There has to be a better way…
Prior to when I started working here the company got started down a path where they were creating new payment methods for each fiscal year. This is mostly for the On-Account payment methods that they insist they need for when they do exchanges. Here is the scenario (tell me if this sounds familiar to any of you):
A Saturday Evening Series subscriber calls and says they cannot make it this Saturday, so they want to exchange for next Thursday. No problem as far as the subscription policy. However, the cost of the tickets on Thursday night is a little less than the Saturday night tickets. This leaves us with a balance due the customer in the transaction. However, police does not allow for giving the customer a refund for the difference, so this money is put “On-Account” using a payment method that is “On Account Play 2” (or 3 or 4 etc, depending on what show in the season this is).
Why do we use an on-account payment method? Here’s the rest of the story:
Two days later, the same customer calls and says they actually cannot make it to the Thursday show either, so they want to come to the next Saturday evening. Now, since the cost of these tickets is greater than the cost of the Thursday night tickets, we use the on-account money to cover the difference.
Does anyone else do anything like this? Our business office maintains that they must “keep the money with the show that it came from.” When the show run is over, how do we move all the money that is left in the on-account payment method for each show back to the ticket sales (or fees) for that show?
Finally, is it really necessary to create a new set of on-account payment methods for each fiscal year?
Thank you
Hi Tom,
There is a newer option available that will keep the money in the performance. You can make the exchange/subscription prices editable and edit them up so that the Thursday night ticket costs the same as the Saturday night ticket. Not only does it keep the money with the show, it also addresses your problem of when people want to exchange back to Saturday, as they will still have the Saturday value. When you set these price types to editable, keep the minimum the same as the default price, which will prevent anyone from reducing the price while still allowing them to increase the price. Editable pricing has only be around for about two years, so not many people are doing this yet, but I think it is now the best option available for capturing that downgrade money.
As far as creating new on account payment methods each fiscal year, whether or not it is required depends on what you want to do. If you can use the same GL account each year, the no, it is not required. The GL transactions will be assigned a fiscal year, so you’ll be able to sort out each fiscal year’s money even though it’s from different years. But if you need different GL accounts each year then you need different payment methods. Additionally, if you use the same payment methods from year to year it will be possible to use leftover money from one year in the next year. To prevent that you would need to clean out the leftover money. Unfortunately, there is no way to globally move on account money into something else. The only way to do it is manually, constituent by constituent.
Kevin Sheehan
Documentation & Learning Resources Specialist
Tessitura Network
1 888 643 5778 ext 329 Office
ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com