FAQ for Partners

Overview

In Q4 2024, JSMD changed its operational voucher model to the «Voucher4Voucher» voucher model («V4V Model») to comply with regulatory requirements.

The two core points of this change were:

JSMD purchases a partner voucher from the corresponding partner for redeemed JSMD vouchers and then forwards it to the customer. This is done in a fully automated process that JSMD provides for the partners. The customer receives their experience with this partner voucher, and the partner then settles these partner vouchers exclusively with JSMD.
The payout of the settled amount will not go directly from JSMD to the partners. Instead, JSMD pays the amount upon redemption/purchase to a payment service provider, who then makes the full amount available to the partner after settlement.

Our partners benefit threefold from this V4V model:

No More Price Risk: JSMD pays the agreed purchase price at redemption/purchase, not the price that was valid when the JSMD voucher was purchased.
No Payment Risk: The payment service provider guarantees the payout of the purchase price if the experience has taken place.
Latest Payout After 12 Months: JSMD guarantees an advance payout of the valid purchase price for purchased partner vouchers with scheduled appointments after a maximum of 12 months. The legal validity of the partner vouchers of 3 years remains unaffected.

What Has Changed Specifically?

Instead of acting as a pure intermediary, where JSMD brokered a contract between the partner and the customer and paid out the customer’s money to the partner after deducting an intermediary commission, JSMD has split this process into two separate legal transactions with the V4V model:

We sell our customers a JSMD value voucher («JSMD Voucher») that can only be redeemed at Jochen Schweizer or mydays.
When the customer redeems the JSMD voucher at Jochen Schweizer or mydays, we immediately purchase a partner experience voucher for your experience from you under the contractually agreed conditions, pay the agreed purchase price to a payment service provider, and forward your partner experience voucher directly to the customer.
The customer identifies themselves to you with this partner experience voucher only and participates in the experience.
After the experience, you settle the partner vouchers as usual via the JSMD partner portal. This is the signal for the payment service provider to transfer the purchase price already deposited for you by JSMD to your bank account.

What Has Changed for Me in the Process?

For you, the process after the customer redeems the JSMD voucher changes little:

The customer redeems their JSMD voucher, selects your experience, and makes an appointment.
JSMD then purchases your partner experience voucher (it is created by JSMD for you) and forwards it to the customer.
The customer identifies themselves to you on-site with your partner experience voucher (instead of the JSMD voucher as before) and participates in the experience.
After the experience has taken place, you settle as usual via the unified JSMD partner portal and receive the purchase price (corresponds to the previous «payout amount») for your partner experience voucher from the payment service provider to your bank account.

In practice, this is not a significant difference in the process, but legally, one legal transaction becomes two.

We ask that you clarify any tax implications directly with your tax advisor.

What Has Changed for the Customer?

From the customer’s perspective, buying and redeeming vouchers has remained just as easy. However, redemption has become even more flexible for the customer.

How Does Booking Experiences Work?

The most convenient way for customers and experience partners is to book an appointment when redeeming the JSMD voucher and purchasing your partner experience voucher on the JSMD platform («Direct Booking»). However, there is also still the possibility of using the «Partner Chat» for booking experiences.

Advantages for Me as an Experience Partner

What Financial Advantage Does the V4V Model Have for Me?

No More Price Risk: Compared to the old model, your price risk between the time of the JSMD voucher purchase and the time of redemption is eliminated. You now always receive the amount valid at the time of redemption at JSMD (i.e., the time at which we purchase the partner experience voucher from you).
- In Detail: Previously, you always received a payout amount for carrying out your experience, which was based on the sales date of the Jochen Schweizer or mydays voucher. For all our partners, especially when vouchers were redeemed late in the validity period, this sometimes represented a significant business risk if the costs of carrying out the experience had risen massively in the meantime. Especially in 2022, this was a major problem for many of our partners due to the explosion in energy and fuel costs and the high rate of inflation.
- With the new process, we always purchase your partner experience voucher at the purchase price that is agreed with you at the time of purchase. This means that the risk of increased costs is no longer with you. This applies to the redemption of all JSMD (value) vouchers sold by Jochen Schweizer or mydays after the process change.

No Payment Risk: The payment service provider guarantees the payout of the purchase price if the experience has taken place. As soon as the customer redeems their JSMD voucher for a partner’s experience, JSMD already pays the purchase price together with the purchase of the partner experience voucher to the payment service provider. Therefore, it is essential that each partner has their own account with the payment service provider. JSMD permanently covers the fees for this.
Latest Payout After 12 Months: JSMD guarantees an advance payout of the valid purchase price for purchased partner vouchers with scheduled appointments after a maximum of 12 months. The legal validity of the partner vouchers of 3 years remains unaffected.

Vouchers

Do I Have to Provide the Partner Experience Vouchers for My Experiences Myself?

No, the production and administration of the partner experience vouchers purchased from you will be taken over by us at no further cost to you, so you will not have any additional effort.

What Does the Validity of the Partner Experience Vouchers in §5 Para. 4 Mean?

Since a new voucher, namely your partner experience voucher, is generated when the customer redeems the JSMD value voucher, the statutory limitation period of 3 years applies here to the end of the calendar year (deviating periods apply to sales in/after Austria/Switzerland). This is a purely legal requirement.
In practice, customer behavior will not change in the new model. When the customer redeems their JSMD voucher, the vast majority of customers want to make an appointment to take the experience as soon as possible. An appointment booked by the customer is binding.
This is particularly convenient and easy for the customer if you set your appointments in the JSMD partner portal and the customer can book directly onto a binding appointment. This does not represent a change to the previous model.

Can I Charge Customers Surcharges or Additional Payments?

Additional payments or surcharges are not permitted for the services included in the partner experience voucher.
Only paid surcharges are possible for additional services that the customer wishes to book (e.g. an additional night in the hotel, a video of the experience or a longer driving time with a vehicle).
Under no circumstances may the addition of further services be mandatory for the customer.

How Can I Adjust My Prices in the Future?

If your sales prices change, please let us know as usual and we will arrange a contract adjustment for the purchase price.
Please note that a price adjustment will only be possible a maximum of once per year in the future. This is the only way we can bear the price risk and give customers a service and price guarantee for their Jochen Schweizer or mydays vouchers.
Of course, the customer with a partner experience voucher must continue to be granted the corresponding service without restriction or surcharge.

Settlement

How Does Settlement Work?

When our customers redeem the JSMD voucher, we purchase your partner experience voucher and create a corresponding purchase confirmation for you.
At the same time, we already pay the agreed purchase price to the payment service provider when purchasing the partner experience voucher.
In addition, you will receive a credit note from us, which serves as a substitute for an invoice and will include all VAT-relevant features. So you don’t issue us an invoice. In order for us to create the credit note correctly, we will need to request some (tax) data from you and keep it permanently up to date (e.g. in the event of service changes) (see also questions on the subject of Required Information for Settlement).
Confirmation and credit note will be stored in your personal account in the partner portal and will be available for you to view/download.
After the experience has taken place, you settle your partner experience vouchers as before in our JSMD partner portal JEP. This automatically triggers the transfer of the purchase price or the sum of the purchase prices of all settled vouchers from the payment service provider to your account in accordance with the agreed payment terms.

Have the Payment Terms Changed?

No, the agreed settlement conditions or payment terms remain the same as before.
The payout amounts/payment amounts/minimum payout amounts agreed in the previous service overviews remain unchanged in amount and will in future represent our «purchase price».

What Happens When «Old Vouchers» Are Redeemed?

When redeeming vouchers that Jochen Schweizer or mydays sold before the switch to the «Voucher4Voucher» model, we also purchase a partner experience voucher from you. However, the amount of the purchase price is based on the sales date of the redeemed Jochen Schweizer or mydays voucher, as before.
In the case of extended old vouchers, if the payout amounts have changed, you will receive the increased payout amount as the «purchase price» upon settlement, capped at 10% per year of extension (a maximum increase of +30% is possible) or up to the current purchase price. Nothing changes here compared to the previous process.

Can I Settle a JSMD (Value) Voucher?

No, JSMD vouchers may no longer be accepted by you for regulatory reasons and can no longer be settled with us (experience boxes, etc. also count as JSMD vouchers).
Only your partner experience vouchers purchased from you and forwarded to customers can be settled. If customers contact you without a partner experience voucher, do not make any appointments and do not carry out the experience until the customer has redeemed their JSMD voucher with us and we have purchased a corresponding partner experience voucher from you. JSMD vouchers will be visually clearly recognizable as such for customers and partners and will differ from partner experience vouchers.
Our customers can also conveniently redeem JSMD vouchers on their smartphones, and in emergencies, possibly even immediately before the experience on-site if there are free appointments. In the JSMD partner portal, you can view all your partner vouchers and thus also check the customer with their partner experience voucher on-site.

Required Information for Settlement

Disclaimer: JSMD cannot provide tax advice. For further and detailed information, partners should contact their tax advisor or contact person in accounting.

What Information Is Required for the Settlement of My Partner Vouchers and Why?

With the Voucher4Voucher model, JSMD purchases the partner voucher from the experience partner at the time the JSMD voucher is redeemed. JSMD purchases these partner experience vouchers with scheduled appointments from the partner.
In this context, it must be ensured that settlement documents such as a credit note between JSMD and the partner show the correct tax rate per experience/partner experience voucher. For this purpose, it is necessary that the correct tax rate is stored in the partner portal for each experience offered by the partner. Information about the partner’s tax status is also necessary for proper creation and settlement.

What Information Is Required From Me as a Partner to Issue Settlement Documents Correctly?

In order to issue the credit note and other payout documents correctly, it is necessary that the partner provides information about their tax status as an entrepreneur (e.g. regular taxed entrepreneur or small business owner), as well as the tax assessment per experience (e.g. tax rate 19% or reduced tax rate 7%).
If you as a partner have a VAT ID, this must be stated in the partner portal in the «My Data» area.
You can check and update this information in the partner portal in the Account Settings> Account Data area.
It is also necessary that the experiences offered by the partner are assigned the applicable tax rate.
This function can be accessed in the «Tax Data» area of the partner portal.

Who Creates the Settlement Between Me as a Partner and JSMD?

Nothing changes in the process of creating the settlement documents: JSMD still takes care of creating the documents between JSMD and the partner. In the so-called «reverse credit note procedure», JSMD creates a credit note for the partner when purchasing the partner voucher.

How Can I Provide This Information to JSMD and Keep It Up to Date (e.g. in the Event of Service Changes)?

For the start of the new contractual relationship in the V4V model, it is necessary that each of the experiences offered by the partner must receive an assigned tax rate:
This can be done easily and flexibly by the partner themselves in the partner portal.

How Do I Enter the Information Per Experience? What Is the Process for Entering the Tax Rates Per Experience?

The «Tax Data» area shows the possibility of assigning a tax rate to all experiences offered by the partner. When the «Tax Data» tab is called up, the partner sees a list of the experiences listed by them at JSMD. By clicking on the «Pencil» icon, the experiences can be edited and the corresponding tax rate can be stored.

My Experience Has Several Tax Rates, What Do I Do?

For experiences that have several tax rates, it is possible to store several tax rates per listed experience in the partner portal. By clicking on the «Pencil» icon, the editing view opens, and another column is created by clicking on the «Plus» icon.
After successful editing, the entry per experience is completed by clicking on the «Save» button.

When Do I Know If My Input Has Been Accepted by the System?

After completing the editing of the experiences and clicking on «Submit», a pop-up «Under Review» appears for the partner.
Subsequently, a CSV file with a time stamp is created by the partner portal, which logs your entries.
After the entry has been validated by the system, you will receive a message from the partner portal about the successful entry.
If a further revision is necessary, you will also receive information via the partner portal.

What Do I Have to Do If the Tax Assessment of My Experiences Changes? Where Can I Enter or Update This Information?

In the event of a change during the year, the partner can independently and flexibly update the tax data per experience as described above in the «Tax Data» tab.

What Do I Have to Do If My Tax Status as a Partner Changes?

It is important that the partner informs JSMD of the change in their tax status by entering it in the partner portal. To do this, update the values in the field in the «My Data» area. This can be found after logging into the partner portal by clicking «Account Settings» in the «My Data» tab.
If a partner changes from the status «small business owner» to «regular taxed entrepreneur», this must also be reflected in the partner portal. To do this, update the values in the field in the «My Data» area.

From When Can the Tax Information for Experience and Partner Be Edited in the Partner Portal?

In the «My Data» area, you already have the option of entering or updating your VAT ID.
The «Tax Data» area, which contains information about your tax status as an entrepreneur and the option of assigning one or more tax rates to your experiences, will be available to you from August 1, 2024.

Who Creates the Settlement Between Me as a Partner and JSMD?

Nothing changes in the process of creating the settlement documents: JSMD still takes care of creating the documents between JSMD and the partner. In the so-called «reverse credit note procedure», JSMD creates a credit note for the partner when purchasing the partner voucher.

Do I Have to Enter This Tax Information Additionally in My Payment Service Provider Account?

No, it is no longer necessary to maintain the tax information per experience within your payment service provider account.

Payment Service Provider

Who Is the Payment Service Provider and What Role Does It Have in My Cooperation With JSMD?

We use Stripe for processing payments between JSMD and you as an experience partner.
Stripe is one of the leading payment service providers in Europe, of course meets all regulatory requirements and offers with the marketplace payment platform «Stripe Connect» exactly the product that we want to use for payment processing in the future.
On this «JSMD Stripe Connect» platform, JSMD and each of our experience partners maintains their own clearing account. If JSMD purchases a partner voucher when redeeming a JSMD voucher, the payment of the purchase price for this is made from the JSMD account to the respective partner account on the «JSMD Stripe Connect» platform.

How Do I as an Experience Partner Work With the Payment Service Provider?

As an experience partner, you open a clearing account («Stripe Connected Account Agreement») directly with Stripe in your own name and identify yourself once as legally required for account openings («KYC» process). You can then use it to receive payments from JSMD for your sold and settled partner vouchers and transfer them to your main bank account.
JSMD covers the costs for account opening, payment transactions and operation for you as long as our cooperation exists. You can only use your «Stripe Connected Account» account for your JSMD cooperation, not for any other cooperation partners or other purposes.

How Do I Open My Account With the Payment Service Provider in Detail?

Opening a «Stripe Connected Account» clearing account is quick and easy.
You can find the entry link in our JEP partner portal. It is important to open the account as soon as possible so that your experiences can be activated for sale and redemption.
The opening process essentially comprises the following steps:
Information about your company, owners and management
Specification of the reference account (e.g. your account with your main bank)
Settings for access to online banking
This completes the contract with Stripe online via your «Stripe Connected Account» and opens your account
Subsequently, Stripe may ask you to verify your information about the company, the identity of the owners and responsible persons and their private addresses with suitable documents. You can do this easily and conveniently by uploading the corresponding documents in PDF format directly via the «Dashboard» of your «Stripe Connected Account».
The Stripe support is also available to you via chat, e-mail or telephone throughout the entire process.

What Costs Do I Incur for This Account?

JSMD covers all costs of operation and use of your «Stripe Connected Account» clearing account for the duration of our cooperation.

How and When Can I Access My Balance in My Account?

You can access your «Stripe Connected Account» account at any time via online banking.
Payment amounts for partner experience vouchers that have already been sold but not yet settled are visible, but not yet released until settlement, i.e. you cannot yet dispose of them.
These amounts will be released for you with the settlement or with the automatic settlement after 12 months and automatically transferred to your stored reference account (e.g. with your main bank). If a purchased partner voucher has been returned by the customer or cancelled by you, the corresponding payment that has not yet been released will also be cancelled.
Vouchers with payment amounts that have already been released can no longer be returned or cancelled.

Can I Also Use My Account for Other Businesses and Cooperations?

No.

Can I Also Do Without the Account and Receive My Remuneration Directly From JSMD?

Payment processing between JSMD and you as an experience partner can only be carried out via our payment service provider Stripe in our «V4V» voucher model.

I Have Already Maintained My Tax Data in the Partner Portal, Do I Also Have to Enter This in the Stripe Account?

No, it is no longer necessary to maintain the tax information per experience within your Stripe account.