Table of Contents
Rain Checks allow you to issue Gift Certificates to golfers whose round is interrupted or postponed due to inclement weather. Generally speaking, this set up is designed for use at Golf Courses when you wish to reimburse golfers for all or part of their Greens Fees when severe weather forces you to suspend play and golfers leave the course.
When using Rain Checks, RecTrac provides option of keeping the Greens Fee revenue in the system and issuing the Gift Certificate from an Offset Account OR subtracting the Greens Fee revenue and issuing the Gift Certificate in lieu of a refund. The system also provides the option to issue the Rain Check for all or half of the Greens Fee paid or to issue a Rain Check for a percentage of holes remaining.
This document provides the basic steps required to set up Rain Check processing and also offers a simple use case scenario. If you have additional questions regarding Rain Check processing after reading this document, please contact Vermont Systems Customer Service by phone at 887-883-8757 or generate a Support Case through the Customer portal of the Vermont Systems web site using your Customer ID and password.
Note: Rain Check processing is available in RecTrac 3.1.08.03 and greater. Currently, this functionality is available only from the Tee Sheet. Rain Check Processing from Touch POS will be added at a later date.
Set Up
The following presents the basic component pieces that need to be in place to take advantage of Rain Check functionality.
POS Service Item Management
- Create a "Gift Certificate" Type Service Item for Rain Checks. Rain Checks are issued to golfers as Gift Certificates. VSI recommends creating a new Gift Certificate Code for this purpose.
- Determine whether you wish to Allow Alternate Household Link. Generally speaking, you will leave this option de-selected. When issuing Gift Certificates to Guests, you are always prompted for an alternate Household and the system will assign Gift Certificates to any Members/Non-Members in your database to the proper household.
- Link a single $0.00 Fee to the Gift Certificate. The amount of the Gift Certificate you create will be based on the amount of the Rain Check, so you do not want a static fee.
- Use the "i" and "?" Help icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
OR
Refer to Topic Document - Gift Certificates for further information regarding RecTrac Gift Certificates.
- Create a Service Item for tracking Greens Fee Offsets. This can be a "Greens Fee" Type Service Item or a "Miscellaneous" Type Service Item.
- Link a single $0.00 Fee to the Service Item. Fee Type = "Standard Fee." Transaction Type = "Purchase."Note: Creating an Offset Service Item is required only if your Rain Check Option is "Keep Sale/Revenue and Offset." Refer to Daily Processing Profile below.
- Link a single $0.00 Fee to the Service Item. Fee Type = "Standard Fee." Transaction Type = "Purchase."
- Ensure the Transaction Type "Purchase" is selected for ALL Fees for ALL applicable Greens Fee Service Items for which Rain Checks will be issued. In addition to "Tee Time/Court Check In," Greens Fees Service Items which are subject to Rain Checks must also have the "Purchase" Transaction Type selected. Go to Fee Management and use the Bulk Change program to do this quickly and easily, if needed.
Golf Profile
- Ensure the "Rain Check" button is visible on your Tee Sheet. This is done in the Tee Sheet Buttons Dual Select List, which on the Standard VSI Design, is located in the Tee Sheet Settings group.
- Select a Rain Check Slot Background color and a Rain Check Slot Font. On the Standard VIS Design, these fields are located in the Tee Sheet Color Display group.
Daily Processing Profile
Populate the fields in the Rain Check Settings group.
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Rain Check Option- Your setting in this field determines how revenue is tracked when you issue a Rain Check.
- Keep Sale/Revenue and Offset - Revenue from the Tee Time is kept and an offset Service Item record is created for the amount of the tee time as well as other Service Items you choose to "reverse." The "reversal" is issued as a Gift Certificate. If you select this option, then you must also select Rain Check Offset Service Item.
- Deduct Sale/Revenue - Greens Fees and other Service Items are reversed (negative quantity sale) to produce a "refund" for the customer. The "refund" is issued as a Gift Certificate.
- Rain Check Offset Service Item - This field is applicable only if your Rain Check Option is "Keep Sale/Revenue and Offset." Click the Picklist icon to select the Service Item you created above.
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Rain Check Prorate Option- Your setting in this field determines how much you will refund golfers when issuing a Rain Check.
- Do Not Prorate - Rain Check for Full Value - The Rain Check will be issued for the full amount the golfer paid.
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Rain Check for Full Value or Half Value - When processing a Rain Check, the clerk will have the option to issue the Rain Check for the full amount paid or for half the amount paid.
Note: This option assumes Greens Fees are for 18-Hole play. In the event your Greens Fees are for 9-Hole, then this option is "Rain Check for Full Value or 0.00." The system will not refund half of a 9-Hole Greens Fee.
- Rain Check for Number of Holes Remaining - When processing a Rain Check, the clerk will enter the number of holes a golfer played. The Rain Check will be issued for the percentage amount of the holes remaining. For Example: A golfer pays for 18 holes and plays 11 of them. The Rain Check will be issued for 38.88% of the Fees paid because seven holes remaining divided by 18 total holes = .3888888. If you select this option, then enter a comma-delimited list in the Rain Check Prorate Holes field.
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Rain Check Prorate Holes - This field is applicable only if your Rain Check Prorate Option is "Prorate by Holes Remaining." Enter a comma-delimited list in this field from zero (1) to 17. When issuing Rain Checks, the list you enter here will be the options from which the clerk will chose when selecting how many holes a golfer played. For Example:
- Entering "0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17" would populate the list with numbers 0-17, thus allowing the clerk to select the exact number of holes played.
- Entering "0,3,6,9,12,15,17" would allow the clerk to select no holes through 17 played, rounded to the nearest three (3) holes.
- Rain Check Gift Certificate - Click the Picklist icon to select a Gift Certificate Service Item you created above. Rain Checks are issued as Gift Certificates. When you process a Rain Check, a Gift Certificate of the type you select here will be issued to the golfer.
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Rain Check Service Items - Click the Combo Box iconto select the Service Item(s) for which you wish to issue Rain Checks. When processing Rain Checks, a picklist will appear allowing the clerk to select the applicable Service Item(s).
- At a minimum, this list should contain your applicable Greens Fee Service Items.
- You may opt to include other items as well. For Example: If you allow Rain Checks for Golf Cart Fees, then you would want to include your Golf Cart Service Item(s) in this list as well.
This concludes the set up for Rain Check Processing.
Processing Example
The following outlines the basic steps for Rain Check Processing.
- Make Tee Times and Check-In/Tee Off golfers as you normally would.
- On the Tee Sheet, click the Rain Check button.
- Click the Tee Time SLOT for which you want to process the Rain Check.
- Click the Rain Check button again. You will continue to the Rain Check Items DataGrid. This DataGrid lists all of the Service Items you selected in the Rain Check Service Items field on your Daily Processing profile.
- IF you are using a Rain Check Prorate Option, then expand the Drop-down list at the top of the DataGrid and make your selection.
- Whether you are using this option is determined by your setting in the Rain Check Prorate Option field on the Daily Processing profile.
- In the Rain Check Items DataGrid, highlight/select the Service Items for which you wish to process the Rain Check.
- Click Process to continue to the Gift Certificate Options screen. Fill out all applicable fields and click Continue to place the Transaction in the Cart. You will be returned to the Tee Sheet. From there you can proceed to the Payment screen or repeat these steps to place another Rain Check in the Shopping Cart.
- Click Process and Finish to continue to the Gift Certificate Options screen. Fill out all applicable fields and click Continue. You will skip returning to the Tee Sheet. You will continue through to the Payment Screen where you can complete the transaction and issue the Gift Certificate. This is the recommended option.
- Repeat these steps as needed to issue Rain Checks to other golfers in this Tee Time
OR
Repeat these steps as needed for other Tee Times.
Important Note about how Rain Checks are Issued: To issue Rain Checks to individual golfers in a Tee Time, you must follow the steps as outlined above and complete the Rain Check process for each golfer. This is due to current functionality limitations.
Processing Example: Your 10:02 Tee Time consists of Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. Play is suspended due to heavy rain, and you opt to issue a Rain Check to the foursome. The recommended option for issuing Rain Checks is to process each golfer's Rain Check individually as outlined in the steps above Click Rain Check, click Ben Hogan's tee slot, click Rain Check. Fill out the fields and click Process and Finish. Click Rain Check, click Arnold Palmer's tee slot, click Rain Check. Fill out the fields and click Process and Finish. Click Rain Check, click Jack Nicklaus' tee slot, click Rain Check. Fill out the fields and click Process and Finish. Click Rain Check, click Gary Player's tee slot, click Rain Check. Fill out the fields and click Process and Finish. Repeat as needed for additional Tee Times and golfers.
Limitations
The following limitations exist with regard to Rain Check Processing: