How to give discounts for certain conference fees only

We want to waive participation fees for the key note speakers we invited to the conference and this option should not be publicly available during the registration process.
Is there a simple way to register them for the conference without the main conference fee, but with the regular prices of excursions and other sub-events?

(A German version of this article is available.)

There are several ways to waive certain fees and charges for a specific group of participants on specific items of the registration if you don't want to grant a total discount.

Please be aware that your ConfTool installation comes in one of two modes:
Different invoicing modes of ConfTool Pro 

Depending on the mode, your options will be different.

Grant a Full or Partial Discount on Fees in MODE A

• As an organizer, you can edit the registration form of the key note speaker and provide a discount manually. Please scroll down to the section "Extra Fee or Credit (only visible to admins and assistants)", enter a title like "Exempted from participation fee" and the corresponding negative amount to compensate the participation fees (see Image 1).
• If you want to give a discount in percentage of the total fee, please use the field "Discount" and enter the deduction there (see Image 1).

Grant a Full or Partial Discount on Fees in MODE B

• As an organizer, you can register the key note speaker for participation and provide a discount manually during the initial registration process.
  Please scroll down to the section "Extra Fee or Credit (only visible to admins and assistants)", enter a title like "Exempted from participation fee" and the corresponding negative amount to compensate the participation fees. If you want to give a discount in percentage of the total fee, please use the field "Discount" and enter the deduction there (see Image 2).
• If the person is already registered as a participant, please edit the corresponding transaction:
  Overview => User and Participant Management => List of Transactions (Invoices)
  Search for the transaction and in the column "Action" click on "Edit Transaction".
  You can now either enter a discount in percentage for one or several events or scroll down to the section "Extra Fee or Credit" and enter a negative amount to compensate the participation fees (see image 3).
  

Hidden Groups, Registration Codes or Waiving All Fees in BOTH MODES

• You can create an extra "Participant Group" that is not visible on the registration form for normal users, and register the invited persons for the conference without participation fees in this extra participant group.
  Please go to:
  Overview => Settings => Manage Participant Groups
  ... and create the required participant group. Give it an appropriate name, e.g. "Key Note Speakers". For the option “Group Enabled and Visible” please choose the setting "NEVER shown to normal users (only to assistants and admins in the back end)" (see Image 4).
  To exempt this group from the participation fee please go to:
  Overview => Settings => Prices
  ... and define the price accordingly (see Image 5). As soon as these steps are completed, you are able to edit the registration form for this specific group of participants accordingly (see Image 6).
• You can also offer a reduced fee to a specific group of participants by creating registration codes.
  You can find more detailed information in the support forum.
  
• If the participant does not need to pay any fees, select the corresponding user in the list of participants and choose "Edit Registration" in the right column "Action".
  The window "Edit Participant Data" now appears.
  In the section "Payment Details" choose "Admission free of charge (only visible to admins and assistants)" and save the setting.
  Please also see: Invitation of participants to whole event free of charge
• If the user is not yet registered as participant, you can use the user status called "Registration fees waived". If the person already holds a user account, this status allows him or her to register for participation without having to pay any participation fees. To be able to assign this special user role, please go to:
  Overview => Settings => Settings for User Registration => Main Settings for User Registration and Management
  ... and activate the option "Show user statuses 'Approved to submit' and 'Approved to participate'" (Image 7). This also activates the status "Registration fees waived".