A house account top-up is a deposit: money a golfer has paid you in advance and you still owe them in goods. It isn't revenue until they spend it. This page shows how PocketPass keeps it that way in Lightspeed Retail (R-Series), and what your accountant needs to set up.
Every top-up is two transactions
- The top-up sale. The cashier rings up the PocketPass House Account Top-up item for the amount and takes payment, cash or card, like any other sale. On its own, Lightspeed counts this as revenue.
- The offset sale. A few minutes after the top-up sale completes, PocketPass creates a second transaction in Lightspeed. It shows as a refund (a return): the same top-up item at quantity −1, paid back to the PocketPass House Account payment type. Its note reads
House account top-up offset · sale #… · <pass code>.
The offset sale cancels the revenue from the top-up sale and moves the amount onto the PocketPass House Account payment type, which is your deposit liability. Nobody at the register has to do anything for it.
Why two transactions
It would be simpler to record a top-up as a single sale with no revenue, but Lightspeed doesn't allow it:
- The register won't take a payment on a sale that totals $0. A top-up that carried no revenue would total $0, so the cashier couldn't take the golfer's money. The top-up has to be a normal priced sale.
- A completed sale can't be changed. Once the top-up sale is paid, PocketPass can't go back and edit it to take the revenue out.
So PocketPass leaves the top-up sale exactly as the cashier rang it and adds the offset sale afterwards. A return is the one kind of transaction Lightspeed lets PocketPass add that takes the revenue back out. Between them, the two transactions record what actually happened: the golfer handed over cash, and you now hold it on their account.
Example
A golfer buys a $30 item and tops up $33, paying $63 cash.
Transaction 1: the top-up sale (rung by the cashier)
| Line | Amount | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| Item | $30.00 | Tax included |
| PocketPass House Account Top-up × 1 | $33.00 | None |
| Total | $63.00 | |
| Cash payment | $63.00 |
Transaction 2: the offset sale (created by PocketPass, shows as a refund)
| Line | Amount | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| PocketPass House Account Top-up × −1 | −$33.00 | None |
| Total | −$33.00 | |
| PocketPass House Account payment | −$33.00 |
Both together post as:
| Debit | Credit | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | $63.00 | |
| Sales (the item, less tax) | $26.67 | |
| Tax payable | $3.33 | |
| Sales (top-up item: $33.00 − $33.00) | $0.00 | |
| PocketPass House Account | $33.00 |
The top-up nets to no revenue, the cash is in your takings, and the $33 sits under the PocketPass House Account payment type as a deposit you owe the golfer.
Recognising an offset sale
In Lightspeed's Sales list an offset sale has:
- the Refund badge, with
−1 x pocketpass house account top-up; - the note
House account top-up offset · sale #…naming the top-up sale it belongs to; - a PocketPass House Account payment instead of cash or card.
Don't refund, void or exchange an offset sale. It isn't a customer refund. It's the second half of the top-up, and undoing it would put the top-up back into your revenue.
When the golfer spends it
When a golfer pays with their house account, PocketPass adds a PocketPass House Account payment to the sale. A $20 purchase posts as:
| Debit | Credit | |
|---|---|---|
| PocketPass House Account | $20.00 | |
| Sales | $17.78 | |
| Tax payable | $2.22 |
Revenue and tax are recognised when the money is spent, and the liability goes down by the same amount.
What to set up
- Map the PocketPass payment types to liability accounts. In your Lightspeed accounting integration (Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks), map PocketPass House Account to a liability account such as Customer house-account deposits, not to a bank or receivables account. If you use prize accounts, map PocketPass Prize Account to a liability such as Prize pool held.
- Optionally, give the top-up item its own category. The PocketPass House Account Top-up item always nets to $0, but item, category and refund reports show both the top-up sale and its offset sale. A category such as Deposits – not revenue keeps it out of your product analysis.
Prize contributions work the same way: the cashier rings up the PocketPass Prize Account item, and PocketPass creates an offset sale paid back to the PocketPass Prize Account payment type.
Online payments
Golfers can also pay online: top-ups in the member portal, statement payments and autopay charges, all by card through Stripe or Peach Payments. That money never passes through a register, so by default Lightspeed doesn't see it. To have it show up in Lightspeed Retail, turn on Online payments in Lightspeed on your Lightspeed Retail connection in Settings → Integrations.
- Choose a payment type. Pick one of your existing payment types (for example one you already map to a clearing account for your payment provider), or type a name and PocketPass creates a new one for you. A type PocketPass creates is hidden from the register's payment list, so cashiers can't pick it by mistake; one you pick is left exactly as it is.
- Choose where the sales are rung. Pick the shop, register and employee the online sales should appear under.
- Turn it on. Payments made from then on are posted. Earlier ones aren't.
Each online payment is booked the same way as a till top-up, as two transactions: a top-up sale paid with your online payment type, then its offset sale paid back to PocketPass House Account. Together they record no revenue, the card money under your online payment type, and the deposit under PocketPass House Account. They usually appear within a minute of the payment. Map the online payment type to the account your payment provider pays out into (a clearing account), not to revenue.
If Lightspeed refuses a posting several times (for example because the register you picked was deleted), it's listed on the same card with a Retry button. The golfer's balance is never affected: they were credited the moment they paid.
Things to know
- The offset sale follows within a few minutes. PocketPass checks completed sales every 2 minutes. If the register is closed, or the day ends, between the top-up sale and its offset sale, the two land in different shifts or days. They still cancel out.
- The register close shows a PocketPass House Account line. The offset sale is rung on the same register, so the close-out lists a negative PocketPass House Account amount. No cash moves for it; count the drawer as usual.
- Refund reports include offset sales. Each top-up adds one offset sale, so Lightspeed's refund counts and totals are higher than your real customer refunds. Filtering out the top-up item (or its category) gives the real figure.
- Tax. PocketPass rings the top-up item untaxed and tax is charged on what the golfer buys with it. That's the usual treatment for stored value that can be spent on anything, but confirm it with your accountant for your country.
- Some credit never goes through Lightspeed. Online payments do once you've turned on Online payments in Lightspeed (see above). Loyalty and referral rewards, promotional adjustments and prize winnings are added to balances in PocketPass only. When golfers spend them, the PocketPass House Account payment type in Lightspeed moves without a matching deposit. Use the accounting journal export from PocketPass as the source of truth for deposits versus promotional credit, and post the difference as a journal.
- Prize payouts move money between the two liabilities. A contribution builds up under PocketPass Prize Account; a payout lands on the winner's house account in PocketPass. Lightspeed doesn't see the move, so the two payment types drift apart while their combined total stays right. The accounting journal shows prize payouts so your accountant can post the transfer.
- Refunding a top-up. For now, an owner deducts it with Adjust balance on the golfer's customer page, and the cash is paid out of the drawer with a register payout. Code that payout to the house-account liability, not to an expense. 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.
- The PocketPass payment types are hidden at the register. Setup archives them so cashiers can only move house-account money through the PocketPass buttons. They still appear on sales, receipts and reports.