Overview
Virtual Terminal is a mobile responsive application designed to record stored value transactions (gift cards, loyalty rewards, memberships, comps etc.) directly from web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer) from any device including PCs, tablets and phones. Virtual Terminal does NOT integrate with your POS system in any way. It’s a stand-alone application connected to your merchant account and synched with your customer database. Many operators use Virtual Terminal exclusively to run their stored value program. Other operators use Virtual Terminal to make adjustments to patron balances or to process other transaction types (i.e., Void/Credit, Memberships) that are not available on a POS certified terminal. The rules of your stored value rewards program are configured in the back office from SETTINGS> Rewards Parameters. Only users with Administrator security clearance can update these settings.
Users with Administrator or Manager security clearance can launch Virtual Terminal from the back office by tapping Virtual Terminal button or link anytime. However, users with Clerk clearance as defined in SETTINGS> Users page will login directly to Virtual Terminal with no ability to access the rest of the back office.
If enabled, the Clerk ID prompt is the very first screen that displays when launching Virtual Terminal which is used to identify which employee processes which transaction. Enter a valid Clerk ID to advance. See Enabling Clerk IDs for more guidance on this topic.
At the Swipe Card prompt you have a few choices to identify the customer. You can EITHER: swipe or hand-key an existing gift card, rewards card, or combo gift/rewards card (if applicable) using a compatible USB card swiper connected to a PC or laptop. Alternatively, on the loyalty side, you can lookup customers by entering the patron’s unique 10 digit mobile phone number OR use the Patron Search button to look up the customer by their name. If running a card-less loyalty program, you will always do the lookup by mobile phone number or Patron Search to lookup by name.
At the next screen you will see available Gift and/or Rewards balances on the upper left side of the screen and buttons on the right. If you are accessing a loyalty profile then you will also see additional data display in the lower left margin including the customer’s name, email, birthday and possibly other attributes such as fundraising affiliation or membership status.
Each rewards transaction starts by tapping the Sale button in order to record the amount of money spent by the customer.
Enter the sale amount spent by the customer in the Amount field. For example, if the customer’s sales ticket is $34.21 then enter 34.21 in the Amount field using the touch keypad or enter the digits on the keyboard. Remember, the Virtual Terminal is not integrated with your POS system. It does not track sales tax or tips so it’s up to each operator to enter the total post tax sales amount or the pre-tax subtotal. We recommend entering the post tax ‘post everything’ sales amount to keep your reconciliation easier (plus avoid some customers complaining on being short-changed). The incremental difference in rewards customers earn between post tax and pre-tax has negligible economic impact to your business.
Now this part is important. If the intention is to issue rewards to customers without redeeming any value from the Gift and/or Rewards Balance then leave the Redeem field blank and tap Confirm to advance. Leaving the Redeem field blank will exclusively issue rewards to customers without withdrawing value from their balance(s). Although we don’t use “points” in our system for transparency reasons, many people view this type of function as an “Add Points” transaction. Customers are receiving rewards or credit toward future rewards based on the settings applied in SETTINGS> Rewards Parameters as configured in the back office. A reward configuration might be 5% instant cash back rewards (Percent) or $5 reward for every $50 spent (Milestone). If issuing rewards to customers only, proceed to Step 7. If withdrawing the customer’s balance(s) toward their sale proceed to Step 6.
When customers wish to redeem available rewards toward their bill enter the amount to redeem in the Redeem field as shown below. Notice in this transaction the sale amount is still recorded in the Amount field with the amount to redeem recorded in the Redeem field. Both fields need to be entered (Amount and Redeem) when processing a redemption.
If the sale amount entered is LESS than the redeem amount, the system will return an error by default (redeem amount cannot exceed the sale).
If the sale amount is identical to the redeem amount, clerks still need to record the sale amount to match the redeem amount as follows:
Amount: $10.00
Redeem: $10.00
Always enter the sale amount in the Amount field to match the ticket total to ensure proper rewards calculation. By default, the system redeems the patron’s available Gift Balance FIRST followed by the patron’s available Rewards Balance NEXT, which is only applicable for operators that circulate combo Gift/Rewards cards where both balances are present. Contact Technical Support to request adjustments to default settings.
Tap Confirm and clerks will see a ‘before and after’ snapshot on screen. This confirmation screen gives clerks an opportunity to review the details before finalizing the transaction. When selecting Finalize, the transaction is officially pushed live in real-time. In this example screen shot, the customer’s sale ticket was $34.21 with a $10 reward redemption. This particular patron (Jake Testsmith) has special elite status. He’s a PRIME GOLD member and is entitled to 20% cash back rewards on all sales whereas non-PRIME GOLD members only receive 10%. Therefore, his earned reward is calculated as follows:
$34.21 Sale LESS $10.00 Reward = $24.21 Remitted (New Money)
$24.21 x 20% Cash Back Rewards = $4.84 Earned Reward
New money really means Sale Amount LESS Redeem Amount. For example, if the customer spent $20 and redeemed $5, then the customer really spent $15 in new money. The system rewards on new money so if an operator is issuing 10% cash back rewards (Percent method) on this hypothetical transaction the patron would earn $1.50 reward as follows:
$20 Sale LESS $5 Redemption = $15 in New Money
$15 Remitted Amount x 10% Reward = $1.50 Earned Reward
We refer to NEW money spent as a Remittance. When you see “Remitted” on screen/receipt it means the customer owes you this much money in cash/credit card after redemptions lowered the total bill.
Another important training reminder is let the system do all the math for clerks. Clerks should never need to do any math in their heads to calculate rewards issued unless processing an ad hoc adjustment for some reason to correct a previous mistake. The Confirm screen shows all the calculations being processed behind the scenes. It considers the patron’s membership status (if applicable), the rewards this customer is entitled and calculates the proper rewards issuance automatically.
When the transaction looks good on screen, tap Finalize and the transaction is pushed live. This action also generates a Thank You Note email and/or text message reporting current balances if enabled in Marketing> Automated Promotions> Thank You Note.
All gift card and/or loyalty transactions instantly display in real time on the REPORTING> Reconciliation Report inside your back-office account. This report details all stored value transaction types, including sales, rewards issued, rewards redeemed, gift cards loaded, gift cards redeemed, voids and membership transactions. A copy of the previous day’s transactions from the Reconciliation report are automatically emailed to authorized users on a daily basis for audit trail reporting and internal control monitoring. This email notification is controlled from SETTINGS> Users> Edit.
Summary of Stored Value Calculation Rules
By default, when using a combination gift and rewards card with available gift and reward balances, the system withdraws redemptions from the Gift Balance FIRST followed by the Reward balance NEXT. If you prefer an alternate configuration to this default setting, contact Technical Support for assistance. This rule is N/A for operators who circulate separate gift cards from their loyalty program since only gift value is withdrawn on a redemption in this context.
Rewards are calculated on the remitted amount (new money spent) as follows: Sales Amount LESS Redeem Amount = Remitted Amount. Remitted Amount x Reward Ratio = Earned Reward for percent configured rewards programs. The Remitted Amount reduces the spending threshold to achieve the next reward for milestone reward configured programs.
For operators running a percent based rewards configuration (instant cash back rewards) you can set bonus reward rule overrides on certain times of the day or days of the week (e.g., Double Rewards Mondays, Triple Rewards Happy Hours 4 to 7pm) from MARKETING> Automated Promotions> Day of the Week Reward Multipliers. This feature is not available to operators running milestone reward configuration.
Reward calculations for patrons affiliated with a specific membership classes are configured in SETTINGS> Rewards Parameters.
For operators who use the Fundraising module to track sales and donations from patrons affiliated with a local non profit organization, donations accrue on the remitted amount (NEW MONEY) just like rewards.
This article covers how to issue new rewards to patrons and redeem rewards (or gift value) through the Virtual Terminal (web browser).
Overview
Virtual Terminal is a mobile responsive application designed to record stored value transactions (gift cards, loyalty rewards, memberships, comps etc.) directly from web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer) from any device including PCs, tablets and phones. Virtual Terminal does NOT integrate with your POS system in any way. It’s a stand-alone application connected to your merchant account and synched with your customer database. Many operators use Virtual Terminal exclusively to run their stored value program. Other operators use Virtual Terminal to make adjustments to patron balances or to process other transaction types (i.e., Void/Credit, Memberships) that are not available on a POS certified terminal. The rules of your stored value rewards program are configured in the back office from SETTINGS> Rewards Parameters. Only users with Administrator security clearance can update these settings.
Users with Administrator or Manager security clearance can launch Virtual Terminal from the back office by tapping Virtual Terminal button or link anytime. However, users with Clerk clearance as defined in SETTINGS> Users page will login directly to Virtual Terminal with no ability to access the rest of the back office.
If enabled, the Clerk ID prompt is the very first screen that displays when launching Virtual Terminal which is used to identify which employee processes which transaction. Enter a valid Clerk ID to advance. See Enabling Clerk IDs for more guidance on this topic.
At the Swipe Card prompt you have a few choices to identify the customer. You can EITHER: swipe or hand-key an existing gift card, rewards card, or combo gift/rewards card (if applicable) using a compatible USB card swiper connected to a PC or laptop. Alternatively, on the loyalty side, you can lookup customers by entering the patron’s unique 10 digit mobile phone number OR use the Patron Search button to look up the customer by their name. If running a card-less loyalty program, you will always do the lookup by mobile phone number or Patron Search to lookup by name.
At the next screen you will see available Gift and/or Rewards balances on the upper left side of the screen and buttons on the right. If you are accessing a loyalty profile then you will also see additional data display in the lower left margin including the customer’s name, email, birthday and possibly other attributes such as fundraising affiliation or membership status.
Each rewards transaction starts by tapping the Sale button in order to record the amount of money spent by the customer.
Enter the sale amount spent by the customer in the Amount field. For example, if the customer’s sales ticket is $34.21 then enter 34.21 in the Amount field using the touch keypad or enter the digits on the keyboard. Remember, the Virtual Terminal is not integrated with your POS system. It does not track sales tax or tips so it’s up to each operator to enter the total post tax sales amount or the pre-tax subtotal. We recommend entering the post tax ‘post everything’ sales amount to keep your reconciliation easier (plus avoid some customers complaining on being short-changed). The incremental difference in rewards customers earn between post tax and pre-tax has negligible economic impact to your business.
Now this part is important. If the intention is to issue rewards to customers without redeeming any value from the Gift and/or Rewards Balance then leave the Redeem field blank and tap Confirm to advance. Leaving the Redeem field blank will exclusively issue rewards to customers without withdrawing value from their balance(s). Although we don’t use “points” in our system for transparency reasons, many people view this type of function as an “Add Points” transaction. Customers are receiving rewards or credit toward future rewards based on the settings applied in SETTINGS> Rewards Parameters as configured in the back office. A reward configuration might be 5% instant cash back rewards (Percent) or $5 reward for every $50 spent (Milestone). If issuing rewards to customers only, proceed to Step 7. If withdrawing the customer’s balance(s) toward their sale proceed to Step 6.
When customers wish to redeem available rewards toward their bill enter the amount to redeem in the Redeem field as shown below. Notice in this transaction the sale amount is still recorded in the Amount field with the amount to redeem recorded in the Redeem field. Both fields need to be entered (Amount and Redeem) when processing a redemption.
If the sale amount entered is LESS than the redeem amount, the system will return an error by default (redeem amount cannot exceed the sale).
If the sale amount is identical to the redeem amount, clerks still need to record the sale amount to match the redeem amount as follows:
Amount: $10.00
Redeem: $10.00
Always enter the sale amount in the Amount field to match the ticket total to ensure proper rewards calculation. By default, the system redeems the patron’s available Gift Balance FIRST followed by the patron’s available Rewards Balance NEXT, which is only applicable for operators that circulate combo Gift/Rewards cards where both balances are present. Contact Technical Support to request adjustments to default settings.
Tap Confirm and clerks will see a ‘before and after’ snapshot on screen. This confirmation screen gives clerks an opportunity to review the details before finalizing the transaction. When selecting Finalize, the transaction is officially pushed live in real-time. In this example screen shot, the customer’s sale ticket was $34.21 with a $10 reward redemption. This particular patron (Jake Testsmith) has special elite status. He’s a PRIME GOLD member and is entitled to 20% cash back rewards on all sales whereas non-PRIME GOLD members only receive 10%. Therefore, his earned reward is calculated as follows:
$34.21 Sale LESS $10.00 Reward = $24.21 Remitted (New Money)
$24.21 x 20% Cash Back Rewards = $4.84 Earned Reward
New money really means Sale Amount LESS Redeem Amount. For example, if the customer spent $20 and redeemed $5, then the customer really spent $15 in new money. The system rewards on new money so if an operator is issuing 10% cash back rewards (Percent method) on this hypothetical transaction the patron would earn $1.50 reward as follows:
$20 Sale LESS $5 Redemption = $15 in New Money
$15 Remitted Amount x 10% Reward = $1.50 Earned Reward
We refer to NEW money spent as a Remittance. When you see “Remitted” on screen/receipt it means the customer owes you this much money in cash/credit card after redemptions lowered the total bill.
Another important training reminder is let the system do all the math for clerks. Clerks should never need to do any math in their heads to calculate rewards issued unless processing an ad hoc adjustment for some reason to correct a previous mistake. The Confirm screen shows all the calculations being processed behind the scenes. It considers the patron’s membership status (if applicable), the rewards this customer is entitled and calculates the proper rewards issuance automatically.
When the transaction looks good on screen, tap Finalize and the transaction is pushed live. This action also generates a Thank You Note email and/or text message reporting current balances if enabled in Marketing> Automated Promotions> Thank You Note.
All gift card and/or loyalty transactions instantly display in real time on the REPORTING> Reconciliation Report inside your back-office account. This report details all stored value transaction types, including sales, rewards issued, rewards redeemed, gift cards loaded, gift cards redeemed, voids and membership transactions. A copy of the previous day’s transactions from the Reconciliation report are automatically emailed to authorized users on a daily basis for audit trail reporting and internal control monitoring. This email notification is controlled from SETTINGS> Users> Edit.
Summary of Stored Value Calculation Rules
By default, when using a combination gift and rewards card with available gift and reward balances, the system withdraws redemptions from the Gift Balance FIRST followed by the Reward balance NEXT. If you prefer an alternate configuration to this default setting, contact Technical Support for assistance. This rule is N/A for operators who circulate separate gift cards from their loyalty program since only gift value is withdrawn on a redemption in this context.
Rewards are calculated on the remitted amount (new money spent) as follows: Sales Amount LESS Redeem Amount = Remitted Amount. Remitted Amount x Reward Ratio = Earned Reward for percent configured rewards programs. The Remitted Amount reduces the spending threshold to achieve the next reward for milestone reward configured programs.
For operators running a percent based rewards configuration (instant cash back rewards) you can set bonus reward rule overrides on certain times of the day or days of the week (e.g., Double Rewards Mondays, Triple Rewards Happy Hours 4 to 7pm) from MARKETING> Automated Promotions> Day of the Week Reward Multipliers. This feature is not available to operators running milestone reward configuration.
Reward calculations for patrons affiliated with a specific membership classes are configured in SETTINGS> Rewards Parameters.
For operators who use the Fundraising module to track sales and donations from patrons affiliated with a local non profit organization, donations accrue on the remitted amount (NEW MONEY) just like rewards.
