Loyalty — points, tiers and what they cost you

A loyalty programme rewards customers who come back. You set how fast points build, how long they last, and — if you want them — the tiers that make your best customers earn faster. Finocket keeps the running balance and the history; it decides none of the numbers.

What is a point worth?

You set that too, in paise, and it starts at 0 — points build up but cannot be spent. That is the right place to leave it until you have decided, because a point's worth is a cost you carry on every sale afterwards.

Once it is above zero, a cashier can take points off a bill at the till. Finocket checks the balance again at the moment the bill is settled rather than trusting the figure on screen — so points spent on another till a minute ago cannot be spent a second time. Points can never pay more than the bill.

Who earns?

A sale earns only when it is attached to a named customer. Counter sales default to your walk-in record, which is shared by every anonymous sale in the shop, so those earn nothing — tap the customer row at the till to name somebody. A sale rung up offline earns when it syncs, not when it was rung up, so nothing is lost by a shop with no signal.

How do points build up?

You set points per ₹100 spent. A rate of 1 gives a customer one point for every ₹100 on a bill; a rate of 5 gives five. The minimum spend to earn lets you ignore small bills entirely — set it to ₹500 and a ₹200 sale earns nothing.

Rounding decides what happens to the part-point almost every bill produces. Rounding down is the cheapest and the most common; rounding up is a real cost repeated on every sale, so choose it deliberately rather than because it reads generously.

Do points expire?

Only if you say so. Leave the expiry blank and points last forever, which is simplest for a customer and an open-ended liability for you. Set it to a number of months and a point ages out that long after it was earned. Either answer is defensible; not deciding is the one that surprises you later.

What are tiers for?

Tiers let your best customers earn faster. Each one has a code that never changes (GOLD), a name you can reword whenever you like (Gold), the yearly spend it starts at, and what it multiplies earning by — 1.5× on a base rate of 2 points per ₹100 earns 3.

A programme works perfectly well with no tiers at all: everybody earns the base rate. Add them when you have a reason to, not because the screen offers them.

What if I need to remove a tier?

You can, as long as nobody is on it. If customers have already reached it, Finocket says how many and refuses until they are moved — a customer left pointing at a tier that no longer exists has no rate at all.

Where does this land in my books?

Points are a liability — money you owe in goods, not money you have made. Awarding a point costs you something the moment it is earned, whether or not it is ever spent, and a point that expires unclaimed becomes income only then.

Four accounts describe that, and your accountant chooses them:

• Points liability — where the outstanding balance sits.
• Cost of points earned — what awarding them costs you.
• Revenue when redeemed — where a redemption lands.
• Expired points — breakage income, kept in its own line so it can be seen and questioned rather than buried in sales.

Campaigns: bonus points for a window

A campaign multiplies the accrual for a dated window — 2× points over a festival week, say. Give it a name, a multiplier, a start and an end, and switch it on; the till applies it to every qualifying sale in that window and a customer's statement still shows one line per purchase, because the campaign scales the accrual rather than writing a second entry. Switch it off early and it stops the same day.

Can I run two programmes?

No — one workspace runs one programme. A second would mean two rates applying to the same sale with nothing to say which wins. Opening this screen when a programme already exists edits it rather than starting another.