A coupon code is the text a customer enters to receive a coupon discount. Use these steps to create a code manually for any coupon, including Orders & Inventory merchandise coupons and coupons from other Rhythm applications, such as Membership or Events. You can also return to the code later to update its settings.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- Create the coupon before you create a code for it.
- Decide who the code is for, whether it is single use, and how you want to limit or restrict it. You can change every setting later except the code text.
Create a Coupon Code
- Open the coupon in Setup › Coupons & Discounts › Coupons, then open its Codes section.
- Start a new code.
- Enter a Code, which is the text the customer types. Use letters, digits, underscores, vertical bars, and hyphens. Rhythm stores every code in upper case, so the code works no matter which case the customer types.
- Optionally enter a Name so you can tell who the code belongs to.
- Choose what type of code it is:
- This coupon code can only be used once, and is owned by an individual or an organization (single use).
- This coupon code can be distributed to multiple people and used more than once (multi use).
- For a single-use code, set its Owner, which is the contact or organization it belongs to. Ownership only controls whether the code appears in that owner’s Portal coupon codes. It does not restrict who can redeem the code, and the owner can share it with others. To control who can use the code, set Contact Restrictions, Organization Restrictions, or Eligibility Criteria instead.
- Set the use limits for uses per customer, uses per organization, and total uses. Leave a limit blank when that limit should be unlimited.
- Set a From: date, an Until: date, or both when the code should only work during a specific time period.
- Turn on Contact Restrictions, Organization Restrictions, or Eligibility Criteria when only certain customers should be able to use the code, then fill in who qualifies.
- Add any Notes you want to keep with the code.
- Save.
Result
Rhythm creates the code and opens its detail page. Customers can use it on an order from that point on, subject to the restrictions, dates, and limits you set.
A single coupon can have many codes attached to it. For a one-time redemption that you want to give to different people, create one code per person and limit each code to a single use. Do this instead of sharing one code with everyone.
Creating a code manually in Rhythm does not notify its owner automatically. If someone is expecting a code you created for them, send it yourself. Rhythm does not email it on your behalf the way an automatically issued code can be emailed.
Limiting and Restricting a Code
Single use. To make a code single use, the per-customer limit and the total-uses limit must both be exactly 1. The per-organization limit is not forced to 1, so an organization limit by itself does not make a code single use.
Multi use. Set uses per customer, uses per organization, and total uses independently. Leave any limit blank when that measure should be unlimited. Each limit must be a whole number of at least 1.
Contact Restrictions and Organization Restrictions. Turn on either restriction and list at least one contact or organization. Only those contacts or organizations can use the code. Rhythm checks the restriction against the order’s bill-to party, not the ship-to party or the code’s owner.
Eligibility Criteria. Turn this on and set criteria so only customers who meet them can use the code. To target inactive members, set the criteria to Members and include the Inactive status under member statuses, rather than using a Non-member eligibility rule. A custom eligibility expression can only evaluate the values the coupon code’s own criteria already exposes. It cannot add relational checks, such as looking for a person’s other registrations in the same organization or counting matching records. If the field you need is not offered directly, you can approximate it with a custom contact field: query the contacts who should qualify, mass-update a custom field on them to flag their eligibility, then use that field in the code’s criteria. Make the field required on the contact form as well, so new contacts are flagged going forward.
Eligibility Criteria. Turn this on and set criteria so only customers who meet them can use the code. Eligibility Criteria can combine several conditions in one code, such as requiring a specific contact role under Organization Types & Contact Roles, or requiring an associated event registration by selecting an event under Event Registrations, alongside a per-organization use limit.
A coupon code works the same way whether a customer enters it during checkout or staff enter it while processing an order for them. Either way, the use counts against the same limits.
Tip
For a short-term promotion with a clear start and end date, a coupon code with a From: and Until: date is usually simpler than changing prices manually at the start and end of the promotion.
Tip
To track who was referred by whom, create single-use codes assigned to a specific person as their Owner, but do not put a discount on the coupon they point to. Add a custom field to the process the entrant fills out so they can type the code they received, then use a query to report on which code each entrant entered.
Change a Coupon Code Later
You can change every setting on a coupon code after you create it, except the code text. If customers need different text to type, create a new code instead. From the code’s detail page, open its edit form, make your changes, and save.
- Switch it off. Turn the code inactive when you want orders to refuse it. Uses already recorded stay recorded, and you can turn the code back on at any time, including a code that a cancellation switched off automatically.
- Lowering a use limit below the number of uses already recorded is allowed. The code stops accepting new uses from that point on.
- A recorded use count cannot be corrected from the back end. If a code’s recorded usage total looks wrong, support cannot reset or remove individual uses. The code still works for customers while the count is off, so contact Rhythm support to investigate rather than expecting a quick manual fix.
Variants
- A code for another application's coupon. The same code store holds codes for Commerce, Membership, Events, and Certifications coupons. You create a code the same way no matter which application owns the coupon.
- Importing codes with Custom Data Task. If you import coupon codes this way, look for the import object under Orders & Inventory rather than the application you use the coupon for. Coupon codes share one data model across applications. If an import fails because the coupon reference does not match the expected pattern, check that you are pointing at the coupon’s own identifier in the format the import expects.
If It Fails
- The code can't be saved. Check that the code uses only letters, digits, underscores, vertical bars, and hyphens. Also check that another code does not already use the same text. Making an existing code inactive does not free its text for reuse elsewhere, even in a different application.
- A single-use code won't save with the limits you entered. For a single-use code, both the per-customer limit and the total-uses limit must be exactly 1.
- A restriction won't save. When you turn on Contact Restrictions, Organization Restrictions, or Eligibility Criteria, you must add at least one entry or set criteria. Turn the restriction off if you do not need it yet.
Warning
Rhythm accepts a From: date that is after the Until: date when you save, but the code can then never be used. Double-check both dates before saving.