Discount Codes

A discount code is a short word families type in at checkout to take money off their order. Use one for a spirit wear sale, an early-season promotion, or a thank you to the volunteers who keep everything running.

Creating a Discount Code

In the Admin, navigate to Online Store > Discounts.
Click New Coupon.
Fill in the fields below, then save.

Field	What it does
Name	An internal name that only you see. Something like “Fall spirit wear sale” works well.
Discount Type	Percent off or Dollar amount off.
Percent Off / Amount Off ($)	How much comes off. See below for how each one is figured.
Minimum Purchase ($)	The code only works when the eligible items in the cart add up to at least this much. Leave it at $0 for no minimum.
Max Uses	How many orders can use the code. Leave it blank for unlimited.
Expiration	The date and time the code stops working. Leave it blank and it never expires.
Code	What families type at checkout, like SPIRIT10. It’s saved in capital letters, and families can type it however they like.
Applies To	All campaigns, or Only selected campaigns with the boxes you check.

How Families Use It

At checkout, in the Online Store and during First Step, families type the code into the Discount code box and click Apply. The savings appear right away in the order summary, and each discounted line shows “Discount” with your code beside it. Families can remove a code and try a different one.

One code per order. The Uses count on your Discounts list goes up when the order is completed, not when the code is typed in.

Percent Off vs. Dollar Amount Off

Both types are figured item by item, so a bigger cart gets a bigger discount.

Percent Off

A percent code takes that percent off each eligible item. A 10% code on a $50 yearbook and a $12 shirt takes $5.00 and $1.20, for $6.20 off.

Dollar Amount Off

A dollar amount comes off every item, including each one on a line where the family bought more than one. Here’s a real cart with a $2.00 off code named MEMBER:

Line	Price	Discount	Family pays
1 spirit wear shirt	$12.00	$2.00	$10.00
2 spirit wear shirts	$24.00	$4.00	$20.00
Total	$36.00	$6.00	$30.00

Three shirts, three times $2.00 off. If the family had bought one shirt, they’d have saved $2.00.

Memberships inside a bundle always keep their full value, because membership dues have to be passed along in full. The bundle’s savings come out of everything else in the package instead. In the example above, the full $6.50 comes off the yearbook portion and the family still saves the full $6.50. The one thing to know: a bundle made up entirely of memberships takes no discount at all.

A bundle also counts once toward a code’s Minimum Purchase, at its own price. A $65.00 bundle counts as $65.00, not as each campaign inside it added up again.

What Can’t Be Discounted

Memberships, tiered membership levels, and pledge campaigns never take a discount code, no matter how the code is set up. Membership dues are owed in full to your council, district, and state, and pledges are promised amounts collected later. You’ll notice these campaigns don’t appear in the Only selected campaigns list at all, and the setup page says so: “Note: pledge and membership campaigns cannot accept coupons.”

Everything else is fair game: purchases, sign ups, donation drives, tickets, and bundles.

When a Code Doesn’t Work

Here’s exactly what families see, and what it means:

Message	What’s going on
That coupon code is not valid	The code was typed wrong, or it doesn’t exist on this school year.
That coupon has expired	The expiration date has passed. Change it on the Discounts page.
That coupon has reached its maximum number of uses	Max Uses is used up. Raise it or leave it blank for unlimited.
Minimum purchase of $X required for this coupon	The eligible items don’t add up to the minimum yet.
No items in your cart are eligible for this coupon	Nothing in the cart is covered by the code. Check the Applies To list, and remember memberships and pledges are never eligible.

When a code does work, families see “Coupon applied: SPIRIT10 — $6.00 off” above the Remove button.

Tips

Give each code an internal Name you’ll recognize in a year. You’ll thank yourself.
Set an Expiration on anything tied to an event or a sale window, so you don’t have to remember to turn it off.
Max Uses is handy for a “first 50 families” promotion.
Codes are set up per school year, so they don’t carry over on their own. Recreate the ones you want to keep using.
Test a code yourself by adding items to your store cart before you send it out to families.