What is pay now, redeem later? Cash up front for food businesses

Pay now, redeem later means a customer pays you today for something they will eat later: a gift voucher, a ticket to a dated event, or a promotion bought now and used on a future visit. You get the cash before you incur the cost of serving it, which helps with the months when costs arrive before customers do. It is not a loan and it is not free money. It is your customers' money, held against food and service you have promised, and it has to be honoured.

How does pay now, redeem later work?

Three common forms, each suited to a different job:

• Gift vouchers. A customer buys credit to spend with you, for themselves or as a present. They redeem it later, often across several visits.
• Event tickets. A seat at a dated thing: a tasting menu night, a supper club, a Valentine's sitting, a cookery class.
• Paid promotions. An offer bought now and used later: a set lunch, a multi-visit bundle, a free item, or money off.

In each case the money is taken at the moment of purchase. On Mosey it goes to your own Stripe account, and Stripe pays it out to your bank on your normal payout schedule. The customer then turns up, shows what they bought, and you serve it.

Why the timing helps

Most of a food business's costs land on a fixed schedule: rent on the first, suppliers within a couple of weeks, wages every week or fortnight. Revenue arrives only as people eat. In a quiet month the costs do not shrink to match.

Selling ahead moves some revenue earlier. Vouchers bought as Christmas presents are paid for in December and often spent in January and February, exactly when dining rooms are quietest. Tickets for a February event sold in January tell you weeks ahead how many to buy and roster for, so the night costs less to run and wastes less.

The second benefit is planning. A sold-out event is a known number. A stack of unredeemed vouchers is demand you can expect, even if you cannot say which week it lands.

Is it an alternative to a bank loan?

Not in the way a loan is, and it is worth being clear about the difference before you rely on it.

• A loan is borrowed money. You repay it with interest, on a schedule, whatever trade does.
• Pre-sold vouchers and tickets are not borrowed, and there is no interest. But the money is not yet earned: you owe the customer the meal, and until it is redeemed it is a liability on your books, not profit.

That means pre-sales can smooth a seasonal dip in a business that is fundamentally sound. They cannot fix a business that loses money every month, and using them that way only stores up meals you will have to serve later with no cash to pay for the food. If you are considering borrowing, or using pre-sales to cover a structural shortfall, talk to your accountant first. Nothing here is financial advice.

Gift vouchers: the workhorse

Vouchers sell all year, and heavily around Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries and the communion and confirmation season. A meaningful share are bought by someone who has eaten with you for someone who has not, which makes them a way to win new customers as well as cash.

Ways to sell more of them:

• Offer three amounts. Most buyers pick the middle one, so the amounts you show set your average voucher.
• Make the main amount cover a real occasion. A restaurant voucher that leaves a couple €30 short of dinner for two produces an awkward evening and no second visit.
• Consider bonus credit. Pay €50, get €55 to spend. It turns "later" into "now", and it costs you the food cost of the extra credit, not the cash.
• Remind people at the right moments. Vouchers are rarely browsed for. Mention them in December posts, on receipts, and whenever someone asks whether you do gift cards.

Two rules to know. Irish law requires most gift vouchers to remain valid for at least five years, so do not set a short expiry. And online buyers have a statutory right to withdraw from an unused voucher within 14 days; on Mosey that is carried out automatically on facts that can be checked (inside the window, completely unused, no waiver on that purchase, and for a gift the recipient not yet told). The detail is in refunds and the 14-day right.

Event tickets: certainty for a dated night

Events work best when the night is genuinely different from a normal service: a tasting menu, a winemaker dinner, a supper club, a class. People pay ahead because the seat is limited and the date matters.

Run them like this:

1. Pick a night that is otherwise quiet, so the event adds trade rather than displacing it.
2. Price the ticket to cover a fixed menu, and say exactly what is included.
3. Set a capacity you can serve well, not the most you can fit.
4. Let a waitlist catch demand once you sell out; on Mosey a place that frees up is offered on automatically.
5. Buy and roster to the number sold.

Event tickets are dated leisure, so the 14-day withdrawal right does not apply. Your own cancellation terms do, so write them before you sell. See selling event tickets for more.

Paid promotions: bring a quiet slot forward

A paid promotion is an offer someone buys now to use later: a weekday set lunch, a coffee bundle, two mains for a fixed price. It suits a quiet slot you want to fill over the coming weeks rather than tonight.

Keep it honest and sustainable. Price it so you still make money on the visit, limit it to the days and hours you need, and make the terms plain. A deep discount fills seats with people who only come back for the next deal.

What it costs on Mosey

• Vouchers: 4.5% commission
• Promotions: 4.5% commission
• Event tickets: 4% commission
• 23% VAT applies to Mosey's fee. Stripe's card fee is passed on at cost.
• The customer pays a small booking fee on top of the price, not you.
• No monthly charge for any of these, and nothing if you sell none.

Commission comes out of the transaction as it happens, so there is no invoice to settle later. Recurring memberships, where regulars pay monthly for benefits you define, are the other form of money up front, at 8%.

Keeping the books straight

• Record voucher money as owed until it is redeemed. Ask your accountant how to book it and when VAT is due, since that depends on what the voucher can be spent on.
• Do not spend all of it. Keep enough aside to buy the food for the meals you owe.
• Track what is outstanding. Know your total unredeemed balance, so a busy redemption month does not surprise you.
• Expect most of it to come back. Plan as though every voucher will be spent. Unredeemed balances are not a revenue plan.

A year of selling ahead

A simple pattern that suits most Irish restaurants and cafés:

• November to December: vouchers, pushed hard as Christmas presents.
• January: tickets for a February event.
• Spring: vouchers again ahead of communions, confirmations and Mother's Day.
• Summer: a short series of events or a promotion for quieter weekdays.
• Autumn: a seasonal tasting night, and Christmas party bookings.

The money arrives before the costs, and the meals arrive in the months that need them. For how payouts reach you, see getting paid.

Claim your business free and set up your first voucher, or see pricing.