We have a customer interested in subsidizing part of the ticket cost for their group. They want their members to be able to purchase tickets individually at $x and once we have a final tally, we'd bill the organization for the remaining ticket cost. Ideally they'd like their members to be able to purchase online. We’ve had a few ideas but are looking for the most seamless procedure - has anyone has done something like this?
We've done a similar setup before using pricing rules (although I don't see why you couldn't do it with a promo if you prefer). However you set it up, you do need to ensure that the tickets cannot be printed, like John said. We did this by creating a discounted pricetype that could only see the hold at box office or regular mail delivery methods using LTR_TNEW_DYN_SHIPPING_METHOD (print at home was not an option). If you do it using a promo/MOS flip, you can limit the delivery options in the TX_MOS_SHIP_METHOD table. Every morning, we had a scheduled report that pulled any orders with that discounted pricetype (in our case the pricetype was only used for this purpose, but if you did this using a promo code you could use an existing pricetype and pull a report using that source number instead). Then, before we printed the daily mail, we would enter those orders and flip any fields that needed to be adjusted prior to sending the mail. In your case, you would flip your pricetype back to full price, moneybag the payment to the subsidized payment type, and then you are free to print/mail the tickets.
Such great ideas - thank you both, John and Anna!