Prepaid punch card: how to sell prepaid packages to your customers

Prepaid punch card: what it is and who it suits

A prepaid punch card is a simple deal: the customer pays today for a set number of identical services, such as ten blow-dries or ten classes, and uses one at each visit until they run out. It is also called a course, a bundle, a class pack or a multi-visit pass. The business keeps count of how many services are still owed, and that is the only number that matters.

It suits services that repeat at regular intervals and always cost the same: blow-dries at a hair salon, treatments at a beauty salon, visits and classes at a gym or a yoga studio, washes at a car wash, massages. It suits less where every purchase is different, as in a shop or a restaurant: there a stamp or points card works better.

For the customer, the package pays off through the price or the convenience of paying once. For the business, it brings money in upfront and one more reason to come back until the sessions are used. It does not guarantee the customer will keep coming as often, though: a package forgotten in a drawer remains a debt of sessions to a customer you no longer see.

How a digital prepaid punch card works, step by step

A digital prepaid punch card works in five steps, and only the first is done once and for all. The others repeat for every customer, and none of them needs the customer to download an app.

1. Set up the package

   Decide the name the customer will see, what is used up at each visit (a blow-dry, a session, a visit), the formats, for example 5 and 10, and, if you like, an expiry date and terms.

2. Sell it and take payment as usual

   The customer pays at the till, by card or in cash, as for any other service. On the package you record the format sold and how much you took.

3. The customer adds it to their phone

   They scan a QR code with the camera, or open a link you send them, and save the package card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

4. Take off one use at each visit

   At the counter you scan the card and take off one session. The card on the phone updates and shows how many are left.

5. When it runs out, renew it

   At the last session, offer another package: the new uses are added to the same card, with no new QR code.

Prepaid punch card, loyalty card, membership or gift voucher: what is the difference?

A prepaid punch card is paid upfront and used up; a loyalty card is free and rewards; a membership buys a period of time; a gift voucher is a value that someone else often uses. They are different tools and can work together: many salons sell packages to their regulars and give the loyalty card to everyone.

The table puts the four side by side. For the loyalty card's reward there are the loyalty card reward ideas; to work out what it costs you, the reward cost calculator.

Which packages to sell: examples by trade

The right package is built around the service the customer buys most often, in a size that runs out within a few months, not a few years. Two formats are almost always enough: a small one for people who want to try it and a large one for those who already come every week.

The examples in the table are hypothetical, not measured data: adapt them to your price list and to how often your customers come.

Price, discount and expiry: how to set up the package

A package's price starts from the price of a single service: the most common choice is to charge for fewer sessions than the customer gets, for example 10 blow-dries for the price of 9. The free session costs you the time of one appointment: if your diary is full, a smaller discount or a shorter format pays better.

Choose the expiry before you sell. There are three options: no expiry, a number of days from the sale, or one date for everyone, such as the end of the season. With no expiry the rule is easy to explain, but some sessions can stay owed for years; with too tight an expiry the customer feels under pressure. Whatever you choose, write it on the card and say it out loud at the sale.

Also decide how many times a day the package can be used. «At most once a day» stops the same session being taken off twice by mistake; «no limit» is for when one customer may use several at once, such as coffees bought for others at a café. In the terms, a few lines on the back of the card, put whatever you would rather not argue about at the counter:

• By appointment or not.
• Whether the package is personal or can be passed to a family member.
• What happens to unused sessions on the expiry date.
• Whether a package session also earns a stamp on the loyalty card.
• How to cancel an appointment without losing the session.

Receipts and VAT on a prepaid package: questions for your accountant

A prepaid package is money taken for services you will provide later: how to document it at the sale and at each session is a tax question, not a software setting. This guide is not tax or legal advice.

One fact for Italian businesses before that conversation: since 31 January 2026 the «Testo unico delle disposizioni legislative in materia di imposta sul valore aggiunto» (the consolidated VAT act, Legislative Decree no. 10 of 19 January 2026) has been in force, with a chapter on the «Buono corrispettivo» (vouchers, articles 12, 13 and 14) and one on when the tax becomes due (articles 24 and 25). On the Normattiva portal, read on 28 October 2026, articles 6, 6-bis and 6-ter of the old VAT decree, D.P.R. 633/1972, show as repealed by this act: if a note or a guide quotes those articles, ask for the new reference. Outside Italy, ask your accountant about your country's voucher rules. Take these questions to your accountant:

• Is my package a voucher («buono corrispettivo») under the consolidated VAT act, and of which kind?
• Do I issue the receipt at the sale, at each session, or at both?
• If I sell 10 sessions for the price of 9, what amount applies to each session?
• What do I record for sessions the customer does not use before the expiry date?
• How do I handle a refund if the customer asks to close the package early?

What happens if the customer changes phone, comes twice in a day or uses up the package

A digital prepaid punch card has to cope with everyday situations without the customer losing sessions they have paid for. The table shows how Iterum handles them: each package sold stays a single package, with the same uses on whichever phone.

Prepaid packages with Iterum: how to set them up and what they do

In Iterum (by FIDUS), prepaid packages are a section of the dashboard, «Prepaid packages», included from the Pro plan: the plans are compared on the pricing page. With «New package» you write the name the customer sees on the card and what is used up, in the singular and plural: a session, a blow-dry, a treatment, a visit or a class. Then you add the formats, from 1 to 20 uses each, with an optional price.

For validity you choose no expiry, a number of days from the sale, from 1 to 730, or one fixed date for everyone. You also choose «At most once a day» or «No limit»: even with no limit, two scans less than a minute apart are refused. The terms, up to 240 characters, appear on the back of the card.

To sell, you use «Sell a package»: choose the package and format, the customer, new or already registered, how much you took and how they paid, from cash, card, bank transfer or other. Iterum does not take the payment and does not issue receipts: you take payment as usual and the dashboard records it. The customer then scans a QR code that is valid for 24 hours and works only once, or opens the link you send them on WhatsApp, and adds the card to their Wallet: on the phone the card says it is their package, and in the Wallet it is marked prepaid, with the uses left.

At the counter you scan the card and tap «Use 1»: the use is taken off at once and can be undone within 10 minutes. A renewal adds the uses to the same card, and the pass on the phone updates by itself. In the dashboard you see the customers with an active package, the uses already paid for and still owed, the packages sold and the takings for the month, and who has not yet added the QR code to their phone.

The package is a separate card, next to the digital loyalty card: when it runs out, the counter suggests offering it. Iterum does not sell time-based memberships, does not handle gift cards or credit in euros, and does not connect to the till, as the guide on loyalty cards and the till explains. Try it with the 7-day free trial by choosing the Pro plan: you pay €0 today, a payment card is required, and the plan you chose continues after the trial unless you cancel.

Mistakes to avoid with a prepaid punch card

The costliest mistakes with a prepaid punch card happen before the sale, when the rules are not written down, and after the last session, when nobody offers a renewal. These are the most common:

• Selling the package without a written expiry and terms, then finding out at the counter that the customer understood something else.
• A discount so large that you work the last sessions at a loss.
• Keeping count in a notebook or on a cardboard card the customer leaves at home: the comparison is in the guide paper or digital loyalty card.
• Taking the same session off twice because the card went through two members of staff.
• Confusing the package with the reward: the customer paid for the package sessions, while the loyalty card's reward is a gift.
• Letting the package run out in silence: the last session is the right moment to offer a renewal.

Sources and method

Sources read on 28 October 2026 on Normattiva: D.P.R. 26 October 1972, no. 633, article 6, article 6-bis and article 6-ter, each marked as repealed, and the index of Legislative Decree no. 10 of 19 January 2026, the consolidated VAT act. The questions for your accountant are ours and are not tax conclusions.

The information on Iterum describes the product as of 28 October 2026, from the dashboard's «Prepaid packages» section, the customer's page and the card in the Wallet. The formats, rules and discounts in the examples are hypothetical, not data from real businesses. This guide is not tax or legal advice.