Pricing Scheme Rewards

You want one item to earn its own points, or you want members to buy an item with points instead of cash. Neither needs a price book. Every item has an entry in each pricing scheme (the price list the till reads), and that entry can award points of its own, or price the item in points plus a cash top-up, for every member on the bill, whatever their class. This page explains what the till does with that entry, why it quietly replaces the points your price sets would have given, and the two settings that lose a member’s points without anyone being told.

The entry is not member pricing: a pricing scheme has no member class. If you want Gold to pay less than Silver, that is a price set; see Where member pricing lives.

Where member pricing lives

The two meet in one place. At the till, a price set’s Discount treatment with Price Source = Pricing Scheme takes the item’s price in the scheme it names and works from there. A Member Price scheme column, read by a Gold price set, gives Gold that column’s price. It is a price, not a filter: if the item has no entry in that scheme the treatment works from the line’s own price, with no message. The Pricebook applet explains how the Sales Order and Sales Invoice screens read the same setting differently.

Meet the example

GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd (GS) prices its 22 branches from one Retail scheme. Its Gold members earn 2 GSPTS per ringgit from a price set. Marketing wants two things this quarter: wireless earbuds at RM 299 earn a flat 500 GSPTS for any member, and a RM 59 phone case can be had for 4,000 GSPTS plus RM 9. Both are set on the item’s Retail entry in Doc Item Maintenance: Enable Points Reward with Reward Absolute 500 on the earbuds; Enable Points Redeem with Redeem Absolute 4,000 and a Cash Topup Price of 9 on the case.

What the till does when the item is scanned

It picks the entry first. A scanned line is priced from the item’s entry in the branch’s default scheme, or in POS General’s Default Pricing Scheme where the branch names none. Points set on the item’s Wholesale entry do not apply to a line scanned at a retail branch.

Then, only if a member is on the bill, it works out the line’s points:

• An entry that awards points puts its own figure on the line: Absolute is that many points per unit, Multiply is the ratio times the line amount at that moment, after any member price. When it does, the price set’s points are not used for that item at all, Gold’s and any campaign’s included. A Gold member buying the earbuds gets 500 GSPTS, not the 598 the price set would give.
• An entry that prices in points marks the line as a redemption of that many points (per unit, or the ratio times the line amount) and replaces the line’s price with the cash top-up: two cases go on as RM 18 and 8,000 GSPTS. With no top-up the line goes on at RM 0.
• A card whose end date has passed gets neither; the line keeps its cash price and earns nothing. If POS General allows redemption only for verified members, an unverified member keeps the earning but not the points price.
• No member on the bill: the case is RM 59 and the earbuds earn nothing, so attach the member before the first scan.

If one line is offered both an earning and a points price (an entry with both switched on, or a points price on an item a price set also awards points for), the scanned line takes neither: it goes on at the cash price with no points. That is the till declining to guess which the member wants. Opening the line shows a Reward and a Redeem toggle; turning one on turns the other off, and the cashier picks.

After FINAL, the line’s points are written to the member by a background job, as a REWARD (earned) or REDEEM (spent) line, only when the bill’s document type and status match the company’s member-point configuration. That defaults to the sales order at FINAL, so a company selling on cash bills credits nothing until your BigLedger contact changes it. On that default, a points-priced item can also be accepted at the till and the points never taken off the balance. This is a known issue, reported to engineering. A points-priced line is checked at FINAL: the till asks for the check whenever a member is on the bill, and a bill that spends more than the member’s stored balance is refused.

The server does not turn an entry’s points into a member’s points by itself: only a line that arrived carrying them is credited. The Sales Invoice screen reads the same entry when a line is added; this page describes the till. A web store that sells items for points reads the same entry’s Redeem Point, charges no cash, and checks the balance before it creates the cart.

Where the numbers on the line came from

• The points are worked out once, when the line is added, from the entry as it stood then, and stored on the line. Changing the entry later changes nothing on bills already finalised.
• A points-priced line’s standard price becomes the top-up. The bill shows no discount: to a sales or margin report this is a phone case sold for RM 9. The 4,000 points post nothing to the ledger.
• The line no longer names its price set. The till overwrites the line’s discount description when the entry sets the points, so a Gold price that priced the line leaves no trace on it.
• The points’ end date is the sale plus the entry’s Validity Period days, copied to the member’s points. Left at 0, which is the default, a scanned line’s points end the moment they are earned: a redemption never draws on them, and the first expiry run takes them. The same entry added through the line panel gets 365 days. Set a validity on every entry with points switched on.
• The entry’s Point Currency has to be filled in. The form allows it blank. A scanned line from such an entry carries points with no currency, and the job after FINAL skips any line without one: the member is never credited, or, on a points price, never charged the points while the bill takes only the top-up. Nothing reports it. (The line panel falls back to the default currency. Both differences between a scanned line and the line panel are recorded for engineering.)

Ideas you may not have had

• A redemption shelf with no catalogue module. Give accessories a points price and a small top-up on the retail entry; members take them at any till, and a web store sells them for points from the same entry.
• Keep one item out of every earning rule. Switch on Enable Points Reward with 0 points. At the till the item then earns nothing from any price set, campaigns included, without touching a single price set’s rules. Phone reloads and gift cards are obvious candidates.
• A fixed award that ignores discounts. Reward Absolute gives the same points per unit whatever price the line ends at, so a markdown week does not shrink what members earn on the item.

Decide who owns the entry

The entry is a price-list row, kept by whoever maintains prices. On these items it is also a loyalty reward, and the screen does not tell the two jobs apart. Agree who may switch an entry’s points on; it should be whoever owns the programme, not whoever keys prices. Keep the list of items carrying scheme points with the campaign brief. When a price person edits one of those items, the programme owner rings a test bill on a test member card the same day.

Choosing between an entry and a price set for points is a trade, and the house answer on which reward to lead with is not settled here:

When it goes wrong

How you know it worked

Ring a test bill at one branch, GS-KV-01, with a test member card attached: one pair of earbuds and one case. Before you pay, open each line: the earbuds show 500 reward points, the case shows RM 9 and 4,000 redeem points. Finalise it, then open the member in Membership Admin. The Point Transaction tab lists a REWARD of 500 and a REDEEM of 4,000 against that bill number, and the Points Expiry tab shows the 500 ending on a date in the future, not today. If either line is missing, the table in When it goes wrong, above, says why.

How it fits

• Must exist first: a points currency, the company’s member-point configuration naming the document you sell on, and the scheme set as the branch’s default (Setting up the programme → The order that works).
• Becomes possible: a points-for-items shelf at the till and on a web store, without a catalogue.
• Sibling: the price set’s Point treatment, compared above; the entry wins on its item.
• If it is wrong: a price change in Doc Item Maintenance can change a loyalty reward; points that never arrive, or expire on the day, become customer-service calls a month later.
• Pairs with: a scheduled expiry run, and a monthly look at the largest REWARD and REDEEM lines.

Read next: Reward Types, for how scheme points sit beside member pricing, the two other ways to spend points, and vouchers.