Sales & pricing
Prepaid Water Tokens and Bottle Packages: How They Work and How to Track Them
By Muhammad Tanzeel Ur Rehman, CMA · · 5 min read
Prepaid tokens — for example "pay for 20 bottles, get 22" — bring cash in early and keep customers loyal. But they create a liability you must track carefully.
How a token package works
The customer pays upfront for a fixed number of bottles. Each delivery reduces the remaining bottles until the package is used up. Some businesses add a free bottle or two as an incentive, or set an expiry date.
The accounting most businesses get wrong
Money received for a token is not sales yet — you still owe the customer the water. It belongs in an "advance from customers" account. Each delivery against the token then moves that bottle's value from the advance account into sales.
If you record the full package as sales on day one, your profit looks high this month and too low in the following months, and you lose track of how much water you still owe.
What to track for each token
- Bottles bought, free bottles, bottles used and bottles remaining.
- Amount paid and value remaining.
- Expiry date, if you use one.
- Which deliveries were taken from the token — so a cancelled delivery can be put back.
AquaRun handles tokens automatically: when a rider delivers to a customer with an active token, the bottles are deducted and the accounts are updated, with no extra step for the rider.