“Comp ticket” covers several different things. A family pass donated to a school auction, a sponsor’s VIP guests, a free return visit after a rained-out tour, a staff guest pass. In Altru each of these can be handled differently, and the one that fits depends on a single question: does the comp need to be redeemed later, or is the guest standing at the desk right now?
Start with that question. The rest of this guide follows from the answer.
Case 1: The guest is here now
This is the easy one. A comp given at the point of entry is a daily sales transaction at zero dollars. There are two common ways to get there:
- A dedicated comp price type set to $0 on the programs or events you allow it for. Staff choose “Comp” (or whatever you name it) instead of “Adult.” Each comp then shows up as its own line in sales and attendance reporting.
- A 100% discount applied to a normal price type. The ticket keeps its usual price type, and the discount records how much revenue was given up. This is useful if finance wants to see the face value of comps.
Pick one approach and stick to it. If half the desk uses a price type and the other half uses a discount, your comp reporting will never add up. If you aren’t sure whether your discount setup can be limited to particular users or requires a reason, try it in a sandbox or check with Blackbaud support before you roll it out.
Case 2: The comp is redeemed later
This is where most of the confusion comes from. Auction certificates, sponsor allotments, and “come back another day” passes are issued now and used weeks or months later, often by someone whose name you don’t know. Altru has no single feature built for this, so organizations generally use one of three patterns.
Option A: Issue real tickets in advance
Create an advance sales order at $0 using your comp price type or discount, tied to the constituent who is receiving the comp (the sponsor, the school, the donor). Print or email the tickets. When the guest arrives, the ticket is scanned or looked up like any other ticket.
Best for: comps tied to a specific date or timed entry, like sponsor tickets for an event night.
Limitation: the ticket is locked to that date or program. If the guest wants a different day, staff have to exchange it.
Option B: Issue a paper or printed voucher, then ring it up at redemption
You hand out a numbered certificate (“Admits two, valid through December 31”). Nothing happens in Altru at issue time except perhaps a note or a spreadsheet log. When the guest shows up, staff ring a $0 comp in daily sales and write the certificate number in the transaction or keep the physical voucher.
Best for: auction donations and open-dated passes where you don’t know who will use them.
Limitation: Altru doesn’t know a voucher exists until it’s redeemed, so you can’t easily report on how many are outstanding. Your log has to do that job, and someone has to own it.
Option C: Online redemption with a code
If your online ticketing supports promo or discount codes, a single-use or limited-use code that discounts a ticket to $0 lets the comp holder reserve their own timed slot. Confirm in a test environment how your code setup handles usage limits and whether a code can be restricted to particular price types. Behavior here varies with configuration, and it’s better to find gaps before an auction winner does.
Best for: timed-entry sites where every visitor needs a reserved slot anyway.
Limitation: codes get shared. Keep usage limits tight and expiration dates short.
Recording who got the comp
The transaction is only half of it. The development team usually wants to know which comps went to donors, sponsors, or prospects. A few habits make that possible:
- Attach the comp to a constituent record whenever you know who it’s for, even if that’s the organization rather than the person walking in.
- Use a consistent source or reason (sponsor benefit, auction donation, service recovery, staff guest) so you can group comps in reports. Whether you capture this through separate price types, discount names, or a note field depends on what your setup supports. Pick one place and train everyone on it.
- For auction donations, log the certificate in the donation or in-kind record so the gift and the eventual visit can be connected later.
Reporting on comps
With a dedicated price type or named discount in place, a ticket or sales query filtered on that price type or discount gives you comp volume by date, program, and user. Run it monthly. Two things to look for:
- Comp counts by staff user. One user issuing far more comps than everyone else is worth a conversation, whether it’s a training gap or something else.
- Comps against attendance. Comps still count as visitors. Make sure your attendance numbers for grant reports and board decks include them (or exclude them) on purpose.
For open-dated vouchers (Option B), compare your issue log to redemptions in Altru each quarter. That tells you your redemption rate, which helps when deciding how many passes to donate next year.
A short comp policy is worth having
Most comp problems are policy problems. Write down, in a page or less:
- Who can issue comps, and how many without a manager’s approval
- Which price type or discount to use for each kind of comp
- How long vouchers and codes stay valid, and whether they can be used on special events
- Whether comp holders can upgrade (for example, paying the difference for a special exhibition)
Put that next to the register and in your seasonal staff training. A $0 transaction takes seconds to ring up. Cleaning up a year of inconsistent comps takes much longer.
Quick answers
Should comps go through a $0 price type or a 100% discount?
Either works. A price type is simpler for desk staff and reporting. A discount keeps the face value visible for finance. Choose based on who reads the reports most.
Can Altru track unredeemed paper vouchers?
Not on its own, since a voucher that hasn’t been entered isn’t in Altru. Either issue real tickets in advance (Option A) or keep a separate log you reconcile against redemptions.
