Promo Codes for Your Event's Tickets | Planadar Help

Promo Codes for Your Event's Tickets

A promo code takes money off the tickets for one of your events. Attendees type it in at checkout. This article covers codes for your own event; codes that discount a Planadar subscription are covered in "Using a Promo Code on a Planadar Plan".

Create a code

1. Open the event's Event Console and select Promo Codes in the sidebar.
2. Select Create Promo Code.
3. Type the Code, for example SUMMER20. It is always saved in capital letters.
4. Choose Percentage or Fixed Amount and enter the value.
5. Optionally set a Usage Limit, Valid From and Valid Until.
6. Leave Active switched on and save.

The list shows each code with its discount, its Usage (uses so far, and the limit if you set one), its validity dates and a status: Active, Inactive, Scheduled, Expired or Exhausted. The menu on each row lets you Edit, Deactivate or Activate, or Delete a code. Deactivating stops a code straight away and keeps its history.

How attendees use it

On the ticket list an attendee selects Have a promo code?, enters the code and applies it. The discounted price shows before they continue to payment, and the discount also appears on the Stripe payment page. It works the same for signed-in attendees and for guests who check out without an account.

What a code covers

• Fixed-price tickets only. Donation (pay-what-you-want) tickets, standalone donations and raffle entries do not take a code.
• Percentage codes take that percentage off the order. Fixed Amount codes take that amount off each ticket in the order, and never more than a ticket costs.
• One code per order.
• Your fees follow the discount. The platform fee and the payment-processing fee are worked out on what the attendee actually pays, so a discount lowers them too.

How uses are counted

A use is held when an attendee opens checkout and counted when the payment completes. While a checkout is open (it lasts up to 30 minutes), its use counts against the limit. With one use left, only one of two attendees who check out at the same moment gets it: the other is told the code has reached its usage limit. If the first attendee does not pay, the use is released when they cancel the checkout or when it expires, which is within 30 minutes, and the code works again.

The Usage figure in the list shows the uses that were paid for, so for a few minutes a code can be refused while the list still shows room, because someone's checkout is open. A use is one order, however many tickets it holds. A payment that is repeated or retried by the payment provider is not counted twice, and a refund does not give a use back. When the limit is reached the code shows Exhausted and stops working.

Why a code is refused

The attendee sees the reason: the code is not valid for this event or has been switched off ("Invalid promo code", or "no longer valid" if you switched it off while they were checking out), it has expired, it is not active yet, or it has reached its usage limit, including when another attendee took the last use a moment ago.