Adding credits manually

Sometimes you need to give a customer credits without them paying: to comp a failed print, to thank a regular, or to seed the booth for a small event. The Credits tab lets you add credits manually and records the transaction in the audit trail.

Who this is for: Operators handling customer issues or running events.

Before you start

Decide whether you want to:

  • Comp a single customer for a session that went wrong → add credits in Coin Operated mode
  • Run a free event → switch to Free Play mode instead (see Operation modes)
  • Seed the booth for a small private session → add credits in Coin Operated mode

If you're running anything bigger than a single session for one or two customers, Free Play mode is usually the better answer.

How to add credits

  1. Open admin → Credits tab.
  2. Note the current balance so you can verify your addition worked.
  3. Find the Add Credits input or section.
  4. Tap the amount field. The on-screen keyboard appears.
  5. Enter the amount. Be careful with the decimal point. 5.00 is five dollars; 500 is five hundred.
  6. Tap the Add (or similar) button.
  7. The booth records an Admin credit transaction.
  8. The current balance updates immediately.

Your addition is now visible in the customer's credits indicator on the welcome screen and on every customer-facing screen.

Screenshot needed
credits-tab-manual-add-detail.png
Credits tab manual add input with an Add button.

Audit trail

Every manual credit add is recorded in the Credits tab transaction history with:

  • Type: Add
  • Amount: what you entered
  • Source: Admin
  • Timestamp: when you did it
  • Balance after: the new balance

To find a past add, open the Credits tab, scroll to the transaction history, filter by Add or Admin source, and look at the timestamps.

Comping a customer

A customer's session went wrong. Printer jammed, photos came out blurry, the booth crashed mid-print. You want to give them a free retry.

  1. Apologize.
  2. Open admin → Credits.
  3. Add credits equal to the price of one session of the product they wanted.
  4. Tell the customer to walk back around to the screen and start a new session.
  5. Watch their new session complete successfully.
  6. The credits you added are spent on the new session, returning the balance to where it started.
  7. Exit admin.

The audit trail will show your Admin add followed by a Pulse or Coin Operated spend. Your accountant can distinguish "operator comp" from "real customer payment" if they audit the credit history later.

Warning
Don't refund the original session in cash AND comp them with credits. You'll be paying twice for one session. Pick one and document it.

Seeding for a small event

If you want to run a 30-minute session at a private event without switching to Free Play (e.g. you want the credit history to show the comp explicitly):

  1. Estimate the session count and total cost.
  2. Add that total to the credit balance in one chunk.
  3. The credits stay in the balance and are spent down as customers run sessions.
  4. When the credits run out, the next customer hits the payment screen as normal.

For events with more than 5-10 sessions, switch to Free Play mode instead. It's cleaner and doesn't require you to estimate.

Deducting and resetting credits

The Credits tab also lets you deduct a specific amount or reset the balance to zero:

  • Deduct when you've over-comped or you need to remove an accidental addition
  • Reset at the start of an event when you want a clean slate

Both are recorded in the audit trail with their own type labels.

Cloud-driven credits

If your booth is registered to the cloud, a cloud admin can also push credits to the booth using a remote add_credits command. These appear in the Credits tab history with source = Cloud instead of Admin. See Remote commands (coming soon).

Reconciling at end of day

At the end of a day, your end-of-day cash should match the cash-only revenue from the Sales tab (filter by cash payment method if your booth also accepts cards) minus any Admin credits you added during the day. The math:

expected_cash_in_box = cash_revenue - manual_admin_credits_added

If your booth only takes cash (no card reader), cash revenue equals total revenue and this is straightforward. If your booth accepts both cash and cards, use the payment method breakdown in the Sales tab to isolate the cash portion.

If your cash count doesn't match, look in the Credits tab history for unexpected manual additions, deductions, or resets you may have forgotten about.

Verify it worked

You're using manual credit adds correctly when:

  • Every comp you do is recorded in the Credits tab history
  • You can answer "where did this credit come from?" from the audit trail
  • Your end-of-day cash reconciles cleanly with the Sales tab
  • You know when to use Free Play mode instead of comping individual customers

Common mistakes

Forgot the decimal point and added $500 instead of $5.

Open Credits tab and deduct the difference immediately.

Added credits but customer never came back.

The credits stay in the balance for the next person, or deduct them to clean up.

Comped twice (added credits AND refunded cash).

Document the mistake and learn to do one or the other.

Used manual adds for a big event instead of Free Play.

Next time switch to Free Play for cleaner accounting.

Next steps