Loyalty Program Settings and Configuration

AccuArk includes a built-in loyalty program that rewards customers with points for their purchases. Points accumulate over time and can be redeemed for discounts on future sales. This guide covers how to enable the loyalty program, configure its core settings, and understand how those settings affect point earning and redemption across your business.

Enabling the Loyalty Program

To activate the loyalty program, navigate to Marketing > Loyalty > Settings. The settings page contains a master toggle at the top of the screen:

• Enable Loyalty Program — Turn this toggle ON to activate the loyalty system across all locations. When enabled, the POS will begin awarding points on qualifying sales and the Loyalty button will appear on the POS payment screen.
• When the toggle is OFF, no points are earned or redeemed. The Loyalty button is hidden from the POS interface, and existing point balances are preserved but frozen until the program is re-enabled.

Once the program is enabled, configure the settings described in the sections below before processing any sales to ensure points are calculated correctly from the start.

Points Per Dollar

The Points Per Dollar setting controls how many loyalty points a customer earns for each dollar they spend on a qualifying sale:

• Enter a whole number in the Points Per Dollar field. For example, setting this to 1 means the customer earns 1 point for every $1.00 spent. Setting it to 2 means 2 points per dollar.
• Points are calculated on the final qualifying amount of the invoice (see the EarnOnDiscountedAmount setting below for details on what constitutes the qualifying amount).
• Fractional points are not awarded. The system rounds down to the nearest whole number. For example, if the qualifying amount is $14.75 and the rate is 1 point per dollar, the customer earns 14 points.
• A higher Points Per Dollar value makes the program feel more rewarding to customers because they see larger point balances accumulate faster, even if the actual dollar value per point is lower.

Redemption Value Per Point

The Redemption Value Per Point setting determines the dollar value of each loyalty point when a customer redeems points for a discount:

• Enter a decimal dollar value. For example, setting this to $0.01 means each point is worth one cent. With this setting, 100 points would equal a $1.00 discount.
• Setting the value to $0.02 would make each point worth two cents, so 100 points would equal a $2.00 discount.
• The redemption value works together with Points Per Dollar to determine the effective reward rate. For example, at 1 point per dollar and $0.01 per point, a customer spending $100 earns 100 points worth $1.00 — a 1% reward rate. At 2 points per dollar and $0.01 per point, the same $100 purchase earns 200 points worth $2.00 — a 2% reward rate.
• Choose a redemption value that balances customer appeal with your profit margins. The combination of Points Per Dollar and Redemption Value Per Point gives you flexibility to create a program that feels generous without being costly.

Earn on Discounted Amount

The EarnOnDiscountedAmount setting controls whether loyalty points are calculated based on the discounted invoice total or the original pre-discount total:

• When ON — Points are earned based on the discounted invoice total. If a customer purchases $100 worth of goods but receives a $20 promotion discount, points are calculated on $80. This is the more conservative approach and prevents customers from earning full points on amounts they did not actually pay.
• When OFF — Points are earned based on the original pre-discount total. Using the same example, points would be calculated on the full $100 even though the customer only paid $80. This approach rewards the customer more generously and treats the promotion discount as a separate benefit from the loyalty program.

Choose the setting that aligns with your business philosophy. Most businesses use the ON setting (earn on the discounted amount) to keep the cost of the loyalty program predictable, but the OFF setting can be attractive if you want promotions and loyalty to stack as independent customer benefits.

Minimum Points to Redeem

The Minimum Points to Redeem setting establishes a floor that customers must reach before they can use their points for a discount:

• Enter a whole number representing the minimum point balance required. For example, setting this to 100 means a customer must have at least 100 points before the system allows them to redeem any points at all.
• If a customer has fewer points than the minimum, the Loyalty button on the POS will show their balance but will not allow redemption. The cashier will see a message indicating the customer has not yet reached the minimum threshold.
• The minimum threshold encourages customers to keep visiting and building their balance before they cash in, increasing repeat visits. It also prevents micro-redemptions (such as redeeming 5 points for a $0.05 discount) that add operational overhead with minimal customer benefit.
• Set the minimum to a level that represents a meaningful discount. If your redemption value is $0.01 per point, a minimum of 100 points means the customer must accumulate at least $1.00 in rewards before redeeming, which is a reasonable threshold for most retail environments.

Maximum Redemption Per Transaction

The Maximum Redemption Per Transaction setting caps the number of points that can be redeemed in a single sale:

• Enter a whole number. For example, setting this to 5000 means a customer can redeem no more than 5,000 points on any one invoice, regardless of their total balance.
• This cap protects your business from large, unexpected loyalty payouts. A customer with 50,000 points accumulated over years cannot drain all of them on a single high-value transaction.
• If a customer wants to redeem more than the cap, they can use the maximum allowed amount on the current transaction and redeem additional points on future purchases.
• Setting this to a very high number effectively removes the cap. Setting it to zero or leaving it blank disables the limit entirely, allowing unlimited redemption per transaction.
• Consider your average transaction value when setting this cap. A reasonable cap might be enough points to cover 50% or 75% of the average invoice, ensuring the customer still pays a portion out of pocket.

What Qualifies for Points

Not every transaction earns loyalty points. The following conditions must be met for a sale to qualify:

• Completed invoice — The invoice must be finalized (paid in full). Draft invoices, voided invoices, and invoices in progress do not earn points.
• Customer record attached — The invoice must have a customer record linked to it. Anonymous sales (walk-in customers without a profile) do not earn points because there is no loyalty account to credit. Cashiers should make it a habit to attach the customer record before finalizing the sale.

If a sale meets both conditions, points are calculated and awarded automatically. No manual intervention is required.

When Points Are Calculated

Loyalty points are awarded after the invoice is finalized. This means:

• Points appear in the customer's loyalty account only after the payment is completed and the invoice status changes to finalized.
• Points are not awarded in real time as items are scanned. The calculation happens at the end of the transaction.
• If an invoice is voided after finalization, the points that were awarded on that invoice are not automatically reversed (use the manual adjustment or refund clawback process described in the Loyalty Points Earning and Tiers article).

Changes Apply to Future Transactions Only

Any changes you make to loyalty settings take effect on future transactions only. They are not applied retroactively to past sales:

• If you change Points Per Dollar from 1 to 2, customers will earn 2 points per dollar on their next purchase, but their previously earned points are not recalculated.
• If you change the Minimum Points to Redeem from 100 to 200, customers who previously redeemed at 100 points are not affected, but the new threshold applies going forward.
• If you change the Redemption Value Per Point, existing point balances retain their new per-point value at redemption time, since the value is calculated when points are redeemed, not when they are earned.

This forward-only approach ensures consistency and prevents confusion. If you need to make significant changes to the program, consider communicating the changes to customers in advance so they can plan their redemptions accordingly.

What to Read Next

• Loyalty Points Earning and Tiers — Learn about the tier structure (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum), tier-based multipliers, manual point adjustments, and points reversal on refunds.
• Redeeming Loyalty Points at the POS — Step-by-step guide for cashiers on applying loyalty point redemptions during a sale, including stacking rules with promotions and coupons.