Loyalty, Gift Cards, and Store Credits

Quasar provides three complementary tools for building customer retention and managing stored-value payments: Loyalty Points, Gift Cards, and Store Credits. All three tie into the Customer Master and the Tender system.

Loyalty Points

Loyalty points are earned when eligible customers make purchases. Points accumulate on the customer’s record and can be redeemed for discounts at the POS. However, setting a loyalty rate on items and subdepartments is not enough by itself — several pieces must be in place before points start accumulating.

What Triggers Point Accumulation

The full activation chain is:

1. Set Loyalty Rates on subdepartments and items — these define how many points each item earns, but do not by themselves cause points to accumulate
2. Create a Loyalty Discount in the Discount Master — set the Loyalty Points field to a non-zero value (the number of points required to redeem this discount)
3. Make the discount available to the customer — the customer must be either explicitly included in the discount’s limits or not excluded from them (see Eligibility below)
4. Identify the customer on the transaction — the customer must be selected at the POS before points can be earned or redeemed

Loyalty Earning Rates

When an eligible customer is identified on a transaction, Quasar multiplies the item’s loyalty rate by the sale amount to calculate points earned.

Customer Eligibility

A customer accumulates loyalty points only if they are included in at least one loyalty discount’s limits. This is controlled entirely through the Discount Master’s Limits tab:

• If the loyalty discount has no customer limits, then all customers earn points
• If you add a Customer include limit, only the listed customers earn points
• If you add a Customer Group include limit, only customers in that group earn points
• If you add a Customer exclude limit, the listed customers are excluded from earning points

Using Customer Groups for Loyalty

For most retailers, the most practical approach is to use Customer Groups to manage who earns points:

1. Create a Customer Group (e.g., “Loyalty Members”) in Sales → Customer Groups
2. Add customers to this group as they enrol in the loyalty program
3. On the loyalty discount, add a Customer Group include limit pointing to “Loyalty Members”

This way, adding or removing a customer from the group instantly controls whether they earn and can redeem points — without editing individual discount limits for each customer.

Point Adjustments

The Customer Master maintains a list of manual point adjustments. Each adjustment records a date, reason, and point amount (positive or negative). Manual adjustments allow you to:

• Correct point totals after data issues
• Award bonus points for promotions or events
• Deduct points for non-purchase redemptions

Redeeming Points

Points are redeemed through the loyalty discount itself. The Loyalty Points field on the discount specifies how many points the customer must have accumulated to apply the discount. At the POS, the cashier applies the discount; Quasar verifies the customer has enough points and deducts them automatically.

Patronage Groups (Co-operative Dividends)

Patronage Groups (Sales → Patronage Groups) organize customers and vendors into co-operative membership groups for periodic dividend distribution.

Patronage groups are used with Patronage Worksheets to calculate and distribute dividends based on total member purchases during a fiscal period. Each customer is assigned to a patronage group on their Customer Master record.

Gift Cards

Gift cards are physical or virtual cards that customers purchase, load with a dollar value, and use as payment at the POS. In Quasar, a gift card is an item combined with a tender type. Gift cards must first be purchased into inventory (to assign serial numbers), then sold to customers to activate them.

Setting Up Gift Cards

1. Create the Gift Card Item — on the Item Master, check Gift Card? on the Main tab. Enable Track Serial from Purchase? so each card receives a serial number when received into inventory. Also enable Track Serial from Sale? so the serial is captured at the POS when the card is sold. Optionally check Require PIN? to enable PIN security on this card (see PIN Security below).
2. Create a Gift Card Tender — in Tender Master, create a tender with type Gift Card. On the Gift Card Items list, link every gift card item that can be redeemed through this tender. You will typically have multiple gift card items — one per denomination — all linked to the same tender. For example:
     • Item 805 — $20.00 Gift Card
     • Item 806 — $50.00 Gift Card
     • Item 807 — $100.00 Gift Card
   Each is a separate item with its own price, inventory, and serial number range, but all share the single Gift Card tender for redemption.

Purchasing Gift Cards (Assigning Serial Numbers)

Before a gift card can be sold, it must be received into inventory through a Vendor Invoice (Purchasing → Vendor Invoices). When you add the gift card item to a vendor invoice and enter a quantity, Quasar opens the Add Serial dialog because the item has serial tracking enabled on purchase.

The Add Serial dialog provides two ways to assign serial numbers:

For example, purchasing 100 gift cards and generating serials from 10001 to 10100 with prefix “GC” creates cards GC10001 through GC10100 in one step.

Multi-Store Distribution

Gift cards sold at one store can be redeemed at any store in a multi-store environment — the balance is tracked globally across all stores. However, a card must be physically present at a store to be sold. If you purchase all gift cards at one central store, use Item Transfers (Inventory → Item Transfers) to distribute them:

1. Create a Transfer Out at the central store — open Item Transfer, set your current store as the From store and the destination as the To Store
2. Add the gift card item — enter the quantity to transfer. Quasar opens the serial selection dialog showing all available serials at the sending store. Select the cards to transfer.
3. Save the Transfer — the status shows “In-transit”. The selected serials are committed and can no longer be sold at the sending store.
4. Receive the Transfer at the destination store — open the same transfer (or use Receive Transfer button) at the destination store. This posts the receiving side, moving the gift cards into the destination store’s inventory.
5. The cards are now available for sale at the destination store.

Selling Gift Cards at the POS

At the POS, sell the gift card item like any other item. The cashier enters the dollar amount (the card’s initial value) and scans or types the serial number. This marks the card as sold and sets its initial balance.

Accepting Gift Cards as Payment

When a customer pays with a gift card, the cashier selects the Gift Card tender, scans the card, and the system deducts from the card’s balance. If the balance is insufficient, the remaining amount can be split across other tender types.

Gift Card Top-Up

To add value to an existing gift card, use the Tender Adjustment (Sales → Tender Adjustments). When you select a Gift Card tender, Quasar prompts for the card number, validates it exists and has been sold, then shows the current balance. Enter a negative amount to add funds to the card. The dialog shows the old balance and new balance in real time.

PIN Security

When Require PIN? is checked on a gift card or store credit item in the Item Master, Quasar adds an extra layer of security to protect the card’s balance from unauthorized use.

How It Works

Tracking and History Screens

On the Gift Card / Store Credit History screen, summary totals show Beginning Balance, Total In, Total Out, and End Balance. Double-click any transaction to open the original document.

Store Credits

Store credits work identically to gift cards but are typically issued as a result of a customer return rather than purchased. The key differences:

Setting Up Store Credits

1. Create a Store Credit item — check Store Credit? and enable serial tracking. Optionally check Require PIN? to enable PIN security (see PIN Security above)
2. Create a Store Credit tender in Tender Master with type Store Credit
3. When processing a return, issue the store credit item with a serial number and the refund amount. If Require PIN is enabled, a 4-digit PIN is automatically generated and printed on the return receipt
4. The customer can then use the store credit serial number as payment on future transactions (entering the PIN if required)

Tender Types Summary

The Tender Master supports these tender types, including the stored-value types covered in this chapter:

Loyalty and Retention Checklist

1. Set Loyalty Rate on subdepartments and items to control point earning
2. Create loyalty redemption discounts with a Loyalty Points requirement
3. Set up Patronage Groups for co-operative dividend programs
4. Create Gift Card items with serial tracking and a Gift Card tender type
5. Create Store Credit items with serial tracking and a Store Credit tender type
6. Enable Require PIN? on gift card or store credit items for balance protection
7. Use Tender Adjustments to top up gift cards and store credits
8. Monitor balances with the Gift Card / Store Credit History screen