Discount codes: create one, scope it, cap it, and switch it off

01 — The mental model

Product vs offer

A product carries a name, a price and a way to deliver it. An offer decides how that product is sold: which template, what the page says, whether there is a bump, whether a chain runs afterwards.

The same workbook can be a product sold on its own, a tick-box bump on a bigger course, and a one-click upsell after something else — three offers, one product, one price to keep up to date. The guide draws this.

There is no Products tab. You do not manage products in their own screen; a product is edited from the Edit button on the offer that uses it. If you have gone looking for one, that is why you could not find it.

02 — What you can build

The three offer shapes

Shape	What it is	Can carry
One-time	A single product, bought once.	Up to 3 bumps, and a chain of up to 3 post-purchase steps.
Subscription	Billed monthly or yearly, with an optional 1–365 day trial.	Nothing. No bump, no upsell, no funnel — the add-on would never renew.
Bundle (a cart)	2–10 one-time products the buyer ticks, one payment.	A bundle discount. No bumps — the items are the choices.

Details: bumps and upsells, subscriptions, carts and bundles.

03 — The rule that stops the worst outcome

The delivery gate

Every product needs a way for the buyer to get it: a delivery link, an access note shown on the thank-you page, or a webhook of yours that delivers. That applies to the main product, to a bump, and to every item in a cart — separately.

An offer with a gap is refused at going live rather than discovered by a buyer who paid and received nothing. The refusal names the item that is missing, so you are not hunting.

This is the one state treated as an incident. Taking money and delivering nothing is worse than any bug on the page, so the check happens before the offer can sell, not after.

04 — Over time

Draft, live, archived

An offer has three states, and only the first two are yours to toggle.

Draft — exists, not buyable. Tick Create as a draft and you can stage an offer without it being momentarily purchasable while you finish.
Live — selling.
Archived — out of your working list, with its orders intact.

There is no “paused” state. Pausing an offer sets it back to draft — that is the whole mechanism. If you see a “paused” badge in your dashboard it belongs to a lapsed payment rail, not to an offer.

Nothing here rewrites history: archiving or drafting an offer leaves every order that used it exactly as it was.

05 — Diagnosis

If something looks wrong

My offer will not go live. Something cannot deliver. The refusal names it.

I cannot find my products. There is no Products tab — edit the product from its offer.

I cannot add a bump to a subscription. Correct, and deliberate: the add-on would never renew. Sell it as its own offer.

I paused an offer and it says draft. That is what pausing does.

06 — Next

Where to go next

Your checkout, getting paid, or the merchant guide.