: one payer, two appointments.
The payment is attributed to the attendee, so each person's payment history is correct. Only the payer's balance moves.
Do the arithmetic out loud
Before you spend it, check two things together: the payer's balance, and the appointments you're about to settle. Then say what's left. You're usually mid-way through a plan — "$192 minus the $120 duet leaves $72" — and the number that matters is the one at the end.
Batches are all-or-nothing
Settle the whole batch in one go. The balance is checked against the total before anything is written, so a two-person duet can never end up half paid with one person still owing.
If the balance is short, you're told the shortfall and nothing is written. It won't partially settle a batch and leave you to work out which half went through. Decide what to do — top up, split the payment another way — and act on the whole thing.
When this isn't the right tool
- The appointment is already paid, or already covered by a package. There's no balance due; it will refuse.
- The appointment came from a previous system (pre-migration or imported). Nothing is owed on those — see marking an appointment paid.
- You're tempted to mark it cash instead. Don't. Marking an appointment as cash to represent account credit invents revenue the studio never received and leaves the credit balance undebited. If this action can't run for some reason, stop and find out why — don't work around it with a cash or Venmo mark.
Common questions
The client attending has no balance but their spouse does. That works, but it's a deliberate second decision. The first attempt fails and names whose balance it would come from, so you can confirm before spending someone else's money. See duets, partners, and family bookings.
Where does the payment show up? On the attendee's payment history, as a client-credit payment linked to their appointment.
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