Credits are a prepaid balance that your clients spend on bookings. Clients buy credit packs, and each booking deducts the price in credits that you set on the class, course, event or appointment. This article covers the credit system in Settings › Passes and memberships › Credit system. It isn't about entry passes, memberships or gift vouchers, and it isn't about the Credit shown on a client's recurring membership, which is money held in Stripe.
Credits are available on all paid plans, not on the free Getting Started plan. Here's how the credit system works and how it can benefit both you and your clients:
Usage: Credits can pay for classes, courses, events and appointments, wherever you've added a price in credits.
Deduction: When a client books a class, the cost of the class (e.g., 170 credits) is deducted from their credit account.
Advantages of the Credit System
Simple for Both You and Your Clients
Everything is paid upfront
Credits are automatically deducted upon booking
Transparent and fair cancellation fees
Automatic registration from the waitlist
1) Clients Can Purchase Credits in Advance
Clients can buy credits ahead of time as a discounted pack, then book classes without needing to reach for a credit card or wait for a bank transfer to go through.
2) You Receive Payments in Advance
Every booking is automatically paid for.
3) Limited Validity Encourages Usage
Credits have a validity period, encouraging clients to use them within a specific timeframe.
4) Automatic Registration from the Waitlist
If you have automatic waitlist registration enabled, clients are automatically signed up for classes using their credits. The credit amount is held during the wait.
If a spot doesn’t open up, the credits are released back to the client’s account.
5) Transparent and Fair Cancellation Fees
Credits are returned to the client's Zenamu account immediately upon cancellation
If a client cancels within your penalty window (e.g., 4 hours before class), only a portion of their credits is refunded
Unlike credit card payments, refunding credits incurs no fees (see also How Zenamu Minimizes Fees from Cancelled Bookings)
Everything happens automatically — no need to manually transfer money between bank accounts
6) Marketing Opportunities
You can offer discounted credit packs — for example, 1870 credits valid for 6 months for just 1700 (your currency). This way, your clients get one free class worth 170 credits as a bonus.
Another option is to combine credits with cash payments, where the credit price is lower than the cash price — effectively offsetting card payment fees.
How do I create a credit pack?
Go to Settings › Passes and memberships and open the Credit system tab. Click Add credit pack.
2. Fill in the credit pack and click Save:
Number of credits
Price in your currency: to give a discount, set a price lower than the value of the credits.
Description
Valid from purchase: how long the credits are valid, counted from the purchase date.
3. The credit pack will now be visible on your public schedule.
How to Set Cancellation Policies for Credits
Refunds: Credits are refunded according to your cancellation policies.
Policies: Define your cancellation policies in Zenamu. These will be displayed in the Terms and Conditions section of your public schedule.
Example: If a client cancels 5 hours before the class, they receive 50% of their credits back.
How Are Credits Adjusted After Cancellations?
Clients receive a proportional credit refund based on your cancellation policy, rounded up in their favor (e.g., a class costing 101 credits with a 50% cancellation fee will return 51 credits).
How do I accept only credits for a class?
You decide this on each class, course, event or appointment, in its Price section. Add a price in credits with Add another pricing option › Credits, then delete the price in money with the trash icon. Clients can then pay for it only with credits.
If you also add a price in entries or a membership, clients can choose those too.
How Can Your Clients Purchase Credits?
In person with cash
Online payment: For clients to buy credits directly in the booking system (under Passes), you need to have at least one cashless payment method active — card payment or bank transfer. See the Set up Card Payments and Bank Transfer Payment Settings guides.
Clients must have an account in the booking system
To purchase and use credits, clients need their own account. Without one, the system wouldn't be able to manage credits, display balances, or return credits when a booking is cancelled.
Managing Client Credits
You manage a client's credits in Clients, in the client's detail, in the Credits section. Click + (Top up) to add one of your credit packs, or tick Add custom number of credits to enter your own number of credits and price (enter 0 to give them for free). Click − (Decrease) to remove credits.
If a client shows up without a booking: Sometimes a client attends your class without a reservation. The easiest approach is to manually create the booking for them, selecting "credits" as the payment method — the amount will be deducted from their account automatically. You can add a client directly from the class via Add Participant.
How Does Credit Validity Work?
Each credit pack is valid for the period you set in Valid from purchase. A client has one credit balance with one expiry date. When they buy another pack, the new credits are added to the balance, and the expiry date becomes the later of the current expiry date and the purchase date plus the new pack's validity.
What happens when credits expire depends on the Automatically remove unused credits after they expire switch in Settings › Passes and memberships › Credit system. It's off by default.
Switch off: expired credits stay in the client's account, but they can't be used. When the client buys credits again, the old balance becomes usable again together with the new credits.
Switch on: when the credits expire, the client's balance is set to 0.
For details and for extending a client's credits, see Expired credits and entries: automatic removal and extending validity.
Where can I see a client's credit history?
Zenamu keeps a history of every client's credits. Go to Clients, open the client, and in the Credits section click Credit history. The list shows credit top-ups, bookings paid with credits, credits blocked on the waitlist, credits returned after a cancellation, and credits that were removed or expired. Click an order number to open the order.
A booking that cost 0 credits isn't listed in the credit history, because no credits were deducted. The client's Activity section also logs credits added or removed by the studio and credits removed after they expired.
Why did a client book a class for 0 credits?
Sometimes a booking shows 0 credits even though the class costs credits. Every booking keeps the price the client booked at, so start by checking which price and payment method the booking used.
How do I check which price a client booked with?
Open the class from the Class schedule. The same works for courses and events.
In the list of participants, find the client. Next to their name you see the price they paid (for example, 0 credits) and an icon for the payment method.
Click the arrow next to the client's name to expand the booking. You see the name of the price the client chose (for example, Per-class price in credits or the name of a discounted price), the price, the Payment method and the order date. If a discount code was used, the original price is shown crossed out next to the price.
For all details, open the order: go to Orders, click the three dots in the order's row and choose Order details. The order shows the Payment method, the Price, the Original price when a discount changed it, the discount code with its percentage or amount, and the Order number.
What can make a booking cost 0 credits?
The class had a price in credits of 0 when the client booked. A price in credits set to 0 (for example Per-class price in credits, Price in credits on an event, or Discounted price in credits) lets clients who have credits book without any credits being deducted. Zenamu now refuses to save a price in credits of 0 and shows "The price in credits can't be 0. Enter the number of credits, or remove the credit price." A class that was saved with 0 before keeps that price until you change it. If you changed the price later, bookings made before the change still show 0 credits.
The client used a percentage discount code. A 100% code brings any price in credits down to 0. The discount is rounded to whole credits, so a code of 50% or more brings a 1-credit class down to 0 credits. Codes with a fixed amount can't be used with a price in credits. In the booking, the original price is shown crossed out.
You added the client with a custom price. When you add a participant and choose Custom class price (for courses and events, Custom price), the booking has the money price you typed, for example 0. A custom price never uses credits, so no credits are deducted.
The client paid another way. A booking paid with a membership, with entries from a pass, or with a make-up session doesn't deduct credits. The Payment method in the booking shows which one was used.
Credits that you gave a client for free don't cause a 0-credit booking. If you added credits at a price of 0, each booking still deducts the class's price in credits, and Credit history shows both the free top-up and the deduction.
What if none of these explains the 0-credit booking?
Contact Zenamu support through the chat and send us the name, date and time of the class, the client's name and the order number. We'll check the booking for you.