# Credits (/en/businesses/shop/credit-products)
Credits are a virtual currency at your venue. Customers buy a balance up front and then spend it like cash on the things you sell. This smooths out payments, improves your cash flow, and gives you a flexible tool for promotions and compensation. To sell a balance someone else can spend, use [gift cards](/businesses/shop/gift-cards).
A credit product simply defines how much a customer pays and how many credits they receive in return. Because you set that ratio freely, credits double as a discount mechanism: sell 50 credits for 40 and the customer effectively gets a 20% bonus that they can only spend with you.
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## What customers can pay for with credits [#what-customers-can-pay-for-with-credits]
Credits work like money at your venue. At checkout on the web and in the app, a customer can pay with credits for:
* Reservations and recurring reservations
* Events, tournaments and courses
* League registrations
* Service bookings
* Session cards
* Pro Shop products, rentals and additional services
* Memberships, when you allow it on the membership
Credits can't pay for credit top-ups, gift cards or invoices. When a basket holds one of these, or a membership that doesn't allow credits, the customer can't use credits on that payment at all and pays the whole basket another way.
Credits are not spent automatically. The customer chooses to pay with their
credit balance at checkout, just like picking any other payment method, so a
balance never disappears without them deciding to use it.
### Limiting what credits pay for [#limiting-what-credits-pay-for]
You can't limit credits to one kind of product, such as session cards only. The one switch is on memberships. **Allow purchase with credits** is off when you create a membership, and you turn it on for each membership that customers may buy with credits. See [Price and payment options](/businesses/shop/memberships/configure-membership#price-and-payment-options).
The same rules apply to every credit. It makes no difference whether the customer bought the credits, got them as a refund or a membership benefit, or staff added them on the customer's **Credits** tab. The credit type you pick when adding credits by hand decides the VAT only. The one exception is credits bought with an employee benefit, which pay only for products that accept the benefit. See [Credits bought with an employee benefit](#credits-bought-with-an-employee-benefit).
### If you want to support session cards only [#if-you-want-to-support-session-cards-only]
Don't add credits. Give the value in a form that only works on session cards:
* **For chosen customers**, add the session card straight to their profile. See [Adding a session card manually to a customer](/businesses/shop/session-cards#adding-a-session-card-manually-to-a-customer).
* **For a campaign**, create a [promo code](/businesses/promo-codes) with a **Session card discount** on the cards you pick. Set **Maximum uses per customer** to 1. Pick a customer list under **Who can use the code** too, because otherwise anyone who has the code can use it.
* **For members**, add session cards as a membership benefit. The membership grants them once or on each renewal. See [Benefits and booking controls](/businesses/shop/memberships/configure-membership#benefits-and-booking-controls).
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## Credits bought with an employee benefit [#credits-bought-with-an-employee-benefit]
In Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia a customer can top up credits with an employer-funded benefit such as Epassi, Edenred, Smartum, Zevoy, Wolt, a friskvårdsbidrag or Stebby. Thril records where that money came from, and those credits can then pay only for products you have marked **Payable with an employee benefit**. Credits bought with ordinary money have no such limit.
**What the customer sees.** At checkout the credits section shows only the balance that can be spent on that purchase. When part of the balance is left out, a note under the amount says how much, for example "20,00 € of your credits were bought with an employee benefit and can't be used for this purchase." When none of the balance can be spent, the section explains that the full balance is unavailable and does not show the redeem action.
**What staff see.** On the customer's **Credits** tab, every addition funded by a benefit carries an **Employee benefit** tag next to the credit type.
**What staff can set.** When you add credits by hand at a venue in Finland, Sweden, Estonia or Latvia, the form has a **Paid with** field with two options: **Regular payment** for credits paid with ordinary money, and **Employee benefit** for credits bought with Epassi, Edenred, Stebby or a similar benefit. It defaults to regular payment. Venues in other countries do not see the field, and their credits are always regular.
Turning the employee benefit off for a product later does not release credits
already bought with a benefit. They stay limited to the products that still
accept it.
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## Two kinds of credit product [#two-kinds-of-credit-product]
**Static credit product.** You set a fixed price and a fixed number of credits, and you choose the ratio. This is how you build tiered top-ups (for example 30, 50, and 100 credit packs) and bonus offers where larger purchases give better value.
**Dynamic credit product.** The customer chooses how much to load (any amount from 1 to 25000), and the ratio is fixed at 1:1, so the credits they receive equal the money they pay. This is the right choice for a simple "top up any amount" balance product.
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## Credit expiration [#credit-expiration]
Each credit product controls how long the credits it grants stay usable, which is a handy lever for both promotions and tidy accounting. There are three options.
* **No expiration.** Credits from this product never expire.
* **Expiration period in days.** Credits expire a set number of days after they are received.
* **Expiration date.** All credits expire at the end of one fixed calendar date, regardless of when they were bought. This is the right choice for a campaign that must end on a deadline.
When a customer holds credits with different expiry dates, the
soonest-expiring batch is always spent first, and credits with no expiry are
spent last. The transaction history shows an **Expires** column for each
batch.
***
## Example credit product configurations [#example-credit-product-configurations]
**Tiered top-ups with a bonus**
* Type: static, three products at 30, 50, and 100 credits
* Ratio: small discount that grows with size (for example 100 credits for 80)
* Expiration: none
* Good for: encouraging larger prepayments and rewarding bigger buyers
**Open balance top-up**
* Type: dynamic, 1:1
* Expiration: none
* Good for: letting customers load exactly the amount they want
**Campaign credit with a deadline**
* Type: static, generous bonus ratio
* Expiration: fixed expiration date at the end of the campaign
* Good for: a time-limited promotion that must not leave credits floating afterwards
***
## Availability and status [#availability-and-status]
A credit product can be sold in the **current venue only** or, if it suits you, made available across **all venues in your company**. Only products set to **active** appear for purchase. Deleting a product is permanent, but it does not remove credits customers have already bought.
The **Sales** section limits how many of a top-up can be sold, sets when it is on sale, and adds a regular price that the shop shows struck through next to the price. A top-up where the customer chooses the amount has no regular price. See [Sale limit, sale window and regular price](/businesses/shop/sales-settings).
Credit purchases are generally VAT 0%, which makes credits an efficient way for customers to use, for example, leftover sport benefits before they expire.
***
## Manual credit adjustments and VAT [#manual-credit-adjustments-and-vat]
Staff can adjust a customer's balance directly, for example as compensation, a campaign, or goodwill. When adding credits you must choose how they should be taxed, because this determines whether VAT is charged when the credits are later spent.
To adjust a balance, open the customer's **Credits** tab, choose **Add** or **Subtract**, enter the amount, and for additions set the credit type, how the credits were paid, and an optional expiration date (leave it blank for credits that never expire). Then create the transaction.
The credit type is one of two options:
| Option | What it does | VAT handling |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Standard VAT on use | Spending these credits adds the VAT amount to the payment | VAT is calculated at checkout when the credits are used |
| Non-taxable gift | Spending these credits does not add any VAT to the payment | Treated as a tax-free gift or discount. No VAT is calculated when credits are used |
### Which taxation model fits common situations [#which-taxation-model-fits-common-situations]
Use **Standard VAT on use** where credits should carry VAT when redeemed. Use **Non-taxable gift** where the credit is a genuine free benefit with no VAT applied later.
| Situation | Recommended treatment | Reason |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Credits given as compensation after a damage incident | Non-taxable gift | The credits are compensation, not a sale, so they are treated as a tax-free gift. |
| A booking is cancelled and refunded as credits | Standard VAT on use | The original VAT is refunded, after which the credits are redeemed again with VAT applicable at the time of redemption. |
| The venue gives credits to a customer as a gift | Non-taxable gift | No payment from the customer, so it is treated as a discount or benefit. No VAT needs to be charged on redemption. |
| The customer purchases credits (balance top-up) | Standard VAT on use | The credit purchase itself is not taxable. VAT is applied when the credits are used for services. |
| The customer pays 100 but receives 120 worth of credits | Standard VAT on use | The added value is a marketing bonus, not a separate tax-free product. VAT is applied on redemption at the full service price. |
| With a membership, the customer receives 50 worth of credits | Non-taxable gift | The credit portion is a benefit included in the membership price and is not sold separately, so it is treated as a gift or discount. |
| The customer pays outside Thril (for example at the counter by card or Epassi) | Primarily standard VAT on use, but at company discretion also non-taxable gift | If the outside charge can avoid VAT at the time of payment, choose standard VAT on use. This should always be the primary option, as it ensures the correct VAT is ultimately applied. If counter payments already include VAT, the company may at its own discretion record the credits as a tax-free gift, but this risks the correct VAT never being recorded, which Thril does not recommend. |
Thril aims to enable fully lawful VAT handling, but cannot guarantee it if a
company also sells credits through payment channels outside Thril (such as
legacy POS systems) that charge VAT at the time of payment. We recommend
selling credits through Thril, which applies VAT correctly at the time of use.
In short, your choice when adding credits decides how they are treated later: **Standard VAT on use** charges VAT only when the credits are spent, while **Non-taxable gift** keeps them VAT-free like a discount.