Knowledge BaseSession cards
Sell prepaid packages of play, from ten-session punch cards and twenty-hour bundles to free trial weeks and unlimited seasonal cards, with fine-grained usage rules.
A session card is a prepaid package that a customer buys once and draws down over time. It is the digital equivalent of a punch card or a bundle of hours, and it is one of the most flexible products in Thril. The same underlying tool produces a classic ten-session card, a twenty-hour coaching package, a free trial week, a weekday-mornings-only card, and an unlimited summer pass. The difference between all of these is configuration, not different products.
This page focuses on the kinds of cards you can build and the rules that shape them.
A session card is not spent automatically. When a customer books an activity the card covers, such as a court reservation or an event, they choose to pay with the card at checkout, and only then is the matching amount deducted from the balance.
How usage is measured: count or time
The quota type decides how a card's balance is counted, and it is the first thing to choose.
- Count. The card holds a number of sessions, and each use spends one. This is the classic "ten times" card. A 10-session card lets the customer make ten covered bookings, after which it is empty.
- Time (duration-based). The card holds a total amount of time, and each use spends the length of that booking. A 20-hour card covers bookings until twenty hours have been used up, whether that is twenty one-hour sessions or ten two-hour sessions. Time-based cards accept fractional hours.
Count cards can be applied to reservations, events, course enrollments, and service bookings. Time-based cards cannot pay for events or course enrollments, because both are a fixed fee for a place rather than an amount of time.
How much the card holds: capped or unlimited
Set a maximum (sessions for count cards, hours for time cards) to cap the balance. Alternatively, tick No usage limit to remove the cap entirely, so the card can be used any number of times while it is valid. An unlimited card is how you create something like an all-you-can-play summer pass.
Unlimited cards are recommended only for short validity periods. Pair No usage limit with Restrict benefits to validity period so the open-ended usage cannot outlive the window you intended.
How long the card lasts
Validity is what separates a true prepaid package from an open tab, and it comes down to three settings that work together.
- Validity in days. How long the card stays usable. For example, 365 means the card expires a year after it becomes valid. Leave it empty for a card that never expires.
- Validity starts from first use. By default the countdown starts at purchase. Enable this and the countdown instead starts when the customer first uses the card. This is ideal for advance sales and gifts, where you do not want the clock running before the customer actually starts playing.
- Restrict benefits to validity period. A reservation or event paid with the card always has to start before the card expires. When enabled, it also has to start after the card became valid, and a card whose validity starts from first use counts its days from the start of that first session. When disabled, the card can also pay for a session that starts before its validity begins, such as a May session on a card valid from June, and first-use days count from the moment the card is used.
Where the card can be used
A card can apply to any combination of reservations, service bookings, events, and course enrollments. Tick the ones you want under Applicable to in the card's basic details.
The Restrictions step then shows one row per ticked scope, in that order. A closed row shows what the scope covers in one line, for example "All service bookings" or "Tournaments & normal events in Social priced up to 25 €, except Club Championship". Click a row to open it. One row is open at a time.
- A card for one scope opens that row straight away.
- If Next step finds a problem in a closed row, the row turns red and opens.
- A scope left without restrictions covers everything in it, and the row says so.
The card becomes available to the customer wherever it fits your restrictions, and they pick it as their payment method when they book or join.
Reservations
Click a restriction to add it, and fill it in. The × next to a field removes it again.
- Sports (for example padel or badminton only)
- Resources (specific courts or spaces)
- Days of week (for example weekdays only)
- Durations (for example only 60-minute bookings)
- Time slots (for example mornings only, and you can add several ranges)
- Date range (a fixed window during which the card is usable)
- Min. paying participants (how many paying participants the reservation needs besides the booker)
- Reservation types (normal reservations, open reservations, or both)
Restrictions are what let one card target a specific behaviour: a morning card to fill quiet hours, a single-sport card to promote a new activity, or a weekday card that keeps weekends open for walk-ins.
Service bookings
Service bookings take their own set of restrictions:
- Services (the services the card pays for)
- Duration ranges (a minimum and a maximum length; set the same value in both for one exact duration)
- Days of week
- Time slots (the booking has to fall completely inside one of them)
- Date range
Events
Pick one of three: All events, Events that match rules, or Only events I pick.
You build a rule one restriction at a time, from Kind (events, social events, scheduled classes, course classes, tournaments), Event category, Sport, Price range, Days of week, Time of day, Date range, and Picked events, which also takes whole series and whole tournaments. Everything you add to a rule has to match. A rule you leave empty matches every event.
Add rule gives you a second rule, a third, and so on. An event only has to match one of them, so rules are alternatives rather than extra conditions. Removing the last rule sets the card back to All events.
On a company-global card, picked events, series, tournaments and categories can come from any venue in your company.
Exclusions
An exclusion uses the same restrictions as a rule, and it always wins. An event or course that matches an exclusion is never covered, however many rules it matches. An empty exclusion excludes nothing. Exclusions work with every choice, so "All events except the Club Championship" is one exclusion.
There are two ways to add one:
- Add exclusion on the Matching events or Matching courses row starts an empty exclusion to fill in.
- The exclude button on one item in that row's list adds that item. Items you exclude this way collect in one exclusion.
Exclusions are marked in red, so they stand apart from the rules above them.
Course enrollments
Tick Course enrollments and customers can pay the enrollment fee of a course with sessions from the card, in part or in full. The three choices are All courses, Courses that match rules, and Only courses I pick, with the same exclusions. A course rule takes Sport and Picked courses. Picking a course covers every group and class in it, and you can also pick single groups of a course. On a company-global card, picked courses can come from any venue in your company.
How many sessions an enrollment uses is set on the course, not on the card, in the course group's Sessions deducted from a session card field.
Check the matches before you save
The events and courses editors each end in a Matching events or Matching courses row. It counts how many of the venue's upcoming items the card covers, for example "8 of 23 upcoming events". Open it for a table of those items with their type, date and status. The status is Matches, or the reason the item is left out, such as "Different sport" or "Excluded by #1". Check it for a rule that is too tight before a customer finds one.
The summary on the closed row is the same sentence the customer reads on the card.
Viewing a card's restrictions
The Restrictions tab in the card's details shows the same scopes in the same order, and only the scopes the card applies to. Reservations and service bookings list what is set, or say "All reservations" and "All service bookings" when nothing is. Events and courses start with the sentence the customer reads, followed by the numbered rules and the exclusions. With three or more rules and exclusions, the rows start closed so you can read their titles first.
Limiting purchases for promotions
Enable Allow only one purchase per customer and a customer can buy the card just once. This applies to customer purchases in the shop; staff actions in the portal are not restricted, and customers who already own the card will not see it for sale again.
To cap the total instead, for example 50 opening cards, use the Sales section on the pricing step. It also sets when the card is on sale and adds a regular price that the shop shows struck through next to the card's price. See Sale limit, sale window and regular price.
This single setting turns a session card into a promotion. A one-session card valid for seven days, limited to one per customer, is a free or low-cost trial week. An introductory bundle limited to one per customer stops bargain hunters from stocking up at the promotional price.
Example session card configurations
Ten-session padel card
- Quota: count, maximum 10
- Validity: 365 days
- Restrictions: sport limited to padel
- Good for: regular padel players who want a better per-game price
Twenty-hour coaching package
- Quota: time, maximum 20 hours
- Validity: 180 days, validity starts from first use
- Good for: customers buying a block of court or coaching time to use at their own pace
Free trial week
- Quota: count, maximum 1 (or unlimited for a true all-week trial)
- Validity: 7 days, validity starts from first use, restrict benefits to validity period
- Allow only one purchase per customer: on
- Good for: converting newcomers with a low-risk first visit
Weekday morning card
- Quota: count, maximum 10
- Restrictions: days limited to Monday to Friday, time slot limited to mornings
- Good for: filling off-peak hours at an attractive price
Unlimited summer card
- Quota: no usage limit
- Validity: short fixed window (for example 1 June to 31 August), restrict benefits to validity period
- Good for: a seasonal all-you-can-play pass with a hard end date
Social tournament card
- Quota: count, maximum 10
- Applicable to: events
- Restrictions: events that match rules, with one rule that sets kind to tournaments and events, event category to Social, and price at most 25 €
- Exclusions: one exclusion that picks the Club Championship tournament
- Summary the customer reads: "Tournaments & normal events in Social priced up to 25 €, except Club Championship"
- Good for: covering the casual side of the calendar without giving away the flagship tournament
Pricing, availability, and reach
Set the card's price (including VAT) and its tax percentage. Just make sure the tax rate matches the things the card pays for, such as reservations or events, so your bookkeeping stays tidy. You can also attach applicable discounts from discount groups, memberships, external memberships, or promo codes so that, for example, members buy the card at a reduced price.
Only active cards appear for sale, and only inside their sale window when one is set. Customers can't buy a card with a fixed validity period online after the period has ended. A card can also be made company-global so it is available across every venue in your company rather than a single venue. Already-purchased cards remain usable by their owners even if you later deactivate or delete the card.
Duplicating a session card
Duplicate, in the session card's details, opens the create form pre-filled from the existing card: name, description, price and tax, validity settings, reservation, service booking, event and course enrollment restrictions, applicable discounts, shop visibility and the product images. The name gets "(copy)" appended so the two cards are easy to tell apart.
The images are reused as they are, and either of them can be removed or replaced with a new upload before saving. Nothing is saved until you submit the form, and the result is an independent new session card: the original is untouched and no purchases are carried over.
Editing a card that customers already own
A sale copies the card's name, description, quota type, maximum sessions and validity dates onto the customer's purchase. Editing the card changes what the next buyers get, and purchases already sold keep the values they were bought with. The restrictions are not copied, so a change to them applies to every purchase straight away.
To copy your edits onto purchases that are active or have not started yet:
- Open the session card and choose More actions › Update existing purchases.
- Tick the changes to copy. Each row shows how many purchases it changes, and how many it leaves alone and why.
- Check the summary and click Update N purchases.
What each change does:
- Name and description are copied as they are.
- Quota type keeps the quota already used, so used sessions count as used hours, or the other way round. A card with 3 sessions used has 3 hours used after a switch to Duration-based.
- Max sessions can only go up. A purchase that already has the new maximum or more stays as it is. Setting the card to No usage limit removes the limit from every purchase the update covers.
- Validity period or Validity in days takes the card's current setting. A fixed period is copied as it is. Days are counted from the original purchase date, or from the first use for a card whose validity starts then. A purchase whose new validity would already have ended stays as it is. An unused purchase of a card whose validity starts from first use also stays as it is, and gets the new validity at its first use.
Thril does not tell customers about these updates, so let them know yourself if a change affects them.
Tracking and correcting usage
Each card's Purchases tab lists who bought it, how much they have used (for example "3 / 10 used"), and when they bought it. From a customer's profile you can open the card's individual usages to see every entry: what it was applied to, how much quota it consumed, when it was recorded, and whether it was automatic or added manually.
If a booking is cancelled, the related usage can be voided so the quota returns to the customer for reuse. If a usage was voided but should still count, reactivate it to deduct the session from the balance again. This gives you a clean way to handle cancellations and corrections without deleting the card or its history.
An unpaid event or class registration can be paid with a session card afterward, even once it has started, from the participant's Mark as paid form. Thril checks the card against the event's or class's start time, not the day you record the payment. See Paying a registration with a session card.
The validity of one customer's card
The Purchases tab and the customer's Session cards tab carry a Validity column with the whole period, from when the card became valid until when it expires.
- A card whose validity starts on first use shows Not started yet, with a note about the length of the period that starts then.
- A card whose validity starts in the future shows the start date. It is highlighted when the card also restricts benefits to the validity period, because that is the only case where the customer cannot use the card before the start.
The edit form for a customer's card has a Valid from field with a date and a time. Changing it fills in a matching Active until date, which stays editable. On a card whose validity starts on first use, Valid from can also be cleared, which resets the card so that validity starts again on the next usage.
Adding a session card manually to a customer
You can grant a customer a session card directly from their profile without them going through the shop.
- Open Customers in the sidebar and find the customer by name, email, or phone number.
- Open their profile and go to the Session cards tab.
- Click Add session card.
- Select the card from the list and click Add.
The card appears in the customer's session cards immediately and is ready to use. This is also how you migrate session cards from a previous system.
Pro Shop
Sell merchandise and accessories, offer equipment rentals, and add booking extras like rackets and balls, turning everyday front-desk sales into a real revenue stream.
Product images
A good product image sells. Follow these simple specs and framing tips so your memberships, session cards, credits, and Pro Shop items look sharp everywhere in Thril.