Central Store Credit Tender
Central Store Credit is a special form of store credit that uses the Prism Centrals server to track transactions and gift card/credit balances in real time. Central store credit is a separate and distinct tender from regular store credit.
Each business has its own policies for giving store credit. A typical use case is for a customer to receive store credit (or central store credit) as change when returning merchandise or as compensation for an unsatisfactory shopping experience. Also, when closing an order that has an active deposit, the deposit amount will be returned as store credit or central store credit.
Configure Central Credit Preferences
Make sure you have enabled centrals and defined the centrals server. Refer to the following table for information about the available preference options for Central Store Credit.
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable | If selected, then central credit will be available as a tender at POS. Selecting this option enables the other central credit preferences. |
| Use entire balance if projected balance less than | This preference enables you to zero out a central credit if the projected balance is less than the amount entered here. For example, if the transaction will result in a balance of less than 0.25, the entire central credit balance will be used, rather than issuing a new credit for such a small amount. |
| Total negative balance permitted | This preference enables you to limit the amount by which a customer's central credit balance is allowed to go negative. If the transaction results in a negative balance that exceeds the value entered here, a prompt is displayed. |
| When tendering by Central Credit, restrict given tender to | This preference enables you to require change to be given in a specific tender. When tendering by central credit, users must use the tender selected here when giving change. |
| Offline Take Limit | Enter the upper limit for central credit transactions performed offline. Transactions with a Total above the entered Offline Limit will require authorization. |
| Purchase Limit | The number entered in this field limits the amount of central credit that can be purchased or given as change. |
| Suggest Central Credit as a tender when available | If this preference is selected, then when tendering a transaction that has a customer who has a positive central credit balance, a prompt will be displayed, asking if the customer wants to use the available store credit. |
Issue New Central Credit as Change
- Create a new transaction using normal procedures.
- Touch or click the Tender Transaction button.
- Take payment using the desired tender. If the taken amount exceeds the Amount Due, there will be a Give amount. This is the amount of change to give back to the customer. Select the tender type button and then select Store Credit.
- Touch or click the Give button.
- Print/update the transaction. The change amount is added to the customer's central credit balance.
Redeem Central Credit
- Start a new transaction and list the items being purchased.
- Touch or click the Tender Transaction button.
- If the customer has central credit available, a prompt is displayed. Select Yes to use the central credit. If there is a remaining amount due, select additional tenders until the transaction is balanced and then print/update.
Central Credit Preferences
Viewing Customer Credit Balance
- Use Customer Lookup to find and select the customer.
- Touch or click the Credit Detail tab.
- The Avail Store Credit field shows the amount of store credit available.
Purchase Store Credit
Use Customer Lookup to find and display the customer's record.
Click the Options button and select Purchase Credit.
In the Amount to Purchase field, enter the amount of store credit being purchased. The customer's Current Balance and New Balance are shown. Click Tender Transaction.
Tender the transaction and print/update.
Note: The store credit purchased by the customer is listed as change on the transaction form.
Resiliency
The Prism Resiliency Service facilitates the ability to create Central Credit and Central Gift Card transactions while offline. The Prism Resiliency Service starts/stops the PrismResiliencyServer.exe, which tracks and stores transactions made offline. When the system goes offline users can create Central Credit and Central Gift Card transactions up to the Offline Take Limit defined in preferences for each tender. See Chapter 31. Centrals - Offline Mode section.