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(DA-4) Working with Prices
Okay... so now we know how to create an Activity and the function of all the Activity wide options, let's dive inside an activity and work with its various components in terms of Prices, Messages and Questions...
... starting with Prices!
From the Activities view, we can go inside a specific Activity to start working with its elements in terms of prices, message and questions. To do this, either:
- Click on the orange coloured icon to the left of the activity name
or
- Click on the purple "Enter" icon on the far right of the activity entry.
We are then presented with a list of the different activity elements we can work with.
To view and work with Prices:
- Click on the text "Prices - Attendance (x)
When a new Activity is first created, a single Price item is created with an amount of 100 (whatever currency the Activity uses).
To start editing the basic details of a Price:
- Click on the Price's text description
On the right hand side you can now see the "Basics" tab of the Price's definition:
Let's walk through the fields available on this tab and how you should use them.
The idea of a Price Type allows you to easily recognise prices which have the same strategy in terms of how you intend them to be chosen. It also helps when someone moves their booking from one activity to another, to match them up with the same type of price.
You can see the default types of price that are defined when the app is installed here:
Typical uses for these price types might be:
- Early Bird / Standard - you have an Early Bird price which is limited in the number of attendees who can book with it, or by the dates it is available. You then have a Standard price which clients will use when Early Birds are no longer available.
- Concession / Standard - similar to above but you describe your concession price as being for those who have limited ability to pay, and maybe limit the number of concession prices that can be selected for a single activity.
- High / Average / Low Income - your clients can select different prices based on their income levels.
- Instalments / Full Payment / Standard - it is possible to set up the Activity for a deposit and single final payment, but then have other prices where attendees maybe pay a different price to pay by instalments, or to have to pay the full price at the time of booking.
- Pay at the Event / Standard - you may have a "pay at the time of booking" price with the Standard type, and another price which allows payment when the attendee arrives at the activity.
- Stripe Test - it is sometimes useful to have a price which you use just to run a live booking through the card payment system for a very small amount. You then need to remember to hide this price before going live with the booking form!
Note that these prices types are just a label and do not change any of the other price settings to achieve a particular goal such as limitation by numbers sold.
To change the Price Types:
- Click on the Edit Options link
- Use the [+ Add Selection]. [Delete] and [Hide] options to modify the list.
From here you can hide options you don't use very much but wish to keep, or delete selections that have not yet been used.
If you try to delete a selection which has already been used, even if you subsequently delete the price, you will not be able to delete the Price Type from this list. The best thing to do in this case is to hide it from the list so it does not clutter up the selection list when creating new prices.
To change the name of an existing Price Type:
- Edit the name text.
- Click on the [Save] button which appears as you do this.
The new name will appear next to all prices that you have given that Price Type to.
A couple of things to note about Price Types:
- Prices are listed as their Price Type in the Prices list.
- Price types names you choose will not be visible to your clientss.
The Price Description field contains the words that your client will see when this price is listed for selection on the booking form.
You may choose different words for this depending on the combination of price options you offer to your clients for this specific activity, so for example:
With just one price available, you may use a Price Type / Description combination of:
- "Standard" / "Entry Price".
In an Early Bird pricing structure, you may have:
- "Early Bird" / "Early Bird Price"
- "Standard" / "Full Price".
As the name implies, this is the amount to be charged when this price is selected, in the currency of the activity.
This is more detailed text that will be shown to your clients when a particular price is chosen.
Examples of using this field may be for:
- Early Bird prices - describing what timeframe this price is available for
- Income based prices - describing the income range that this price is applicable to.
The explanation is displayed on the booking form like this:
To create a new Price:
- Click on [+ Add] next to the Prices list
To delete / undelete a Price
- Open the Price to any of the three tabs
- Click on the Delete or Undelete button
As you go deeper into defining different activities, you will find you want to use different combinations of the same prices.
To make this easier to manage, Workshop Angel has the concept of Price Templates, which you can copy to an individual activity you are working with.
To go to the Price Template area:
- Go to Activities - Prices to Copy
In this area you can create and edit prices in the same way you can within an activity.
To copy a Price Template to an activity:
- Go to the Activities - Define Activities area
- Select the Activity you want to copy the template question to.
- Go to the Activities - Prices to Copy area
- Click on "Copy to {Activity name}".
The template price will now be copied to the activity.
We recommend that you create your most common prices as Price Templates and then copy them to your individual activities as required.
Please note that Prices are copied from the templates area to an activity... so if you make a change to a template then that change will not be reflected in the activities where that template price has been copied.
We have looked at how to move "Inside" an activity, find the list of prices, work with the details of the Basics tab, and add and delete prices. We've learned about Price Templates and how to use them for our common pricing situations. That's a great start!
There are many more options to choose from regarding how and when a price is made available to choose, and flexible options about how payments should be made if this specific price is chosen.
These topics are discussed in the next lesson!