Vouchers: issue, redeem and track

A voucher is a dollar balance you hold on a guest's behalf — a gift certificate someone bought, a goodwill credit after a rough stay, or a cancelled booking's money kept for a future visit. Issue it once and Accommador tracks every dollar until it's spent, across as many bookings as it takes.

A redemption is a payment, not a discount

When a voucher is applied to a booking, it pays the booking the way money does: the balance owing drops, a payment row appears with its method reading "Voucher", and statements and Xero all line up. The nightly rate is untouched — so your revenue figures and reports stay honest, and the guest still sees the true price of their stay.

Issue a voucher

1. Open Accounting → Vouchers and click Issue voucher.
2. Enter the face value, and optionally an expiry date, the recipient and the purchaser.
3. Choose what kind it is: sold (someone paid for it) or goodwill (a credit you're giving, with no money behind it).
4. For a sold voucher, choose how to take the money — record a payment you've already taken, or send the purchaser a payment link (next section).
5. Issue it and share the code with the guest.

Collecting the money for a sold voucher

A sold voucher collects its money as part of being issued, so a paid-for voucher and its payment can never drift apart. The amount collected is always the face value — there's nothing to type and no way to take the wrong figure.

• Record a payment you've taken — the purchaser paid at the desk or by bank transfer: pick the method and date, add a reference if you like, and the payment is recorded the moment the voucher is issued.
• Send a payment link — the purchaser isn't in front of you: Accommador mints a secure checkout link for you to copy or send. Until it's paid, the voucher shows Awaiting payment — it exists and is visible, but it can't be redeemed until the money settles. Re-sending replaces the link: the old one stops working, so exactly one live link ever points at a voucher.

Either way the books are right from the first moment: the money posts to Xero as money you're holding — alongside your booking deposits — rather than as revenue, because a voucher is a stay you owe, not income you've earned yet. No GST is recorded at the sale; tax is recognised when the voucher pays for a real stay, on that stay's own invoice (worth confirming with your accountant, as with any voucher scheme). If your accountant prefers voucher money tracked on its own Xero account instead of with deposits, that can be set up — ask us.

A goodwill voucher deliberately can't carry a payment — a comp never enters your cash records looking like a sale.

Redeem against a booking

1. Open the booking's Payments tab and click Redeem voucher.
2. Enter the code. The dialog shows the voucher's remaining balance and expiry.
3. Apply an amount — it defaults to the lesser of the voucher's balance and the amount owing.
4. Confirm. The balance owing drops, and the voucher's remaining balance drops with it.

Whatever's left on the voucher stays available for next time — one voucher can spend across several stays, and a booking can draw on it more than once. Applying more than the booking owes is allowed (you'll be warned): the excess becomes a genuine overpayment to refund or put toward something later.

Track and void

Accounting → Vouchers lists every voucher with its remaining balance and status; open one to see its full history of redemptions and the bookings they landed on. The same view shows where the voucher's money came from: a sold voucher shows its payment — and, while it's still awaiting payment, the live checkout link with a re-send button; a voucher converted from a cancelled booking shows the original booking's payments; a goodwill voucher says plainly that no money was collected.

Void an unspent voucher to cancel its remaining value. A partly spent voucher can't be voided — its redemptions are real money on real bookings. If a redemption itself was the mistake, void that payment on the booking and issue a fresh voucher for the balance.

Expiry is enforced when someone tries to redeem: an expired code is politely refused, whatever balance it still shows.

Troubleshooting

It says the voucher can't be redeemed because it hasn't been paid for

The voucher was sold with a payment link that hasn't been paid yet. Open it under Accounting → Vouchers to copy or re-send the link; once the payment settles, the voucher becomes redeemable on its own.

Can guests buy vouchers on my booking page?

No — vouchers are issued by you, from Accounting → Vouchers or from a cancelled booking's held money.

Can I refund a voucher payment as cash?

No. A redemption isn't refundable as money — the value lives on the voucher. See the Payments tab for how redemptions sit alongside other payments.