Complimentary tickets and guest-list drinks

Why an organiser should ring up comp tickets and free drinks at the till, who may approve them, and how to review comps on the X and Z reports.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Events businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Every event gives things away. The sponsor's guests come in free, the artist's crew drinks on the house, the venue manager's table gets a bottle "with our compliments", and a journalist is waved through the door. Comps are part of how events work, and nobody serious suggests stopping them.

The trouble is that a comp nobody records looks, at the end of the night, exactly like theft. The bar is short of stock, the door count does not match the tickets sold, and no one can say how much was given away on purpose. This article explains how to put comps through Achekam's till so that they are visible, approved and costed.

Why comps must still go through the till

A drink handed over without being rung up leaves no trace except an empty space on the shelf. A drink rung up as a comp leaves a record: what was given, by whom, when, and with whose approval.

That record does three jobs:

• Stock stays accurate. Every till sale takes the sold quantity off stock at the till's location in the same step, so a comp rung up at the bar reduces bar stock just as a paid drink would. Unrecorded comps are indistinguishable from shrinkage. Investopedia's explanation of inventory shrinkage describes how it shows up as a gap between book and physical stock, and how theft, error and damage cause it; untracked giveaways land in exactly that gap.
• Cost is visible. The event can see what its generosity cost.
• Ticket counts are honest. A complimentary ticket rung up at the door means the door count and the ticket sales agree.

For this to work, tickets and drinks need to exist as products. The Item Master in the Accounting menu creates products on the server, with SKU, name, category, selling and cost price, opening quantity and VAT treatment. A "Comp ticket" is simply your normal ticket product with a full discount at the till; it does not need to be a separate product.

Discounts above the limit need a supervisor

At the till, line and whole-sale discounts can be given, and above the business's cashier limit only a supervisor or manager can give them. The server checks this again, rather than trusting what the screen shows.

Set the cashier discount limit low enough that a full comp always needs a supervisor. Then every free drink or free ticket carries two names: the cashier who rang it up, who is the signed-in user, and the supervisor who approved it. A bartender cannot quietly look after friends, and a supervisor who approves an unusual number of comps will see their name on every one of them.

Brief supervisors on who qualifies before the night starts: a written guest list for tickets, a named list of crew and artists for drinks, and a cap per person where that makes sense.

What the journal records for a fully discounted sale

Every till sale that reaches the server posts a balanced journal in the same step: revenue, output VAT and cost of sales against inventory at the product's cost price, with each payment method to its own account.

For a comp rung up with a full discount, the important line is cost of sales. The drink or ticket leaves inventory at its cost price, and that cost is recorded, while the sale brings in no money. Over a night, the comps show up in your figures as cost with little or no matching revenue, which is exactly what they are.

Ask your accountant how comps should be treated for VAT in your country before the event season starts, and whether they want comps kept on a separate product or discount reason so they can be found quickly.

Reviewing comps on the X and Z reports

During the event, a supervisor can open a live X report of any open till as a PDF; at cash-up, each till's Z report is frozen. Use them to review the night's discounts while the evening is still fresh in everyone's mind.

A short review routine:

1. At cash-up, look at each till's discounts on its Z report.
2. Compare the comps with the guest list and the crew list.
3. Note anything unexpected and ask the supervisor who approved it.
4. Keep the lists with the Z reports.

The business day is then closed by a supervisor or manager who was not a cashier that day, which freezes the Z reports. The day-closer should be the one who asks the questions in step three. How cashier logins make each comp traceable to a person is covered in giving event-day cashiers their own logins.

A comp policy for the night

Write the policy down and hand it to every supervisor:

Then count stock after the event and compare it with the till's stock figures. A gap that remains after comps are accounted for is the real shrinkage, and the place to look is covered in counting leftover stock after the event.

Before your next event, set the cashier discount limit, print the policy and the guest lists, and tell every bartender that a free drink is still a sale to ring up.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.