Prepaid cards and packages without the register.

Two different things

Prepaid card or package: which one are you selling?

Salons and spas in India tend to use both, and mixing them up is how balances go wrong.

• A prepaid card (wallet) is money. The client pays, say, ₹10,000 and you add ₹1,500 as a bonus. They can spend it on any service until it runs out or expires. What you track is a rupee balance.
• A package is a number of sittings of a specific service, such as six hair spa sessions or ten laser sittings, paid up front at a lower price per sitting. What you track is sittings left and the expiry date.

Running both in one system matters because a client often has both: a wallet for general services and a package for a course of treatment. The receptionist needs to see each separately before billing.

What goes wrong with paper and spreadsheets

• Disputed balances. The client remembers ₹3,200 left; the register says ₹2,700. Without a history of every redemption, you can't show who is right.
• Bonus value that never ends. If the bonus isn't recorded separately, nobody knows how much of the balance was paid for and how much was a promotion.
• Sittings used at another branch. A package sold at one branch is redeemed at another and only one register is updated.
• Expired packages honoured, or valid ones refused. The expiry date was on the receipt, and the receipt is gone.
• No paper trail for the money. Recharges paid by UPI aren't matched to an invoice, so the accounts and the cards don't agree.

Tax and accounts

GST on prepaid cards and packages: settle it once with your CA

Salon and spa services are taxed at 5% without input tax credit since 22 September 2025 (see our salon GST invoice guide). When tax becomes due on money received in advance depends on what you've sold: an advance for identified services, such as a package of six named sittings, is treated differently from a stored-value card that can be spent on anything. The rules on vouchers have also changed in recent years.

Ask your CA to decide the treatment for your cards and for your packages, then configure JBMOnboard360 to apply it the same way every time. Because every recharge creates its own invoice and every redemption is logged against a visit, your CA has the records needed whichever way they decide.

Designing offers that don't hurt you

• Keep bonus value modest and separate. A 10 to 15% bonus is common. Recording it separately lets you see what promotions cost you.
• Give packages a realistic validity. Long enough for the course of sittings with some slack, short enough that the client comes back regularly.
• Price packages on product cost, not just time. If a service uses expensive back-bar product, deduct it from stock at each visit so you can see what each sitting really costs.
• Remind people to come back. A client with sittings left and no booking is a client about to forget. A follow-up cadence and WhatsApp reminders help.