Trade accounts

Some shops service work for other shops: suspension, e-bike motors, wheel builds. There, the customer is a business with several staff, and behind it is a rider whose bike it is. A normal customer is one person, so only whoever typed their address into the booking form could see the job. A trade account is the business, with a list of the people at it.

Setting one up

• Go to Customers → Trade accounts and fill in Add a trade account. Only the business name is required
• Your reference is free text for the account code in your own system, so you can match the two up
• Send job updates to is a shared inbox at that business, such as their workshop address. See below
• Anyone at this domain is a member takes the part after the @, like `metrocycles.co.nz`. Shared email services such as Gmail or Outlook are refused, because everyone on them would become a member
• Trade discount is a percentage off your menu price. Leave it blank for no discount

Then add people. Type an email address on the account's card and press Add. There is no invite to send: they sign in at your trade page with that address and the jobs are there. Each person shows Signed up or Not signed up yet, and someone not signed up yet still counts as a member.

Tick Also attach the jobs already booked under this address when you add someone, and the jobs they booked with you before are moved onto the account. It is off by default, because those may include their own bike, which their colleagues would then see.

Adding several at once

Add several at once takes a pasted spreadsheet with a header row: business name and email are the essentials (several emails in one cell is fine), with optional columns for your reference, a domain and an address for updates. Columns are matched by name, so an export from your accounts system usually works as it is. Preview shows what will be added and which rows are skipped and why. A business that already has a live account is added to, not duplicated.

What the business sees

• Their page is /your-shop/trade on your booking site, and signed-in members get a Your jobs link in the header
• It lists every job the business has sent you, whoever at the business booked it, with its stage in their words ("Waiting on your approval", "Ready to send back") and the answers given to your booking questions
• Your internal notes are never shown there
• Each job has Copy link, a tracking link they can forward to their rider. Velobook does not contact the rider for them: the sending shop owns that relationship
• If you named a shared inbox, stage update emails for the account's jobs go there instead of to whoever booked. Those emails follow your usual workshop update settings

When they book

• A member who is signed in is asked Who is this booking for?: the business, or Myself, not the business. If they belong to one account here, it is picked for them
• A booking made without signing in, under an address on the account, is filed to the account automatically
• The trade discount applies only when a signed-in member books for the account. It shows in the summary as the business's trade price, and on the job card as a discount line
• A discount or referral code typed at checkout replaces the trade discount. The two never stack

To file a job under an account by hand, or take it off one, use the Trade account picker on the job card's Customer tab.

Archiving

Archive shuts everyone at that business out of their trade page straight away. Nothing is deleted: tick Show archived and press Restore to bring it back.

Limits

• Members can see jobs and book. They cannot change anything on your side, and a trade account never gives anyone access to your admin
• Velobook does not invoice a trade account on terms or keep a running balance for it. Take payment as you would for any booking, and use Your reference to match the account in your own books
• A trade account belongs to your shop only. The same business sending work to another Velobook shop needs an account there too