Limit Employee Ability to Change Prices and Discounts

Using Access Level settings, business owners can limit their employees' ability to change pricing and discounts for products, services, classes, memberships, packages, and gift certificates during checkout. An access level setting can also control employees' access to manage discount settings (create new discounts and edit existing ones.)

See Web version / Vagaro Pro app for details on managing Access Level settings.

In this article we will cover:

• Discounts Access Level
• Customer Checkout Access Level
• Access Level Required to Offer Discounts
• Transaction List – Price and Discount Changes

There are two Access Levels you can use:

• Settings > Discounts
• Checkout > Customer Checkout

You can also set a switch when creating a discount to limit its use at checkout to only employees with selected Access Levels. Jump to Access Level Required to Offer Discount.

Discounts Access Level

The Discounts access level is found under Settings. You can set it to View or Modify. Employees with Modify access can create, edit, and delete discounts, while those with View can only see the page itself and use the Edit function to view details of a particular discount.

Employees with no access level set for Discounts will see a warning page when they try to click Settings > Things We Sell > Discounts:

Those with only View access will see a warning banner when they try to use the Duplicate or Delete functions from the More menu or if they try to change the Active switch. View access employees can use the Edit function to see the details of a discount, but cannot make changes to any settings, and they will see the same banner if they try to Save from the edit screen.

Customer Checkout Access Level

This is the second option in the CHECKOUT access levels section. With Modify set to on (green) the Modify Price and Discount settings are displayed for you to set. Here you can choose what employees with this access level can do with prices and discounts during checkout.

You have several checkout areas to select from:

• Services
• Classes
• Products
• Gift Certificates
• Memberships
• Packages

And can control what employees can do for Price Reductions and Discounts for each area. Choices for each are:

• Cannot Modify
• Can Modify
• Can Modify With Limit

Set these individually as needed. Note that Can Modify With Limit is set only by percentage, though the system will calculate the effect of a change in a dollar amount based on the percentage entered here.

When an employee with this access level set to either Cannot Modify or Can Modify With Limit tries to change the sales price or discount during checkout, they will be required to get the approval of an employee who can modify the price or discount. Here's how that works:

We’ll use an employee with the following settings on this access level:

1. Go to Checkout and select a customer.
2. Select a service, service provider, and start time to add to the cart.
   
3. Change the service price to $60.00, or add a discount of 20% (remember they can only apply a 5% discount from the access settings), and the cart now reflects the change:
   
4. We'll use a cash payment for this example, so enter $60.00 in Cash and click Checkout.
   
5. The Approval Required screen pops up.
   
6. Click Next.
7. An employee with Can Modify access can scan their employee QR code, or click their icon and sign in.
   
   
8. Once they enter their password and click Approve, the checkout is completed.

This workflow is the same whether the employee has a limit set (percentage) or has the Cannot Modify option set. The approving employee must have either Can Modify or Can Modify With Limit (set for a higher limit than the employee doing the checkout) to be able to approve the transaction.

Approval for Price Changes from the Calendar

Employees whose Access Levels have the Cannot Modify or Can Modify with Limits set under Checkout cannot change the price of a service from the Calendar without approval. Here's the process for changing the price from the Calendar:

1. Click an upcoming appointment on the Calendar, and then select Edit.
   
2. Lower the price (or lower it more than the allowed percentage from the Can Modify with Limits setting).
   
3. Click Save.
4. Click Next on the Approval Required pop-up screen.
   
5. Select an employee who can approve the price change, or have them scan their employee QR code and sign in.
6. Once they enter their password and click Approve, the price change will be saved.

Access Level Required to Offer Discounts

When creating preset discounts, you can limit employees' ability to offer that discount at checkout by Access Level. Follow these steps.

1. Navigate to Settings > Things We Sell > Discounts.
2. Set up your discount with a name, description, and start date/time.
3. Set the next switches the way you want for this discount.
4. Set Access Level Required to Offer Discount (In-House Only) to On (green).
5. Select which access levels will be allowed to offer the discount.
   
   
   
6. Finish creating your discount and click Save.

To apply a limited discount at checkout for employees who do not have the access level needed:

1. After adding an item that the discount can apply to, click the Apply a Discount drop-down list, and select the discount.
   
   You'll see the discount applied:
   
2. Set up your payment method and click Checkout. The Approval Required screen displays.
   
3. Click Next.
4. Select the approving manager or employee or have them scan their employee QR code.
   
5. The approving manager enters their password and clicks Approve to complete the checkout.
   

Transaction List – Price and Discount Changes

The transaction list report highlights changes made from checkout to prices and discounts. Discounts and price changes show in the report as hyperlinks that you can either click or hover over to get details about the change.

Web Version

Note that in the section of a transaction list report, above, that the Disc in the 1^st and 2^nd rows and the Price in the 3^rd row are blue (hyperlinks).

In the first row, the discount is the result of a preset discount, and so, when you hover over the link, you see the name (and promo code) of the discount.

The discount in the second row was a manual change by the employee during checkout. When you click the link, a pop-up shows what was changed and who approved the change:

In the third row, the price was manually changed at checkout, so the pop-up box shows the change and who approved it:

Lastly, notice in the fourth row, there is a discount applied, for $1, and the price of the item was first reduced to $2.65… leaving a payment of $1.65. However, because these changes were within the limits on the employee who sold the product, there is no link to highlight the change.

Vagaro Pro app

The Transaction List report looks different on the Vagaro Pro app. Here's what the various discounts and price change entries look like.

Individual entries in the Transaction List report:

Tap the arrow to see the transaction detail. When a preset discount is applied, it will appear as link text. Tap the link to see which discount and promo code was used.

An arrow indicates a discount or price change that required approval. Tap the arrow for details.

Remember that if changes to a discount or price were within the limits on the employee who sold the product, there is no arrow to highlight the change.