"Points plus Pay" option for Loyalty Points

[pauln]

Continuing the discussion from Tracking Promotions by Points:

[quote=“emre, post:1, topic:860, full:true”]
Hello. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create points based promotions.

• Upgrade to at least 4.1.27 version before starting this tutorial.
• If you have [Database Tools Module][1] you can simply use this import file for easily importing this configuration to your database. Points_Promotion.zip (1.6 KB) Please test it first on a safe environment before merging it to your production database.
• For the simplicity of this tutorial I’ve skipped Rule Mapping steps. After creating each rule, create a default mapping by adding a mapping line and leaving it unchanged.

Hello All

My next quest is to implement a Loyalty System as above but allow a “Points plus Pay Option” - whereas if Customer does not have enough points they can make the difference up with Cash, Credit or even Customer Account.

Some Notes:

1. I notice there is no Accounting setup for this when points are used for a promotional payment. Is that correct or do they use the traditional “Gift” Status?
2. I am considering moving the “Points” Automation Button to the Payments screen for better flow - anybody see an issue with this?
3. The system will use the mod 2-3 posts down to include a “Reward Amount” per product instead of issuing 1 point per quantity item. I had contemplated using a global setting parameter like traditional POS’s say “10%” of each transaction to avoid entering data for all products. I kind of like “full control” as emre’s method allows products to be exempt.
4. Now the big issue: I think I will need another automation button to convert “points to dollars” and then move the points to Customer ACCOUNT? What are other users thoughts on this?
   Note: Points accrued are just contained within a Custom Field so some how this needs to be monetized. By placing them to Customer Account then we have full Accounting at our finger tips.
5. With regards to (4) above, the monetized process needs to also have Accounting so the Venue can assess how much value has attributed to promotions something that is not in the tutorial.

I have also assessed the following links:

Custom Simple Loyalty Card Features

Actually setting up things just like SambaCard Tutorial is fine with me, but in my case, I don’t want to add new Entity Type. Instead I will use the existing Entity Type, Customers, to act like the SambaCard. It will waste time if I always need to register every customer who comes to my coffee shop as an entity. I can use a Ticket Tag to store the Customer Name for that purpose. So basically, I set up a simplified SambaCard feature. Here, I change the ‘Customers’ Entity Type into ‘Members’ just…

http://sambapos.org/wiki/doku.php/en/sambacard_tutorial

Both see the Points as an separate Account to the Customer. I would like to use the Points also like another Account or Wallet (yes I said it right there folks - private joke ). Therefore without using Entity Auto Linking or having to attach a Loyalty Card I should be able to use State Display to always show Points available to a Customer?

Points plus Pay is massive here in Aust. and most of the biggest Retailers and Airlines use it.
I welcome any thoughts, alternative thinking, or problems with what I am considering.
Heading for an early night (10.30pm) so look forward to any replied in the morning, thanks Paul