How do I create and share promotional links?

Applies to: Owner, Manager (create and share); Staff (share links, apply at checkout)
PLUS Feature: No
Plan: All
Last updated: November 5, 2026

Overview
Why you'd use a promotion
How the discount is applied
Usage limits: total uses and uses per client
When a promotion starts and ends
Who can create and apply promotions
Before you start
Create a promotion
Share a promotional link
What families see
Apply a promotion as staff
Edit or delete a promotion
Troubleshooting
FAQ
Related Articles

Overview

A promotion in Opus1.io is a time-limited discount on appointment services, such as private lessons and trials, or on group class services. Each promotion has a start and end date, optional usage limits, and two separate discount amounts: one off the plan (tuition) and one off the signup fee.

Families never type a code. You send them a promotional link, which is your normal self-booking URL with the promotion attached. When a family books through it, Opus1.io applies the discount automatically. For a family who phones in or enrolls at the front desk, staff pick the promotion at checkout instead.

If families are asking where to type a code, Where do clients enter a promo code? covers that question in full, including what to do about Google Ads promo codes.

Promotions live under Settings > Promotions.

Why you'd use a promotion

The discount travels with the link, not with the service. Your regular self-booking link stays at full price, so you can run a sale without editing your public listing, and nothing on your website needs changing when the sale ends.

That makes promotions a good fit for a few specific moments in a school's year:

A seasonal push. Discounted trials in a back-to-school newsletter, where the link goes only to that mailing list.
A new teacher's roster. A promotion on one teacher's services while they fill a schedule, without cutting prices for teachers who are already full.
A capped offer. "First 10 enrollments get $25 off" works because Opus1.io counts every use and stops discounting once the cap is reached.

Why: A promotion gets a new family enrolled at a lower first price. It is a tool for enrolling new families, not for giving a family a lower rate all year. For an ongoing reduction, use a recurring discount on the student's subscription instead.

How the discount is applied

Plan and signup are two separate discounts

Every Opus1.io promotion carries two independent discounts. Each one is either Flat (a dollar amount) or Percent.

Setting in the form	What it reduces	Set it to 0 when
What kind of discount should be applied on plan when the promotion is claimed?	The tuition, or plan amount, on the family's first invoice	You only want to discount the signup fee
What kind of discount should be applied on signup when the promotion is claimed?	The signup or registration fee on that same invoice, when the plan charges one	You only want to discount tuition

A few rules decide the final amount:

A percent plan discount is a percentage of the plan charge on that first invoice. If the first month is prorated because the family starts mid-cycle, the percentage comes off the prorated amount. It never includes the signup fee.
A flat discount cannot be larger than the charge it targets. A $50 signup discount on a $40 signup fee brings the fee to $0, and the leftover $10 is not moved onto tuition.
If the plan waives the signup fee for members, there is no signup fee left to discount.
If the enrollment is paid with service credits, the promotion's plan and signup discounts are not added.

On the invoice, the discount lines name the promotion by its Title. A plan discount on a plan called Monthly Tuition, from a promotion titled Fall trial offer, reads Monthly Tuition promo discount - Fall trial offer, with the percentage included for a percent discount. The signup line reads Sign-up fee discount - Fall trial offer, with slightly different wording for group classes.

The discount applies to the first invoice only

An Opus1.io promotion discounts the first enrollment invoice. The invoices the subscription generates after that are billed at the full plan price. A family who signs up expecting the promotional price all year will see the regular price from month two.

Here is a $50 promotion on a $165 monthly plan with a $40 signup fee. The promotion is Fall trial offer, with the plan discount set to Flat $50 and the signup discount set to 0. The family starts on their billing date, so the first month is not prorated.

Invoice	Tuition	Signup fee	Promotion	Family pays	With a recurring $50 subscription discount instead
Month 1	$165	$40	−$50	$155	$155
Month 2	$165	—	—	$165	$115
Month 3	$165	—	—	$165	$115

The last column shows the alternative. If the offer you advertised is "$50 off every month," a promotion is the wrong tool. Add a recurring discount to the student's subscription once they are enrolled, which is covered in How do I add a recurring discount to a subscription?

⚠️ Warning: Say "off your first month" or "off your first invoice" in the campaign wording. Families read "$50 off lessons" as a monthly price, and month two then looks like a billing mistake.

What a promotion cannot target

Specific payment plans. Every self-bookable plan on a qualifying service receives the promotion, so 10% off a pay-in-full plan and 10% off a month-to-month plan produce different dollar amounts.
Events or camps. Opus1.io offers Appointment Promotion and Group Class Promotion only.
Both lessons and group classes at once. One promotion covers one type. If trials and a group class are both on sale, create two promotions.

Usage limits: total uses and uses per client

Opus1.io has two usage limits, and they do different jobs. Both are on by default as unlimited.

Toggle in the form	What turning it off limits	Use it for
Promotion can be used unlimited number of times	The total number of times the promotion can be used, across every family	"First 10 enrollments" offers
Each client can use promotion an unlimited number of times	How many times each client can use it	Once-per-student offers, such as a discounted first trial

⚠️ Warning: To make a promotion "once per family," turn off Each client can use promotion an unlimited number of times and enter 1. If you turn off Promotion can be used unlimited number of times and enter 1 instead, the whole promotion can be used once in total. The first family to book uses it up, and everyone after them pays full price through a link that looks like it is broken.

Common setups:

What you want	Total uses	Uses per client
Anyone can use it, any number of times	Unlimited (on)	Unlimited (on)
The first 10 enrollments only	Off, set to 10	Unlimited (on)
Once per client, no overall cap	Unlimited (on)	Off, set to 1
Once per client, for the first 25 clients	Off, set to 25	Off, set to 1

The promotion card shows a uses count, next to the total cap when you have set one. Check it the day after launch: if the count has hit the cap sooner than you expected, the limit is probably on the wrong toggle. Once a client reaches their limit, or the total cap fills, Opus1.io stops applying the discount through the link and removes the promotion from staff checkout.

When a promotion starts and ends

Set the dates with When should the promotion start? and When should the promotion end? An Opus1.io promotion runs from the beginning of the start date through the end of the end date. A promotion ending on October 31 still discounts bookings made on October 31 and stops discounting on November 1.

Two things to check:

Both dates default to today. If you save without changing them, the promotion starts and expires on the day you create it. Set the end date before you save.
An expired promotional link still works as a booking link. After the end date, a family who clicks the old campaign URL can still book, but at full price. If a campaign is still circulating, extend the end date rather than letting families find the full price on their own.

Staff checkout only lists promotions that are inside their date window.

Who can create and apply promotions

Role	Create, edit, delete	Open Promotions list	Apply at staff checkout	Share promo links
Owner	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Staff	No	Yes	Yes	Yes, where they can open promo links on a promotion card
Limited Staff	No	No	No	No

In Opus1.io, staff can apply a promotion an owner or manager has created, but cannot create or change one.

Before you start

Self-booking links must already exist for the services you want to discount, because a promotional link is one of those links with the promotion attached. Create them under Settings > Business > Self-Booking Links, covered in How to create and share a self-booking link.
Decide between appointment and group class. An appointment promotion cannot be copied onto a group class link, and the reverse is also true.
Decide the plan and signup amounts, including a 0 for whichever one you are not discounting.
Decide the usage limits and end date before you open the form. These are the two settings that most often make a promotion stop early.

Opus1.io staff can still apply a promotion at checkout without any self-booking links. The links are only needed for families to claim the discount themselves.

Create a promotion

Go to Settings > Promotions and click Create promotion. The form is titled Create Promotion.
Enter a Title. Families see it on their invoice, so write it for them: $25 off trial lessons rather than Nov promo v2.
Under Which type of service is this promoting?, choose Appointment Promotion for private lessons and trials, or Group Class Promotion for group classes.
Optionally add a Tagline, such as Happy November. Only your team sees it, on the Promotions list.
Set the start and end dates. See When a promotion starts and ends.
Choose who the promotion applies to, using the toggles below.
Set the usage limits. See Usage limits: total uses and uses per client.
Set the plan and signup discounts. See How the discount is applied.
Click Create Promotion. The promotion appears on the list with its type, dates, filters, discount summary, and uses count.

Toggle	Default	Why it matters
Should the promotion apply to all locations?	On	Turn off to run the offer at one location only
Should the promotion apply to all services?	Off	Choose which services qualify. A promotion saved without touching this toggle qualifies nothing
Should the promotion apply to all staff?	On	Turn off to discount only bookings with certain teachers, such as a new teacher filling a roster
Apply to all group classes	On, group class promotions only	Appears after you pick group class services. Turn off to limit the offer to certain class times

Service lists only include bookable services of the matching type, and you need to select services before you can narrow to specific group classes.

Some example discount settings:

Offer	Plan discount	Signup discount
$25 off a trial lesson, signup fee unchanged	Flat $25	0
50% off registration only	0	Percent 50
First month free, half off the signup fee	Percent 100	Percent 50

Share a promotional link

On the promotion card, click promo links. Opus1.io lists your self-booking links of the matching type: appointment links for appointment promotions, group class links for group class promotions.
Check the status icon next to each link. Hover over it to see the reason.
Click Copy with promo on the link you want, and paste that URL into your newsletter, text, ad, or website button.
Open the copied URL in a private browser window to see what a new family sees.

Icon	What it means
Green check	The link's services and filters match the promotion
Orange warning	A partial match. The link includes services the promotion does not cover, or misses some it does. Families can still use it, and only the qualifying bookings are discounted
Red, no copy button	The link shows none of the qualifying services, so Copy with promo is hidden

If no links match, the window points you to Business > Self-Booking Links, and owners and managers get a Go to business links shortcut.

Send the copied URL, not the plain self-booking link. The regular link staying at full price is deliberate, and it is what lets you run a sale without changing your public listing.

A landing page groups several booking options behind one URL and is not a promotional link on its own. Adding the promotion to a landing page URL does work, because Opus1.io passes it along when a visitor picks a card, but only bookings that match the promotion's type, services, and dates are discounted. See Using Landing Pages in Opus1.io.

What families see

The family opens the promotional URL. They may need to register or sign in to finish booking.
On service lists, qualifying prices can show the original amount struck through, with the discounted amount beside it.
At checkout, the line items include the promotion's title and the plan or signup discount.
If the first month is prorated, Opus1.io calculates the proration first, then applies the plan discount to that amount and the signup discount to the signup fee.

A family who bookmarks or shares your regular self-booking link will not get the promotion.

Apply a promotion as staff

Use this when a family enrolls by phone or at the front desk.

Appointments: in the appointment booking flow, go to the payment step and choose from Promotions.
Group classes: click Enroll in class, go to the payment step, and choose from Promotion.

Opus1.io lists only promotions that are active and match the service, location, teacher, and, for group classes, the class time. Select one and the quote updates before you confirm.

You can also attach a promotion to a proposal, so the family accepts an already-discounted quote. See Sending Proposals.

Edit or delete a promotion

On the promotion card, click update to change the dates, limits, filters, or discounts, or delete to remove the promotion.

Edits apply to the next booking. An invoice that already exists keeps the amounts it was created with.
Delete cannot be undone. A deleted promotion stops working for new bookings, and appointments and enrollments already made with it keep the discount they were billed.

If a promotion stops early because its cap filled or its end date passed, edit it rather than creating a new one. A new promotion has a new promotional link, and the URL already in your newsletter would stay at full price.

Troubleshooting

The promotion worked for the first family and then stopped. The total cap is probably set to 1. Open the promotion and check which usage limit is turned off. For "once per family," the per-client toggle should be off and set to 1, and the total toggle should be on. See Usage limits: total uses and uses per client.

The promotional link shows full price. Check that today is inside the date window, that the service, location, teacher, and group class all match the promotion, that neither usage limit has been reached, and that the family used the Copy with promo URL rather than the plain link. Appointment and group class links are not interchangeable.

The promotion stopped working on its first day. Both dates default to today. If the end date was never changed, the promotion expired at the end of the day it was created.

The second month's invoice is full price. This is expected. A promotion applies to the first enrollment invoice only. For an ongoing discount, add a recurring discount to the student's subscription.

The signup fee did not change. The signup discount may be 0, the plan may not charge a signup fee, or the fee may be waived for members. Plan and signup are separate settings.

Copy with promo is missing for a link. That self-booking link includes none of the services the promotion covers. Change either the promotion's services or the link's services.

A link shows orange instead of green. The link and the promotion do not cover exactly the same services, locations, or teachers. That is fine: bookings for the extra services stay at full price.

Staff do not see the promotion at checkout. The promotion may be outside its dates, be the wrong type, have reached a usage limit, or not apply to that service, location, teacher, or class. Check it under Settings > Promotions.

I cannot create a promotion. Only owners and managers can create, edit, or delete promotions. Staff can apply existing ones at checkout.

FAQ

Can a family keep the promotional price every month? Not with a promotion. An Opus1.io promotion only discounts the first enrollment invoice. Once the student is enrolled, add a recurring discount to their subscription to lower every invoice.

If two siblings enroll through the link together, does each one get the discount? Yes. Opus1.io applies the promotion's plan discount to each student's own plan, so each sibling gets a discount line on the invoice. If the promotion has a usage cap, check the uses count afterward to see how the enrollment was counted.

Can I extend a promotion or raise its limit after it has started? Yes. Click update on the promotion card in Opus1.io and change the end date or the usage limit. Keep the same promotion so the link you have already shared keeps working.

Will a family who already enrolled get a promotion I create later? No. Opus1.io applies a promotion when the booking is made, and existing invoices keep their original amounts. To give that family the same deal, add a discount to their invoice or subscription instead.

How to create and share a self-booking link — needed before a promotion has anywhere to go
Using Landing Pages in Opus1.io — several booking options behind one URL
Where do clients enter a promo code? — why there is no code box, and what to send families instead
How Do I Set Up Trial Lessons? — the service most schools promote
Sending Proposals — attach a promotion to a quote the family accepts
How do I add a recurring discount to a subscription? — a discount that repeats every month
Why is my discount only applying to the sign-up fee? — when the wrong charge was discounted
How are invoices generated from subscriptions? — why later invoices are full price