House accounts

A house account is a balance on each golfer's customer pass. Staff top it up and charge it at the Lightspeed POS, and adjust it from the golfer's customer page. Every change updates the golfer's wallet pass and sends them a notification with the new balance.

Prepaid or charge account

Choose how balances work in Settings → House accounts:

• Prepaid (default). Golfers can only spend what they've topped up. A balance never goes below zero.
• Charge account. Turn on Allow negative balances and set a default credit limit. Golfers can run a balance below zero, down to their limit, and settle it with a top-up.

Only account owners can change credit.

Credit for one customer

Whichever you choose, an owner can set each customer's credit separately with Credit on their customer page:

• Merchant default follows the setting above.
• Allow credit lets this customer go below zero even when everyone else is prepaid. Use it for corporate clients and anyone you trust to run a tab.
• Prepaid only keeps this customer at zero or above even when charge accounts are on.

Each one can also have its own limit. Lowering a limit never changes what a customer owes. It only blocks new charges until they're back under it. Turning credit off works the same way.

Customers allowed credit get a monthly statement, and you can require a card on file that pays it automatically.

The pass barcode

The customer pass barcode is the golfer's customer number by default - the short code PocketPass gives every golfer, such as 4UHN2GX2. It's printed under the barcode, so staff can type it if a scan fails. To use a Lightspeed Golf field instead - such as member number - change Customer pass barcode in Pass issuance. Golfers without that field fall back to their customer number, and passes refresh automatically. Old barcodes keep scanning in the meantime.

If several golfers share a code (for example a family member number), the POS asks the cashier to pick who's at the counter.

Set up the POS

Each Lightspeed connection has its own setup checklist on the Integrations page - click Continue setup (or Open) on the connection to walk through it. Until the till is set up, the PocketPass button shows a golfer's balance but can't charge or top it up. Settings → House accounts lists every till and whether it's ready.

Lightspeed Retail (R-Series)

1. Open the connection on Integrations. The setup checklist opens as a full-screen panel.

2. Finish Step 1 - Add the PocketPass button to the Register's Sale Tab. Copy the extension URL, paste it onto a new Sale Tab button in Lightspeed Retail, and open it once from a sale. The step ticks off automatically the first time Lightspeed opens the extension.

3. Finish Step 2 - Set up house accounts in Lightspeed Retail. Click Set up house accounts and PocketPass creates two things in your Retail account - nothing to configure by hand:

   • a PocketPass House Account payment type (Settings → Payment Types), used when a cashier charges a sale to a house account, and to carry top-ups;
   • an untaxed, non-inventory PocketPass House Account Top-up item (custom SKU POCKETPASS-HA-TOPUP), rung up for top-ups.

   If prize accounts are on, a PocketPass Prize Account item and payment type are created in the same click.

Don't rename, archive or delete the payment type or the items - if one goes missing, come back to the checklist and click Re-run setup.

Lightspeed Restaurant (K-Series)

1. Open the connection on Integrations. The setup checklist opens as a full-screen panel with four ordered steps.
2. Step 1 - Create the House Account payment method. In the Lightspeed Back Office, go to Payment → Payment methods and add a payment method of type Other payment method. Set the Code, Name and Accounting reference to a short code (e.g. HOUSE). Hide it from the POS (Configuration → POS configuration → Payments, untick it). Paste the Accounting reference into Step 1 on the checklist and Save - the step ticks off.
3. Step 2 - Add the web extension. Copy the extension URL from Step 2 (it ends in the key your tills need, so paste it whole), add it in Lightspeed under Operations → Web Extensions with the Provide a Javascript context box ticked, and wire a POS button to it under Menu Management → Menus. Tick the merchant-attested I've added the extension in K-Series box to complete the step.
4. Step 3 - Add the top-up item ID. Create an accounting group House account with the tax profile Tax Exempt under Menu → Accounting groups, then create a House account top-up item under Menu → Item List with a manually-entered price. Copy the item id from the address bar, paste it into Step 3, and Save.
5. Step 4 - Request real-time order notifications. Essential - without it, PocketPass can't settle house-account top-ups from the POS. Email the Lightspeed support template on the checklist with the webhook URL from Step 4. The URL ends in a secret key; PocketPass refuses order notifications without it, so Support must use the URL exactly as written (or the username and password shown under it). If the step says the connection has no webhook secret, click Generate webhook secret first. The step ticks off automatically on the first order notification Lightspeed sends.

At the till

1. Open PocketPass on the sale and scan the golfer's pass. The amount due on the sale shows at the top. Add customer to sale adds them and takes you straight back to the till; Use credit and Top up add them to the sale automatically.
2. Tap Use credit. The amount to charge is filled in with what's left on the sale, up to what the golfer has available. Change it to pay part of the sale, then tap Charge.
3. If the balance doesn't cover the whole sale, PocketPass charges what's available and shows what's left to pay - take the rest with another payment type. A prepaid account never goes below zero.
4. Top up adds a PocketPass House Account Top-up line to the sale for the amount you choose. Take payment for it with cash or card as usual. The balance is credited once the sale is paid - an abandoned or voided sale adds nothing.

The top-up screen offers quick amounts ($25, $50 and $100 to start). Change them under Top-up amounts at the till in Settings → House accounts: add up to six amounts, one at a time. Cashiers can still type any other amount. The amounts golfers see when they top up online are set separately, under Manage next to Online top-ups on the same page.

If the golfer is on a shared account, choose which account to use under Charge to first. If they haven't saved a card, No card on file · Add one lets them save one from their phone; see Statements, card on file and autopay.

If the POS doesn't accept a house-account payment, PocketPass refunds the balance automatically, so a golfer is never charged for a payment the sale didn't receive.

Refunding a sale to a house account

Lightspeed Retail (R-Series): use the PocketPass Refund button on the register's Refund screen (setup: Lightspeed Retail POS extension).

1. Start a refund and add the returned items.
2. Take any part of the refund that goes back as cash or card.
3. Tap PocketPass Refund, scan the golfer's pass and tap Refund to account. The rest of the refund is credited to their house account and the sale completes.

The PocketPass House Account payment type is hidden from the register's payment list on purpose, so a refund can't be keyed to it by hand without crediting the golfer.

Adjust a balance

On a golfer's customer page, an owner can use Adjust balance to add or deduct credit. A reason is required; it appears in the golfer's history. When adding credit, choose:

• Money received. The golfer paid you some other way. It counts as a deposit.
• Promotional credit. A goodwill or promotional credit. It's spent before deposits and isn't part of the deposit liability.

Adjustments follow the same rules as the POS. To go past a limit, raise the limit first. Every adjustment appears on the accounting journal.

Deposits and promotional credit

A golfer sees one balance, but PocketPass keeps two parts of it apart:

• Deposits: money the golfer paid in (POS and online top-ups, statement payments, prize winnings, refunds to the account).
• Promotional credit: loyalty and referral rewards, automation credits and promotional adjustments.

Promotional credit is always spent first. Reports show the deposit liability on its own, which is the figure your accountant needs.

Refunding a top-up

Lightspeed Retail (R-Series): don't refund the top-up sale in Lightspeed. Its offset sale has already taken the top-up out of revenue, so a Lightspeed refund would take it out a second time. To give a golfer their deposit back, an owner deducts it with Adjust balance on the golfer's customer page, and you pay the cash out of the drawer with a register payout.

Lightspeed Restaurant (K-Series): refund a top-up to its original payment method in Lightspeed, as usual. When the refund sale completes, PocketPass takes the deposit back off the balance it credited. If the golfer has already spent some of it, their balance can go below zero; that's money they owe.

If PocketPass can't tell which top-up a refund belongs to, it lists the refund under Refunded top-ups to review in Settings → House accounts. An owner takes it off the right customer's balance there, or ignores it.

Import balances from a CSV

Owners can load many balances at once from Settings → House accounts → Import balances. The file needs three columns:

Every row needs a note. It's recorded as the reason for that golfer's balance change. A file without a notes column is refused, and rows with a blank note are skipped and listed as failed, so nothing changes without a reason.

Choose how the amounts are applied:

• Add to existing balance: credits each golfer by the amount, or debits them if it's negative.
• Set balance to this value: changes each balance to exactly the amount in the file, overwriting what golfers already have.

Each import is listed under Customers → Balance imports, showing who uploaded it and when, the mode, and every row with its note.

Who changed a balance

Every balance change is recorded against the person who made it. On a golfer's customer page:

• Activity shows "by" and the staff member's email under each house-account entry. That includes the person who ran an import, and the import's name.
• Transactions has a Staff column.

POS charges and top-ups show the register instead.

What golfers see

Golfers sign in to their account with a one-time link sent to the email you have on file. Tapping View your account on the back of their pass sends that link straight away - no typing needed. They can see their balance and credit limit, every transaction, a month-by-month history with opening and closing balances, their statements, their upcoming tee times, and add their pass to their phone. They can also top up online, save a card on file, and see the shared accounts they're on. See Statements, card on file and autopay.

Transfers between golfers

If you turn it on, golfers can send deposited money to each other from their account. There's no member search: the person receiving creates a code and shares it, and the sender confirms with a code emailed to them. It's off until an owner turns it on. See Transfers between golfers.

Shared accounts

One balance several customers can charge to: a family, a corporate client, a committee. Each member keeps their own house account too, with their own limit on the shared one. See Shared accounts.

Prize accounts

Run a prize pool for a competition: golfers pay in at the Lightspeed Retail register and winners are paid straight to their house account. See Prize accounts.

Troubleshooting

• "House account payments aren't set up for this register." Run the setup above for that connection.
• "This POS button isn't authorised for house accounts." Copy the K-Series extension URL from Integrations again and update it in the Back Office - the key changed or is missing.
• A top-up hasn't appeared. Top-ups are credited when the sale is paid. Retail sales are checked every few minutes. On Restaurant (K-Series), top-ups settle from real-time order notifications, which PocketPass refuses unless they carry the connection's webhook key: check that Lightspeed Support used the full webhook URL from Step 4.
• A golfer can't sign in. The link only goes to the email on their Lightspeed Golf profile. Check it on their customer page.