# Close out and bill a discovery or guest flight

> A guest has no account and no PIN, so an admin or the instructor on the flight closes it out for them. The guest is emailed a secure link and pays by card.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/close-out-a-guest-flight
Section: Scheduling and dispatch. For: Owners, Admins, Instructors.

A guest has no account, so there is no PIN to collect. Ramp the flight in, then press
**Close out & bill guest**, check the email address, and confirm. The guest is emailed a
secure link and pays by card.

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins, Instructors

## Ramp the flight in first

A guest flight closes out like any other flight up to the point of sign-off. Ramp out with the
departure Hobbs and tach, fly, then ramp in with the return readings. See
[Ramp out and ramp in a flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/ramp-out-and-ramp-in) if that part is new.

Only once the aircraft is back does the booking offer the guest close-out. Until then the
panel is still asking for readings.

## Press Close out and bill guest

1. **Open the booking**

   From `Calendar` (web console), click the block. The close-out section says the flight
   is flown and needs to be closed out and billed to the guest, and names them.

2. **Press Close out & bill guest**

   This is where Confirm review sits on a normal flight.

3. **Check the guest's details**

   The modal carries the Guest name, the email the invoice goes to, and the phone number from
   the booking. Correct anything that is wrong before you go on.

   ![Close out and bill guest modal](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/guest-close-out-modal.png)

4. **Press Close out & bill, then confirm**

   There is a confirmation step, because this raises a real invoice against a real person outside
   your school.

## Check the email the invoice goes to

> **Careful:** The invoice is sent to the address in this modal, and that is the only copy the guest gets.
> A typo taken down at the front desk means a discovery flight that never gets paid for and
> nobody notices. Fix it here before you confirm: editing the address in this modal also updates
> the guest's own record.

## How the guest pays

The guest is emailed a secure link and pays by card from it. They do not need an AerScheduler
account, they never set a PIN, and they are never asked to sign in. Closing out here replaces
the pilot sign-off entirely for that person.

If an instructor is also on the guest booking, the flight is still billed to the guest. The
instructor is being paid, not charged.

## Who is allowed to do this

An owner or admin can close out any guest flight. The instructor assigned to the flight can
close out theirs. Anyone else opening the booking sees "An admin or the assigned instructor
can close this out." instead of a button.

That is narrower than the rest of the close-out, where anybody rostered on a booking can ramp
it out and in. Billing an outside customer is the part reserved for staff and the instructor
of record.

## Related

- [Bill a discovery or guest flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/bill-a-discovery-or-guest-flight): The billing side: what lands on the invoice and how the payment settles.
- [Which reservation type should I use?](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/reservation-types): What a Guest booking allows, and why it always needs an aircraft.