Assigning Points Programs to Customers

Your customers can earn points each time they purchase products, products within price lines, or products within sell groups that are listed in the points program. You set the target minimum number of points the customer needs to receive a reward and the number of points the system counts per dollar amount spent. You can save a customer's points program as a template and reuse the template for other customers.

System Setup for Points

To offer a points program to your customers, first define customer points programs in the Valid Customer Points Programs control maintenance record, and then assign the CUST.POINTS authorization key to users who will access and edit the Customer Points Maintenance screen and run the Customer Points Report. Then, use the Customer Points Maintenance screen to set up points programs for each customer who can participate in the program.

Product- and Price Line-specific Points

If you have products or price lines that you offer in multiple points programs, you can assign points programs to these products and price lines to keep points allocations consistent among the different points programs. For example, encourage customers to qualify for a chance to earn a reward when they accrue 1000 points from buying products in your ABC price line. You can set the system to calculate one point for each dollar spent in that price line. At this rate, a customer must spend $1000 on products in the ABC price line to accrue 1000 points. You are not required to assign a points program to price lines or products to use the customer points program.

When you define points programs at the product, price line, and customer levels, the system applies the product-level points criteria first, if any, and then the system applies the price line-level points criteria. If you enter no points criteria at the product or price line level, the system applies the points criteria entered on the Customer Points Maintenance screen. If you enter no points criteria on the Customer Points Maintenance screen, the customer does not earn points.

Qualifying Target

You can add another level to the points program by creating a list of products, price lines, or sell groups for a qualifying target within a customer's points program or template. A customer's points program can include numerous products or groups of products, some listed as qualifying and others as not qualifying. All points accrued from buying products in the points program – qualifying or not – accrue toward the minimum target, but only those products defined as qualifying accrue towards the qualifying target. Offering qualifying products requires customers to buy a minimum amount of these products, based on what you set as the qualifying target. For example, if you set the minimum target at 100 for products in a sell group, and set the qualifying target at 50 for specific products within that sell group, the customer must accrue 1oo points to receive the points program reward, and 50 of those points must come from buying qualifying products.

To assign points programs to a customer:

From the Files menu, select Customer to display the Customer Maintenance screen.
In the Customer field, enter the bill-to customer ID for whom points will accrue to display the customer record. If you assign points programs to ship-to only customers, those points will accrue only for the associated bill-to customers.
Use the Add'l Info hot key, and then the Points Maint hot key to display the Customer Point Maintenance screen.

The screen displays the customer name.

Complete the following fields, as needed:

Field	Description
Program	Press F10 and select a points program. You can assign as many points programs as you want to a customer, but each points program is maintained separately using the Customer Point Maintenance screen. If you assign points programs to ship-to only customers, those points will accrue only for the associated bill-to customers. Points programs are defined in the Valid Customer Points Programs control maintenance record. Note: If a name displays in the Template field, you must delete the template name before you can access the Program field.
Template	Press F10 and select a previously saved template. Use points templates when you plan to assign the same points program, all with the same product or group criteria, to multiple customers. Create a points template by first creating a customer points program, and then using the Save Template hot key. Note: This screen allows either an entry in the Program field, or an entry in the Template field, not in both.
Minimum Target	Enter the lowest number of points that the customer must accrue to earn the points program's reward. The customer earns points based on the dollar amount spent for any products listed in the points program. The system determines actual point value by the settings for each product, as found on the Product Maintenance, Price Line Maintenance, or Customer Point Maintenance screens. Note: If you save this customer points setup as a template and later change a target points value, the new value is not saved in the original template. Use the Save Template hot key to save the information on a new template to reuse the new target value, or save the information using the existing template name to update the original template.
Qualifying Target	Enter the lowest number of points the customer must accrue to qualify for the points program. Use this field only if you entered a value in the Minimum Target field, and want to add a product or group of products that the customer must purchase in order to qualify for the program reward. For example, if you enter 50 in the Minimum Target field and 10 in the Qualifying Target field, the customer must accrue a minimum of 50 points from buying products in this points program to receive the points program reward, of which 10 points out of the 50 must come from buying products in this points program that are listed as qualifying. Qualifying points also count toward the program's minimum target. Define the customer points program's qualifying and non-qualifying products by entering Y or N in this screen's Qual field.
ALL, Desc,/PrcLine, !Group	Enter products, price lines, or sell groups into the points program, as follows: All – Enter ALL to allow the customer to earn points for all products in the product file. Desc – Enter a product description if the customer is allowed to earn points for purchasing that product. Type a period (.) followed by the product ID or catalog number. /Prc Line – Enter a price line to allow the customer to earn points for purchasing products in that price line. Type a slash ( / ) followed by the price line, or a slash followed by a partial name to display a list of price lines. !Group – Enter a sell group to allow the customer to earn points for purchasing products in that sell group. Type an exclamation point ( ! ), or an exclamation point followed by a partial name to display a list of price groups. If a product is associated with more that one line item on the screen: A product overrides the a price line to which that product belongs. A price line overrides a sell group to which that price line belongs. A sell group overrides ALL. If you enter two line items for the same product, price line, or sell group, the system uses the line item whose effective date is closest to the current date and has not expired. The system indicates that the numbers entered in the Stk and Dir fields are multipliers or percentages used to calculate points earned.
T (type)	Enter one of the following to define whether the value in the Stk or Dir fields is a multiplier or a percentage. An asterisk (*) – Multiplies the number in the Stk and Dir fields by a product's dollar amount to determine the number of points earned for that purchase. For example, if a customer buys two of the same stock product at $10.00 each, and the Stk field displays 1.0, the customer earns 20 points. If you select this option, you can enter one decimal point in the Stk and Dir fields. For example, enter .5 in the Stk or Dir so that the customer earns half a point for each dollar spent. So, for a $10 purchase, the customer earns 5 points. A percent sign (%) – Multiplies the number in the Stk and Dir fields as a percentage of a product's dollar amount to determine the number of points earned for that purchase. For example, for an entry of 20 in the Stk field, the system multiplies 0.2 times the dollar value, so that the customer earns four points after purchasing $20.00 worth of product. Entries for percentages must be whole numbers; no decimal points are allowed.
Stk	Enter the value to multiply by the dollar amount of stock products purchased from the points program. When a customer buys a stock product, the system multiplies this number or percentage by the dollar amount to calculate the number of points the customer earns. Entries in the T field define whether the system calculates whole numbers (*) or percentages (%).
Dir	Enter the value to multiply by the dollar amount of direct sales products purchased from the points program. When a customer buys a direct sale product, the system multiplies this number or percentage by the dollar amount to calculate the number of points the customer earns. Entries in the T field define whether the system calculates whole numbers (*) or percentages (%).
Ovrd	Enter one of the following to determine if the system overrides points settings at the product or price line level: Y – The system uses the calculation method from Customer Point Maintenance screen, regardless of whether a points calculation method was entered at the product or price line level. N – If you defined points at the product or price line level, the system uses the calculation method entered at the product level first, and then if a calculation method was not entered at the product level, the system uses the calculation method entered at the price line level. If no calculation method was entered at the product or price line level, the system uses the calculation method entered on the Customer Points Maintenance screen. If no calculation method was entered for the product, price line, or customer level, the customer does not earn points.
Qual	Enter Y for the line item if this product, price line, or sell group contributes as one of this point program's qualifying items; otherwise, enter N. To use this option, you must enter a value in the Minimum Target field and in the Qualifying Target field. Set up qualifying items to require sales of specific products.
Effect	Enter the date the customer can begin accruing points for buying the products on this line item. If no date is entered in this field, the system considers the points program valid from the time you started using Eclipse.
Expire	Enter the date past which the customer can no longer accrue points for buying the products on this line item. If no date is entered in this field, the customer can accrue points indefinitely for buying products in the line.

Use the Save Template hot key to save the list of products, price lines, and sell groups as a template. At the Enter Save ID prompt, type an ID and press Enter to save the list. You can then use this template when setting up points programs for other customers by entering that ID in the Template field.

Note: If you save this customer points setup as a template and later change a points value of the target, the new value is not saved in the original template. Use the Save Template hot key to save the information on a new template to reuse the new target value when setting up points programs for other customers.

Press Esc to save your settings and exit the screen.