Selling day passes on a till built for stock
How a gym sells day passes and drop-in classes at a till that treats every product as stock, without blocking sales or muddling its stock figures.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A visitor in town for a conference walks into your club and asks for a day pass. Another wants to drop in on the evening spin class without joining. Both are simple sales: a fixed price, paid at the desk, no member record needed. The till is the right place for them.
The catch is that Achekam's till thinks in products, and products are stock. A day pass is not a box on a shelf, but the till will still try to take one off stock every time it is sold. Set it up without thinking about that, and the desk finds itself unable to sell a pass on a busy Saturday. This article shows how to set passes up so they sell smoothly and stay out of the way of your real stock.
Every till sale takes stock off
A till sale takes the sold quantity off stock in the same step, at the till's location, and refuses to go below what is on hand unless the business allows negative stock. That rule is exactly right for protein bars. For a day pass it means the till keeps a count of passes, and when the count runs out, the sale is refused.
Products are created in the Item Master, under the Accounting menu, with a SKU, a name, a category, a selling and cost price, an opening quantity and a VAT treatment. A day pass needs all of those like any other product. You need the Point of Sale, Warehousing or Wholesale add-on to use the Item Master.
Allowing negative stock, or loading a large opening quantity
There are two ways to stop passes running out.
Allow negative stock. The business can allow sales below what is on hand. Passes then never block, but neither does anything else: a supplement that has really run out will also keep selling, and the stock figures for real products lose their warning. For a club that sells a lot of retail, that is usually too high a price.
Load a large opening quantity. Give each pass product an opening quantity far above anything you would sell in a year. Opening quantities do not post to the general ledger, so this has no effect on your books. Because no screen lets you change a product's details after creating it, set the quantity generously the first time. If you use the Warehousing add-on, a stock count can later set the pass's quantity back up to the same large figure, and the difference is recorded as an adjustment.
| Allow negative stock | Large opening quantity | |
|---|---|---|
| Passes ever blocked | No | Only if the quantity runs out |
| Effect on real stock | Real products can oversell too | None |
| Upkeep | None | An occasional top-up count |
For most clubs, the large opening quantity is the better choice.
A cost price of 0, and VAT set right first time
Every till sale posts cost of sales against inventory at the product's cost price. A day pass has no cost of goods, so give it a cost price of 0. That way each pass sale posts its revenue and VAT, but no cost of sales.
Because no screen lets you change a product's price, cost or VAT treatment after it is created, decide these before you save:
- Selling price. Check whether your shelf prices include VAT; the business sets that.
- VAT treatment. In South Africa, each till line is taxed at its product's own VAT rate, so a 0% product stays at 0% and other lines are taxed at the approved standard rate. Note that a product marked Exempt in the Item Master is recorded at the till, and on the VAT return, as zero-rated. In Nigeria and Kenya, agree the treatment with your accountant before you create the product.
SARS's page on the obligations of a VAT vendor sets out what a registered South African vendor must do, including quoting VAT-inclusive prices and issuing tax invoices. That applies to a day pass sold at the desk just as much as to a monthly membership.
The receipt as the visitor's proof of payment
A day-pass visitor has no membership card and no member record, so the till receipt is their proof that they paid. The receipt is a PDF made by the server from the posted sale, showing every payment, VAT by rate and your tax number, and it can be printed, downloaded or e-mailed to the visitor.
E-mailing it works well for drop-ins: the visitor shows it on their phone to the instructor at the studio door. If you sell multi-visit passes on paper cards, write the receipt number on the card.
Keeping passes apart from physical stock in reports
Passes sit among your products, so keep them easy to recognise:
- Give them their own category, such as "Access passes", separate from café and retail items.
- Use a SKU pattern that makes them obvious, such as PASS-DAY or PASS-SPIN.
- When you count retail stock, leave the pass products out; their quantities mean nothing.
- For sales reporting, posted till sales can be listed by VAT rate and tax code for any period, which shows pass income alongside everything else sold at the desk.
Set up the pass products before the next holiday rush, test one sale at the desk, and check the receipt. For visitors who prefer to pay by scanning a code, see members paying by QR code at the front desk. For the products that really are stock, read supplements and drinks as stock, and for deciding what belongs on the till at all, see membership at the till or on an invoice.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
