A prize account holds the prize pool for a competition, such as a Saturday morning comp. Golfers pay their entry into the pool at your Lightspeed Retail (R-Series) register, and you pay winners their prize money straight to their house account. PocketPass keeps the balance, every participant's contributions and winnings, and every transaction.
Prize accounts are part of the Essentials plan. Taking contributions at the register needs Lightspeed Retail (R-Series); you can also run a pool from the dashboard alone.
How it works
- You create a prize account for a competition.
- When a golfer pays their entry, the cashier scans their pass and adds the contribution to the sale. Once the sale is paid, the amount goes into the prize account and the golfer becomes a participant.
- When the competition is decided, you pick the winner and an amount. The prize is added to the winner's house account, comes off the prize account balance, and the golfer is marked Winner.
- The winner spends the prize like any house-account credit - at the register, with their pass. Their wallet pass updates and they get a notification.
Turn on prize accounts
- Go to Settings → Prize accounts.
- Switch on Prize accounts. Only admins can do this.
Prize accounts now appears in the sidebar. To take contributions at the register, the Lightspeed Retail POS extension must be set up. PocketPass creates a "PocketPass Prize Account" item (untaxed, not discountable) and a "PocketPass Prize Account" payment type in Lightspeed Retail the first time a contribution is rung up, so there's nothing to create by hand.
Create a prize account
- Go to Prize accounts and select Create prize account.
- Enter a Name, for example "Saturday Morning Competition".
- Choose the Lightspeed Retail connection and Shop where golfers pay in, or Every shop. Choose None (dashboard only) to run the pool from the dashboard. These can't be changed later.
- Optionally set a Default contribution (pre-fills the amount at the register and in the dashboard) and a Prize credit expiry in days. Leave the expiry blank so prize money never expires.
- Switch on Allow payouts at the register if staff should be able to pay winners from Lightspeed.
- Select Create prize account.
Take contributions at the register
- Start a sale in Lightspeed Retail and open PocketPass.
- Scan the golfer's pass. Their active prize accounts for this shop appear under Prize accounts.
- Select Contribute next to the prize account, check the amount and confirm. The prize account item is added to the sale; take payment for it as usual. A few minutes after the sale completes, PocketPass creates an offset sale (it shows as a refund in Lightspeed), paid back to the PocketPass Prize Account payment type, so Lightspeed doesn't count the contribution as revenue. See House accounts in your Lightspeed Retail books.
- Complete the sale as normal.
The prize account balance updates a few minutes after the sale is completed. If the sale is voided or the line is removed, nothing is added. Contributions still waiting on their sale show under Waiting for payment on the prize account's page.
Pay out prize money
From the dashboard: open the prize account, find the winner on the Participants tab, and select Pay out. Enter the amount (or Use the full balance) and confirm.
From the register (when Allow payouts at the register is on): scan any golfer's pass, select Pay out next to the prize account, pick the winner under Select winner, enter the amount and confirm. The Lightspeed employee is recorded on the transaction.
Either way, the prize is added to the winner's house account as a credit labelled with the prize account's name. It can't be more than the prize account's balance. If the prize account has a Prize credit expiry, the credit expires that many days after it's paid.
Add participants and contributions by hand
On the prize account's page:
- Add participant adds a golfer who entered another way, with no money yet.
- Contribute next to a participant records money you've collected another way (for example cash). It adds to the balance without a Lightspeed sale.
- To undo a contribution recorded by mistake, use the undo button next to it on the Transactions tab. A reason is required.
The prize account page
- Balance (available to pay out), Contributions, Prize money paid out and Participants.
- Participants: each golfer's contributions and winnings, with winners first.
- Transactions: every contribution, payout and reversal with the date, golfer, amount, sale, who did it and notes. Select Export CSV to download the full history.
- Settings: where golfers pay in, the default contribution, the prize credit expiry and whether payouts at the register are allowed. Select Edit to change them.
What golfers see
Golfers see their prize pools in their account: how much they paid in, the current pool while it's running, and what they won. Prize money shows in their house-account history as "Prize: prize account name".
Archiving
When a competition is over, select Archive on the prize account and confirm. An archived prize account keeps its balance, participants and transactions, and no longer shows at the register. Select Unarchive to make it active again.
Common questions
A golfer contributed but the balance didn't change. Why?
The balance updates after the sale is completed and PocketPass has checked it, usually within five minutes. Check the sale was completed, not left open or voided.
Can I undo a payout?
Not from the prize account - the winner may already have spent it. An account owner uses Adjust balance on the winner's customer page to take the credit back, then Contribute the same amount back into the prize account.
Can I use prize accounts with Lightspeed Restaurant (K-Series)?
Not at the register yet. You can still run a prize account from the dashboard.