Retail businesses actively use loyalty tools — gift certificates and bonus systems that help retain customers, encourage repeat visits, and increase the average receipt.
However, when implementing these tools, entrepreneurs often face accounting setup questions to avoid financial losses and confusion at the checkout.
Entrepreneurs most often ask specialists the following questions: how to correctly configure the simultaneous use of personal discounts and certificates, why a customer receives bonuses both for purchasing a certificate and for using it later, how to make a birthday discount apply only to the additional payment amount, and how to avoid calculating a seller’s salary for the part of the receipt that was actually paid with virtual bonuses.
Below is a comprehensive guide to the correct setup of Torgsoft that will help you protect your profit.
1. Choosing the right type of gift certificate
Torgsoft allows you to work with gift certificates in three modes: «as money», «as a product», and «as a deferred discount». Choosing the right mode is critically important for fiscalization and bonus accounting:
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As a product. When this type of certificate is sold, an actual sale is created, and its final price is formed taking into account current promotions and customer discounts. The amount of goods paid for with this certificate is not included in the amount used to calculate the discount when the certificate is redeemed, but the purchase of the certificate itself is included.
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As a deferred discount. This mode is strongly recommended when using a software ECR (pECR). In this case, when the certificate is applied to goods in a sale, a discount is applied equal to the face value of the certificate. The fiscal receipt is printed only for the amount that the customer actually pays in cash or by card, which prevents discrepancies with the tax authorities.
2. How to avoid double bonus accrual
A common issue occurs when a gift certificate is sold as a product. A bonus customer receives bonus accrual for purchasing the certificate. If the same customer later buys goods and pays with this certificate, the system should not accrue bonuses based on the full value of the new product.
Torgsoft includes the following algorithm: when a gift certificate is used as a product, bonuses for the current sale are accrued to the customer not from the full receipt amount, but only from the amount actually paid by the customer, that is, the additional payment amount excluding the certificate. This eliminates duplicated bonuses and protects you from unjustified distribution of virtual money.
In addition, when paying for goods with bonuses, you can enable the condition «The sale must include a product not paid for with bonuses» in the discount card type settings. This means that to apply bonuses in a receipt, there must be at least one item for which the customer pays with real money.
3. Protection against the «stacking» of discounts and certificates
Another risk of losses occurs when a customer has a high personal discount or birthday discount and applies a certificate at the same time.
Example of the problem:
A product costs UAH 1000. The customer has a certificate for UAH 500 and a 50% discount. If the discount is applied to the initial amount (1000 - 50% = UAH 500), and then the customer uses a certificate for UAH 500, the store will not receive any money.
Solution:
In the menu item Settings - Parameters - Additional functions - Gift certificates, the owner can specify which discounts exactly — fixed, cumulative, or birthday discounts — do not apply to the amount paid with a certificate. Thanks to this, the correct calculation will be as follows: the certificate amount (UAH 500) is deducted from UAH 1000, and only the remaining amount (UAH 500) receives the customer’s 50% discount. The customer will have UAH 250 left to pay.
4. Minimum price control and discount restrictions
To prevent the store from selling goods at a loss due to excessive bonus accumulation or promotions, you need to configure system restrictions:
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Maximum discount by product type. For goods with a low markup, for example 3-5%, a 10% customer discount will make the sale unprofitable. In the «Product type» card, set a limit in the «Maximum discount (%)» field. Even if the customer has 20% in bonuses, the program will not allow the system to exceed the threshold you set for this product category. You can also enter «0», in which case discounts will not apply to this product type at all.
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Control of sales below cost. In the role settings for sellers or in the general parameters, it is advisable to choose the action «Ask about selling below cost» or prohibit such sales entirely by selling at cost price plus the minimum product markup. This will block cases where the bonus amount lowers the price below the purchase cost.
5. How not to pay sellers salary for bonus payments
If sellers’ salaries are calculated as a percentage of revenue, it is important not to pay them twice: first when the customer bought the product and received bonuses, and a second time when the customer comes back and pays with these virtual bonuses.
To do this, in the module «Salary calculation - Settings - Retail outlet», be sure to enable the switch «Deduct bonuses that were accrued to the customer». Thanks to this, only the amount that actually came into the cash register as real money will be included in the seller’s sales plan, while the amount covered by bonuses will be deducted.
Summary: checklist for the owner
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Sell certificates «as a deferred discount» if you use fiscal registrars (pECR) to avoid errors in tax reports.
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Configure certificate parameters so that the customer discount applies only to the additional payment amount.
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Be sure to set the maximum discount percentage for high-demand goods and goods with low margins.
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Activate the «Deduct bonuses» function when calculating salaries to pay sellers percentages only from real money received at the checkout.
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