Bonus Fraud: How to Restrict Sellers' Rights and Protect Profits

Bonus fraud: how to configure the accounting program, restrict seller permissions, and protect store profit

A bonus discount system is a powerful tool for working with customers. It allows the store to keep in circulation funds that would otherwise simply be given to the customer as a regular discount, and also encourages the buyer to return regularly for new purchases in order to use accumulated bonuses. 

However, when implementing loyalty programs, business owners often face issues related to staff control. Entrepreneurs regularly ask automation specialists the following questions: «How can I make sure that issued cards actually reach customers and do not remain with cashiers?», «What should I do if sellers open cards for their relatives or acquaintances and take the bonuses for themselves?», «How can I prevent a situation where a cashier manually enters a card number without the customer being present?», and «How can I restrict staff permissions so they cannot arbitrarily change prices, discount percentages, or write off bonuses?». 

The answers to these questions lie in the correct configuration of access permissions and control tools in the accounting system.

Below is a comprehensive list of methods and settings that will help address entrepreneurs’ questions and protect store profit from dishonest actions.

1. Prohibiting manual entry of the discount card number

One of the most common schemes is when a seller memorizes a bonus card number — their own or an acquaintance’s — and enters it from the keyboard when serving customers who do not have their own card. As a result, bonuses from other people’s purchases end up in the pocket of a dishonest employee.

 Solution: in the program access settings (Settings - Options - Access), enable the checkbox «Prohibit the seller from entering the discount card number from the keyboard (scanner only)». This will limit the possibility of using «someone else’s» numbers, because identifying the customer and accruing bonuses will require the physical presence of the card.

2. Customer verification and confirmation of bonus write-off via SMS

To solve the issue of incorrect phone numbers and prevent bonuses from being written off without the real owner’s knowledge, the additional SMS verification feature is used.

 Solution: thanks to the «Discount card verification via SMS» option, when a customer wants to pay for goods with bonuses, the system sends a message with a unique code to their phone number. The seller will not be able to write off bonuses until this code is entered in the program. This tool also allows adding a customer to a sale simply by phone number by sending an SMS to confirm their identity, which completely prevents the use of third-party cards.

3. Restricting seller permissions to change prices, discounts, and view data

Sellers should not be able to manipulate prices and discounts in the receipt in order to keep the difference for themselves.

 Solution:

• Disable the permissions "Allowed to change the price according to the price list in a sale" and "Allowed to change the selling price in a sale" in the program user card.

• Enable the setting «Hide the Date of birth and Gender fields in the customer card» on the Settings - Options - Role tab - Customers form. This is done so that an employee cannot find out customers’ birthdays and use the customer card to apply birthday discounts for personal purposes through the Settings - Role settings mode.

• Restrict access to editing the customer list, allowing only the selection of existing cards if SMS verification is not used.

4. Blocking the deletion of goods from the receipt and controlling cancellations

Another scheme: a seller scans an item, tells the customer the amount, takes cash, but does not print the receipt. When the customer leaves, the seller simply deletes the item from the sale or cancels the entire receipt and keeps the money.

 Solution:

• Activate the setting «The seller cannot delete goods in a sale» on the Settings - Options - Access tab form. In this case, the seller will not be able to delete an incorrectly added item from the Sale form at all.

• If a complete ban is not suitable, you can configure mandatory entry of the reason for canceling an item from a drop-down list and scanning the badge of the responsible person (administrator) who confirms this action. To do this, on the Settings - Options - Access tab form, enable the settings "Register deletion of goods from a sale" and "Scan the responsible person’s badge".

5. Protection against return fraud

Fraud may occur when processing a return under someone else’s badge in order to misappropriate cash from the register.

 Solution: be sure to use the «Link the sale to the seller» setting and require badge scanning or password entry for every operation, including returns. Prohibit manual entry of the employee barcode by enabling the corresponding setting on the Settings - Options - Access tab form, so that it is impossible to enter a colleague’s code from the keyboard.

6. Economic limits for bonus payments

To prevent the bonus system from becoming unprofitable for the business, the owner must strictly regulate the economic limits of payment with points.

 Solution:

• In the discount card type settings, be sure to specify the «Maximum percentage of payment with bonuses» — for example, no more than 30% or 50% of the receipt amount. This will not allow the seller, even with the customer’s consent, to give away goods completely free of charge.

• In the discount card type settings, enable the parameter «In the sale, the presence of goods not paid for with bonuses is mandatory». This means that to use bonuses in the receipt, there must be at least one item paid for with real money.

7. Audit: user activity log

If there are suspicions about staff integrity, such as unusual 100% bonus accruals or suspicious cancellations, the owner can always use control tools.

 Solution: the program has the forms «File» - «User activity log», «File» - «Document change log», «Warehouse» - «Canceled goods from sales», «Analysis» - «Bonus movement analysis». Using the information in these forms, you can track user actions, find out under whose account the discount percentage for an item was set, determine who manually accrued bonuses, who canceled an item and when, and so on.

Summary:

Trade automation and the bonus system work for the benefit of the business only when the owner clearly separates access permissions. By configuring roles, prohibiting manual card entry, enabling SMS verification, and controlling receipt cancellations, you can reduce the number of seller-side fraud cases that may negatively affect your store’s profit.