Native Session/Package Credits

FluentBooking currently has no way to sell a bundle of sessions as a single purchase and let the customer redeem them one at a time, on their own schedule, against a tracked credit balance. This is a well-established gap — other users in this community have asked for the same thing (e.g., the thread about selling music-class packages, and the request for "buy 5 sessions once, book them whenever ready, like a credit system"). I want to lay out a full picture of what this feature would need to actually work for service businesses that sell packages of sessions rather than single one-off appointments.

The problem that is keeping me from using this product:

I run a private instruction business (sailing lessons) and sell offerings like:

• Single Full-Day Lesson (one-time, pay-per-booking)
• 4-Day Private Package (pay once, get 4 session credits, book them across weeks or months as availability allows - with an expiration date)
• Multi-service packages (pay once, get 2 session credits for one service and 1 sessions credit for another, book them across weeks or months as availability allows - with an expiration date)

Right now, the closest thing FluentBooking offers is the recurring-events feature, which lets a customer pay for N sessions and pre-schedules all N appointments at time of purchase. That solves a different problem. My clients don't know their availability four sessions in advance — they need to buy the package once, then come back and book session 2, 3, and 4 whenever they're ready, without paying again and without me manually tracking a spreadsheet of who has how many sessions left.

Currently Acuity Schedular does the best at this feature set, but is difficult to integrate into the rest of the Fluent ecosystem.

Feature-set request: a native Package/Credit product/service type

1. A "Package" event/product/service type in FluentBooking, configurable to include:

   • One or more eligible services/event types the package can be redeemed against (e.g., a package usable for either "Private Lesson" or "Virtual Coaching," not just one fixed service)
   • Number of credits included (e.g., 4)
   • Optional expiration window (e.g., credits expire 12 months after purchase)
   • Optional per-customer purchase limits

2. A FluentCart integration where purchasing a package product mints a credit balance on the customer's record, visible in both the FluentCart order and (ideally) synced to FluentCRM as a contact field or activity log entry, not just an internal FluentBooking table nobody else can see.

3. Booking-time credit enforcement:

   • When a customer with an active package books an eligible service, FluentBooking checks their remaining balance instead of charging again or provides a custom code the user uses each time they book sessions.
   • Decrements the balance by 1 on successful booking (not just on completion — needs a clear rule for whether a no-show or late cancellation returns the credit or consumes it, configurable by the business owner)
   • Blocks booking if the balance is 0, with a clear message pointing the customer to purchase another package or pay for the session rather than a generic "unavailable" error

4. Customer-facing visibility:

   • A "My Packages" or "My Credits" view (in the existing booking management/reschedule section in a client portal) showing remaining sessions and expiration date
   • This should NOT require the customer to dig through email confirmations to know how many sessions they have left

5. Admin-facing visibility:

   • Remaining balance visible on the customer/booking list in the FluentBooking admin, not just buried in order history
   • Ability for the admin to manually adjust a balance (add/remove credits) for edge cases — refunds, goodwill sessions, data corrections

6. Cancellation/rescheduling behavior that respects the credit system:

   • Rescheduling a session within a package should not consume an additional credit
   • Cancellation policy should determine whether a credit is returned to the balance or forfeited, and this should be a configurable rule, not hardcoded

Example end-to-end flow this should support

A customer buys a "4-Day Private Package" through FluentCart ($X, one payment). She immediately has 4 credits on her account. She books session 1 for next Tuesday — balance drops to 3, no additional payment prompt. Two weeks later she logs back in and books session 2 for a date of her choosing — balance drops to 2. I can see at a glance, from her customer record, that she has 2 sessions remaining and when her package expires. If she tries to book a 5th session, she's prompted to purchase another package or pay for the session rather than the system allowing an unpaid booking.

Reminder X days prior to expire date if sessions still remain, for both the student and admin.

Why this matters beyond my use case

Any service business selling multi-session packages instead of pure one-off appointments needs this — tutors, coaches, personal trainers, music teachers, language instructors, and specialty instruction businesses like mine. This is a well-proven pattern in the booking-software space generally (several WordPress competitors already support package-credit redemption natively), so it's not a novel or unproven feature — it's a category-standard capability that FluentBooking is currently missing, and it's the single biggest reason businesses like mine end up evaluating non-Fluent alternatives despite wanting to stay in the ecosystem for everything else (CRM, forms, cost, and self-hosting).

I'd genuinely consider this a "complete the ecosystem" feature rather than a nice-to-have — right now FluentCRM, Fluent Forms, and FluentBooking work beautifully together for one-off appointment businesses, but package-based service businesses have no clean path forward without custom development or manual management.

Happy to provide more detail on my specific use case if it's helpful for scoping.