It's Tuesday, the five o'clock lesson has just come out of the arena, and a parent is at the gate with a question: "How many lessons does she have left?" The answer is on a paper card. The card is in the rider's jacket, or in a drawer in the office, or in the wash.
TL;DR
A lesson package gives you money up front, a steadier week and riders who keep coming back. Decide the rules once and write them down where riders can see them. Riders need three things in front of them: lessons left, the expiry date, and which lessons were used.
Why packages beat pay-per-lesson
Paying lesson by lesson is simple, but it means a payment conversation every week. Someone forgot cash, someone will "pay next time".
A package moves that conversation to once every couple of months. It also does three quieter things:
- Money arrives before the work. Feed, shavings and the farrier get paid on a schedule. It helps when lesson income does too.
- Riders commit. Someone who has already paid for ten lessons books the next one.
- Riders get a reason to buy. A small discount for paying up front is fair, because you get the money early and save the weekly chase.
Expiry, sharing and siblings: decide once
Most arguments about packages aren't about money. A rule was never decided, so it gets decided at the gate, with a disappointed rider in front of you. Settle these questions before you sell the first package and write the answers down.
1. How long is a package valid? Take the number of lessons, divide by how often a typical rider comes, then add about a third for sick weeks, holidays and bad weather. A rider who comes weekly needs 10 weeks for 10 lessons. Make the package valid for about three months, and a bad cold costs nobody a lesson.
2. What happens when it expires with lessons left? Pick one answer and stick to it. Common choices:
- Unused lessons expire with the package, no exceptions.
- One extension, for a set number of weeks, if the rider asks before the expiry date.
A lesson the barn cancels, because a horse is lame or the arena is frozen, shouldn't come off anyone's package.
3. Who can use it? Siblings sharing one package is common and fair, since the same household pays.
4. Which lessons does it cover? A group package used for a private lesson costs you money. Either tie each package to a lesson type, or price an "any lesson" package so it works for both.
5. Refunds. Many barns make packages non-refundable but allow a transfer within the family.
What riders need to see
A rider should be able to check three things without asking you:
- Lessons left, as a number out of the total.
- The expiry date.
- Which lessons were used, with dates. This settles the "I'm sure I only rode twice" conversation before it starts.
How Passes handle it
We built lesson packages into Nose so that nobody has to keep count by hand. In the app a package is called a Pass, and Nose counts each lesson as a ride.
You set the rules once. In Settings → Passes, an admin taps Add preset for each package you sell (the app calls these pass types): its name, number of rides, how long it's valid, which ride types it covers, and the discount.
Selling one is quick. On the Passes page, tap Issue pass, pick the rider and the pass type, and record how they paid. If sharing is on, you can add a sibling as a second holder so they use the same pass.
Lessons come off when you settle the ride. When you settle a rider on a ride and choose Pass/voucher, the ride comes off their pass.
Riders see it on their own phone. Under Passes & vouchers, a rider sees rides left out of the total, the date the pass is valid until, and a list of used rides.
The details are in the help center: Passes for daily use, and Pass and voucher setup for pass types and sharing.
Moving your current punch cards over
Pick a date and move cards one at a time:
- Count first. Gather every live card and write down the rider, the lessons left, the expiry date you promised, and what they paid.
- Set up your pass types. Add the packages you'll sell from now on, with the rules from the list above.
- Add the riders. Each rider goes into People with Add person.
- Re-issue each card as a pass. As an admin, go to Issue pass, choose Issue a custom pass instead, and enter the lessons left as the number of rides. Set the price to 0, since the rider has already paid you, and set the expiry date you promised them.
- Retire the paper. Mark the old card as moved, or hand it back, so no lesson is counted twice.
See it before you move anything
Start at nose.horse. It's free to start, no card needed.
