Discounts, Codes and Account Credit

Last updated October 2026  ·  6 min read

Taikai App gives you several ways to change what people pay. Pricing periods and discount codes are set up by you in the Tournament Manager. Automatic early-bird and instructor discounts apply per competitor without anyone typing a code. Substitution codes let someone take over a paid spot, and account credit turns money already paid into a balance for what is owed next.

How prices are built

Event prices come from Settings → Event Types. For each competitor, the first individual event is charged at the event's primary price and every further event at its add-on price. A seminar is priced on its own. Team events have their own team pricing (see Team events).

Pricing periods

Use pricing periods for dated price tiers such as Early Bird, Regular and Late. Go to Settings → Pricing and click + Add Period:

While a period is active, its prices override the event type prices. When no period is active, the event type prices apply.

Discount codes

On the same Settings → Pricing page, + Add Code creates a code that registrants type in the cart's Discount code field and confirm with Apply.

• Code: what registrants type. It is uppercased automatically.
• Discount Type: Percentage off (%) or Flat amount off ($).
• Applies To: Entire registration total or Specific event only.
• Max Uses (optional): leave blank for unlimited.
• Valid From / Valid Until (optional): the dates the code works.

The code list lets you Edit, Disable / Enable or Delete each code.

Automatic early-bird and instructor discounts

Two automatic reductions can apply to each competitor, and they add up:

• Early-bird rate: a fixed amount off each competitor inside a date window.
• Instructor discount: a fixed amount off each competitor registered by a coach who is approved as a coach for the tournament and is the head coach of a dojo. A coach bringing twelve students gets twelve reductions.

Both show as their own lines in the cart before anyone pays.

The early bird is earned by payment

Registering inside the window is not enough. If an entry is marked Paid while the early bird is open, the reduced price is locked in for good. If it is still unpaid when the window closes, the amount owed goes back to full price. An optional grace period keeps the early bird for entries made before the deadline, so you have a few extra days to confirm their transfers.

Rules worth knowing

• The reductions count only competitors new to the tournament. Adding an event to someone already registered does not grant them again.
• A typed discount code replaces the instructor discount for that competitor; they never stack. The early bird stacks with either.
• The competitor's own account shows their price after the early bird only, never the instructor discount.

Locking a discount for pay at event

Sometimes you agree that a group can pay on site but keep today's price. In the Competitors list, click the payment badge until it reads Pays at event · discount locked. The competitor still owes the balance, but the early-bird and instructor reductions they have now survive the deadline. Marking them Paid later keeps that price. Check-in staff see these entries so they can collect in person.

Substitution codes

When a paid competitor drops out, you can let someone else take the spot instead of refunding it:

• 1
  Create the code In the Competitors list, click the swap icon (Create substitution code) on that competitor's row. Check the expiry date (it starts at the registration deadline), then click Create substitution code.
• 2
  Share it Click Copy and send the code to the coach or family. The code covers exactly the events the original competitor was in (for example Kata and Kumite), for one new competitor, once.
• 3
  The new competitor uses it at checkout They type it in the Discount code field. The covered events are free at whatever they would cost the new competitor; anything extra is charged normally. A code nobody in the cart can use is refused and stays unused.

The original registration is not cancelled. Withdraw it separately if needed. The rows show Substitution code, Substitution used and Substitute badges, and the code also appears in the Pricing code list, where you can disable it. Creating substitution codes needs the director or a staff role with the Manage payments permission.

Account credit

Account credit is money an account has already paid, for example an overpayment. It is a payment, not a discount: discounts are worked out first, then the credit pays what is owed next (registrations, teams, seminars and extra charges).

• In the Competitors view, click Account credit, pick the account, enter the amount and a reason, and click Add credit. Tick Apply it now to what they owe to use it straight away.
• When that account registers in Cash / Offline mode or with pay later, the credit is used automatically and shows as its own line in the cart.
• Approve by Dojo shows each paying account's credit with an Apply credit button.
• Each grant and use is kept in the account's History. Credit does not expire.

What is never discounted

Automatic discounts and discount codes reduce only individual events and extra categories. Team events and seminars are always charged in full. A competitor who first enters only a team event or a seminar still earns their per-competitor discounts when they add an individual category later. Substitution codes are the exception: they cover whatever events the original competitor was in, team share and seminar included.