Loyalty points and selling on account: how to run both in your shop

What are loyalty points, and what is selling on account?

A loyalty programme turns spending into points. The shop decides how many points a purchase earns and what one point is worth when it is spent, so the programme is a discount the customer collects now and uses on a later visit.

Selling on account, which Egyptian shops call آجل or شكك, is credit: the customer takes the goods and the amount is added to what they owe. Many shops keep it in a notebook. The risk is the same for both: a balance nobody can check line by line ends in an argument between the shop and the customer.

Loyalty points, a discount or credit: which fits your shop?

How do loyalty points work in PointLit?

PointLit has one loyalty programme for the whole business, with one earn rate and one point value. A customer earns points only once they are enrolled, and points are worked out on the bill's total in whole points, rounded down. Points are spent as a way of paying at the till, never as a discount, so the VAT on a bill is the same whether it is paid with points or in cash. Points earned on a bill can be spent from the customer's next bill.

For example, with 0.001 points per piastre and a point worth 50 piastres, a customer who spends EGP 1,000 earns 100 points, worth EGP 50 on a later bill: 5% back.

1. Open Manage, then Loyalty programme, and switch on Programme is on.
2. Set Points earned per minor unit. The minor unit is the piastre, so 0.01 gives one point per pound and 0.001 gives one point per 10 pounds.
3. Set Value of one point, in piastres, and Smallest redemption, the fewest points a customer may spend at once. Before you save, the screen shows what a sale earns and what points are worth.
4. On the customer's page in Customers, choose Enrol in the loyalty programme. They start earning points on their next sale.
5. At the till, attach the customer with Add customer, then choose Loyalty points when you take payment. The screen shows how many points they hold and what those are worth.

How does selling on account work in PointLit?

Each customer has a Credit limit: the most they may owe at once. Zero means they pay at the till. PointLit checks the limit again on the server every time a sale is put on account, so two tills cannot both give the same customer the last of their credit. The balance is the sum of every entry on the customer's statement, and no entry is ever edited: a correction is a new line.

1. In Customers, add the customer and set their Credit limit. Only a role with the permission Set a customer's credit limit can set or raise it; the Owner and Manager roles have it as standard. A cashier can register a new customer at the till without a credit limit.
2. At the till, attach the customer and choose On account as the payment, on its own or as one part of a split bill. The screen shows how much of their credit is already used.
3. When the customer pays, open the Statement tab on their page and press Record a payment, then choose how the money arrived: Cash, Card, Bank transfer or Cheque. Cash recorded at a branch with an open shift is added to the cash that drawer is expected to hold.
4. If a cheque bounces, press Cheque returned on its line, and the amount is owed again.

What happens to points and credit when a customer returns goods?

A refund on a customer's bill settles both balances in proportion to what comes back. Points earned on the returned goods are taken back, points spent on the bill are returned, and the part of the bill that was put on account is taken off what the customer owes. Two part refunds add up to exactly one full refund, and each movement is a new line in the customer's history. Only the part paid in cash or by card is paid back as money, and a cash refund comes out of the drawer. The help article on refunds and returns walks through it.

Which reports show what customers owe and the points you owe?

• Customer statement: every sale on account, payment and correction, with the balance after each one.
• Amounts owed by age: who owes what, split into 0 to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days, next to each customer's credit limit.
• Loyalty points owed: the points your customers hold and what they are worth to you.
• Top customers, New and returning customers, and Customers who stopped buying: who your regulars are, and who has gone quiet.

Which PointLit plans include loyalty and customer accounts?

Loyalty points and customer accounts (credit, sales on account and statements) come with Counter, Chain and Enterprise, and, once registration opens, with the 14-day free trial of Chain that every new business starts with. On the Free plan you can still save customers and attach them to sales, but you cannot give credit or run a points programme. If a business later moves to the Free plan, balances are kept and shown, points stop growing, and money already owed can still be collected. The pricing page compares the plans.