Credit Awards

Turn purchases, signups, and cancellations into account credit that keeps clients spending with you.

What it does

Loyalty and referral offers are easy to promise and tedious to run by hand - crediting an account after every qualifying order, remembering who already got their welcome bonus, and making sure a promotion never pays out more than it should. Credit Awards automates all of it. Set up a rule once and Blesta grants real account credit automatically whenever a client buys a package you've picked, registers as a new client, or cancels a service early - no coupon codes, no manual transactions, no spreadsheet to track who has already been paid.

Key features

• Reward Purchases with Account Credit: Pick the packages an award applies to and every client who pays for one is credited automatically, ready to spend on any future invoice.
• Fixed Amount or Percentage: Award a flat sum in the currency you choose, or a percentage of what the client just paid.
• Signup and Cancellation Credit: Grant a fixed welcome credit the moment a client registers, or give back a percentage of the unused time when a service is cancelled early.
• First Purchase Only or Every Renewal: Fire an award once per service on its first paid invoice, or on every paid invoice including renewals.
• Minimum Spend and Maximum Payout: Require an invoice line to reach a minimum total before any credit is granted, and cap what a percentage award can ever pay out.
• Once Per Client Lifetime Limit: Flag an award so it never fires twice for the same account.
• Conditional Awards: Restrict an award to orders matching your rules - a configurable option, the term, the billing period, or the quantity.
• Name, Enable, and Clone Awards: Give every award a readable name, switch it off and back on without deleting it, and clone an existing award as the starting point for the next promotion.
• Credit Award Log: A dedicated log lists every credit ever granted - the date, the award, the client, the service, the amount, and the memo - so you can prove what was given and to whom.
• Personalised Transaction Memo: Attach a note to the credit transaction using client, service, package, and invoice tags, so your accounts screen shows why each credit was granted.
• Client Notification Email: Optionally email the client the moment they are credited, using an editable email template.
• Per-Staff-Group Permissions: Listing, adding, editing, deleting, cloning awards, and viewing the award log are separate permissions granted per staff group.

Before You Go Live - Two Things To Know

Credit is granted, never taken back. An award pays out when the invoice is paid, the client registers, or the service is cancelled, and that credit stays on the account afterwards. If the invoice is later voided or deleted, or the payment is refunded or charged back, the plugin does not reverse the credit it already granted - the client keeps both the money and the credit. Nothing is double-awarded (every payout is de-duplicated), but a reversal has to be made by hand as a negative transaction on the client's account. Use Maximum Award Amount on every percentage award so the worst case is bounded, and review the Credit Award Log alongside your refunds - an entry whose credit transaction has since been deleted is flagged there.

The "Client Registered" award fires on public self-registration. Anyone who can reach your signup form can create an account and earn it, and Award Only Once Per Client does not help here because a brand new account is a brand new client. Treat a signup award as an open, unbounded offer: keep the amount small, set a Maximum Award Amount, and prefer awarding on a first purchase if the goal is to reward real customers rather than registrations.

Contact Us

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improving the plugin, please get in touch with us. We are committed to providing robust updates and welcome customer feedback.

Installing Credit Awards

Before you start

• If you are on the leased (subscription) licence, the Blesta Club Subscription Manager must be installed and your subscription active. The owned and owned-source licences have no such requirement.

1. Upload the files

Upload the extension folder into your Blesta installation so it lands under your Blesta directory at:

plugins/credit_awards/

For example, on a typical install: /var/www/html/blesta/plugins/credit_awards/

2. Install it in Blesta

1. Log in to your Blesta admin area with a staff account that has the Plugins permission, including Install Plugin and Manage Plugin (found under the Settings group in Manage Staff Groups).
2. Go to Settings > Company > Plugins and click the Available tab.
3. Find Credit Awards in the list and click Install. Blesta installs it immediately - there's no confirmation step.

3. Grant staff access

Credit Awards registers its own permissions but does not grant them to anyone, so right after installing, no one (including administrators) can see or use it yet:

1. Go to Settings > Staff > Staff Groups.
2. Edit each staff group that should manage credit awards.
3. Under the Credit Awards section, tick List Credit Awards, Add Credit Award, Edit Credit Award, Delete Credit Award, Clone Credit Award, and View Credit Award Log as appropriate for that group.
4. Save.

Once a group holds at least the List Credit Awards permission, its members see a Credit Awards link under the Tools menu.

4. Configure it

There's nothing to enter beforehand - no API keys, no cron task, no webhook. Once staff access is granted, go to Tools > Credit Awards and create your first award. See the usage guide for a full walkthrough of the form and what each field does.

Updating Credit Awards

Upgrading works just like installing: upload the new files over the old ones, then run the upgrade from the same page you installed it on.

1. Back up your current extension files first - good practice before any upgrade.
2. Upload the new version over the existing folder, replacing the old files at plugins/credit_awards/.
3. Log in to your Blesta admin area and go to Settings > Company > Plugins.
4. Find Credit Awards on the Installed tab and click Update to run the upgrade.

Version-specific notes

• Version 2.0.0: Adds a Clone action and a Credit Award Log page, each gated by its own staff permission. Your existing List / Add / Edit / Delete grants are preserved, but the two new permissions are registered unchecked, so staff will not see the "Clone" link or the "View Award Log" button until you grant them:

  1. Go to Settings > Staff > Staff Groups.
  2. Edit each staff group that should manage credit awards.
  3. Under the Credit Awards permissions, tick Clone Credit Award and View Credit Award Log as desired.
  4. Save.

  This version also registers a client email template, Credit Awarded, editable under Settings > Company > Emails. It is only sent for awards that have "Notify Client by Email" enabled, so existing awards stay silent until you opt them in.

• Version 1.2.0: Adds proper role-based permissions to Credit Awards. Before this version, any logged-in staff member could create and delete credit rules; now access is controlled per staff group. Blesta registers these new permissions unchecked, so immediately after the update Credit Awards will disappear from the Tools menu for everyone, including administrators. This is expected. To restore access:

  1. Go to Settings > Staff > Staff Groups.
  2. Edit each staff group that should manage credit awards.
  3. Under the Credit Awards permissions, tick List Credit Awards and the individual Add / Edit / Delete actions you want that group to have.
  4. Save.

  Only grant this to groups you actually want handing out account credit - that is the point of the change.

Keep your Credit Awards plugin up-to-date to ensure you have the latest features and improvements.

Contact Us

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improving the plugin, please get in touch with us. We are committed to providing robust updates and welcome customer feedback.

Using Credit Awards

For your staff

Finding Credit Awards

Once your staff group has been granted access (see the install guide), go to Tools > Credit Awards in the admin navigation. This opens the Credit Awards list, showing every award you've created with its Name, the Packages it applies to, its Currency, Type, Amount, and whether it's Enabled. From here you can Edit, Clone, or Delete any award, and two icons in the header let you create a new award or jump to the Credit Award Log.

Creating an award

Click the + icon (or Create a new Credit Award) to open the Add form:

• Name - a label to tell awards apart in the list; leave it blank and the award is shown by its number instead.
• Selected Packages / Available Packages - move packages between the two boxes with the arrow buttons to choose which packages trigger this award. Above your regular packages you'll also find a Special Events group with two entries:
  • Client Registered - awards credit the moment a new client signs up, before they've bought anything. Because there's no purchase amount to take a percentage of, a "Percentage" type award is skipped here - use "Amount" for a fixed signup credit. A warning to this effect appears on screen the moment you select it.
  • Service Canceled - awards credit when a service is cancelled early, calculated as a percentage of the unused time being refunded. The "Type" field is ignored for this event - the amount you enter is always treated as a percentage of the refund, whichever type is selected - and a warning explains this on screen too.
• Currency / Type / Amount - the currency the award pays out in, whether it's a flat Amount or a Percentage, and the value itself. A percentage award only fires when its currency matches the invoice's; a flat amount award fires regardless of currency.
• Award Mode - Once per service (first invoice only) pays out only on a service's first paid invoice, ideal for a one-time welcome or referral bonus. Every paid invoice (including renewals) pays out again on every renewal, ideal for an ongoing loyalty reward.
• Minimum Invoice Total - only award credit once the qualifying invoice line (or, for a Service Canceled award, the refund) reaches this amount. Leave blank for no minimum.
• Maximum Award Amount - caps what a percentage award (or a Service Canceled award) can ever pay out in one go. Leave blank for no cap.
• Award Only Once Per Client - when checked, this award will fire at most once for a given client, for their lifetime, even if they qualify again later.
• Enabled - switch the award off without deleting it. A disabled award never fires.
• Notify Client by Email - when checked, the client receives the "Credit Awarded" email (editable under Settings > Company > Emails) every time this award credits them.
• Transaction Memo - an optional note, up to 255 characters, stored on the credit transaction so your accounts screen shows why the credit was granted. You can use the tags {client}, {service}, {package} and {invoice} inside it - for example Thanks {client} for buying {package}! - and drill into a tag's own fields, e.g. {package.name}.
• Use Conditionals - check this to restrict the award further. A table appears with a Match column offering Configurable Option, Term, Period, or Quantity, plus a Comparer (=, >=, <=, >, <) and a Value. Add as many rows as you need with the Add link - every row must pass for the award to fire. Matching on Configurable Option also needs the option's name typed into the "Configurable Option Name" column; Period only supports the = comparer.

Click Submit to save. Editing an existing award opens the same form pre-filled with its current settings.

Cloning and deleting an award

Click Clone next to any award to create a copy of it, packages and conditionals included. The clone is always created disabled - review its settings and enable it yourself once you're ready, so you don't end up paying out twice for the same purchase. Click Delete to remove an award permanently; you'll be asked to confirm first. Deleting an award also removes its entries from the Credit Award Log, but it does not touch or reverse any credit transactions that were already granted.

Reviewing the Credit Award Log

Click the list icon in the header (or View Award Log) to open the Credit Award Log. Every row records one credit that was actually granted: the date, which award granted it, the client, the service (if any), the amount, and the rendered memo. If the underlying credit transaction has since been deleted - for example as part of cleaning up test data - that row is marked so you know the amount is no longer part of the client's balance, while the row itself stays as a permanent record of what was granted.

For your clients

Clients don't see a Credit Awards screen of their own - the credit an award grants shows up as ordinary account credit on their invoices and balance, the same as any other credit on their account, and is available immediately to apply toward future invoices. If the award has Notify Client by Email enabled, they also receive a "Credit Awarded" email confirming the amount they were given.

Good to know

• A percentage award only pays out when its own currency matches the invoice's; a flat amount award always pays out in the currency you set, regardless of the invoice's currency.
• An award with Use Conditionals checked but no conditional rows added fires unconditionally - every condition you do add must pass, and an award with none behaves as if it always passes.

Contact Us

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improving the plugin, please get in touch with us. We are committed to providing robust updates and welcome customer feedback.