This article is for HIP Office users (inspection company owners and office staff) who create and manage orders. It covers the Coupons feature: creating discount codes, and applying, stacking, or removing them on orders.
Overview
Coupons are discount codes you create once, from a single global list, and then redeem on any order. A coupon is either a flat dollar amount off (Amount type) or a percentage off (Percentage type). Coupons always appear as their own itemized line on the order, the generated invoice, and the payment page — they are never folded into the subtotal — and they can be combined with manual discounts such as Holiday Discount or Military Discount.
Part 1: Creating a coupon
Go to Settings > Coupons in the left-hand navigation to open the coupon list. This list is the single source of truth for every coupon on your account. It is checked automatically whenever anyone enters a code on an order, including your office staff and clients booking through the external scheduler.
Create a new coupon
Click + New Coupon in the top-right of the Coupons list.
Fill in the fields described in the table below.
Click Save.
Field | What to enter |
Name | An internal label for the coupon, for example "Spring Promo." This field is required. |
Code | The code your team or clients type in to redeem the coupon. A code is generated for you automatically, but you can edit it once before saving. The code must be at least 3 characters long (50 character max) and unique across your account. Once the coupon has been saved, the code becomes read-only. |
Type | Choose Amount ($) for a flat dollar discount or Percentage (%) for a percentage discount. This setting determines how the Discount field is interpreted. |
Discount | The numeric discount value: a dollar figure for Amount coupons, or a percentage for Percentage coupons. This field is required. |
Expires | Turn this toggle on if the coupon should stop working after a specific date. Leave it off for a coupon with no expiration date. |
Expiry Date | Only appears, and is only required, when Expires is turned on. The coupon becomes invalid the day after this date. |
If the coupon creation form will not save
The form validates each field as you fill it in and shows the specific problem next to that field, rather than one generic error message. The most common messages are:
Message you see | What it means |
"Coupon name is required." | The Name field is blank. |
"A valid coupon code is mandatory. It should be at least 3 characters long." | The Code field is blank or has fewer than 3 characters. |
"Coupon discount is mandatory" | The Discount field is blank. |
"Expiry date is mandatory when 'Expires' is enabled" | Expires is turned on but no expiry date has been selected. |
"Coupon already exists with this code/name" (pop-up alert) | Another coupon on your account already uses that exact code or name. Choose a different code or name and save again. |
Managing existing coupons
From the Coupons list, each coupon row has three actions available:
Edit (pencil icon) reopens the coupon form pre-filled with its current values. The Code field becomes read-only once the coupon has been created.
Archive (box icon) retires the coupon so it can no longer be redeemed, without deleting its history. Its status changes to Archived.
Delete (trash icon) permanently removes the coupon. Delete is not available once a coupon has been archived.
The Status column (Active, Inactive, Expired, or Archived) updates automatically. For example, a coupon changes from Active to Expired on its own once its expiry date passes — no manual action is required.
Part 2: Applying a coupon to a new order
While creating a new order, the Fees is where you would apply any coupon codes you have created.
On the Fees step, find the Coupon Code field below the fee breakdown.
Type or paste in the coupon's code.
Click Redeem.
If the code is valid, it is added as its own line, showing the coupon's name, its discount type and value, and the dollar amount it is taking off, along with an "×" control to remove it.
The order total recalculates immediately. Repeat these steps to stack additional coupons — each one is added as its own removable line.
TIP: Keep the Coupons list open in a second browser tab while building an order so you can confirm the exact code before typing it in. This avoids the most common cause of the "This coupon is invalid" error: a mistyped code.
Coupons stack freely with each other and with manual discounts such as Holiday Discount or Military Discount — each one is tracked and removable independently. Whatever coupons are active when you save the order carry through automatically to the order's Fees summary tab, the generated invoice, and the client-facing payment page.
Part 3: Adding or removing coupons on an existing order
Coupons are not locked in once an order is saved.
Open the order from your order list.
Click Edit near the order header to make the Fees tab editable.
To add a coupon, enter the code in the Coupon Code field and confirm. It is validated the same way as when creating a new order.
To remove a coupon, click the "×" next to the coupon line you want to take off.
Click Update to save your changes and recalculate the total, or Cancel to discard them.
Any coupon you add or remove on an existing order updates the invoice and payment page the same way it would on a brand-new order.
Common error messages
These two messages can appear anywhere a coupon code is entered, whether you are building a new order or editing one that already exists:
Message | What is happening | What to do |
"This coupon is invalid." | The code does not match anything on the Coupons list. It may be mistyped, or the coupon may be expired, archived, or inactive. | Double-check the code against the Coupons list, or confirm the coupon's status on that list. |
"This coupon has already been redeemed to this order." | That exact code is already applied to this order. | Check the existing coupon lines on the order before re-entering a code. |
Quick reference
A coupon's life cycle, start to finish:
Create the coupon once on the Coupons page, setting its Code, Type, Discount, and optional Expiry.
Redeem it on a new order in the Order Wizard's Fees step. You can stack as many coupons as you like alongside manual discounts.
Add, remove, or double-check coupons at any time afterward from the order's Fees tab in edit mode.
Invalid or duplicate codes are always rejected with a clear on-screen message, and every successful redemption flows through to the invoice and payment page.