At the counter
Where stamps actually happen: attaching a guest to a bill in POS, redeeming a reward on it, and the scanner tablet for counters with no POS.
Stamps and rewards happen at the counter, never in the CRM and never in the guest’s own app. There are two doors, and which one you use depends on whether that counter has a POS.
| Door | When you use it |
|---|---|
| POS | The counter takes money through Maska. The stamp rides the bill. |
| The scanner | A counter with no POS: a paired tablet that does one job. |
Either way, what the counter can see about a guest is deliberately thin. Names and phone numbers are masked on both surfaces. A counter can act on the card in front of it and learn nothing about anybody else.
In POS
Loyalty only appears in POS when the module is on and that outlet is linked to the card on Programme rules. Otherwise there is nothing on the screen at all.
Three rows sit above the bill, in the order the conversation happens: the member, their reward, then the items.
Attaching the guest
Add member opens a dialog that offers both routes: hold their card’s QR to the camera, or find them by phone. The QR is the same on the web wallet and on the card in Apple Wallet, and it stays the same from visit to visit. The phone search takes the last four digits or the full number, and the hint says so.
A found member shows as a chip on the bill: masked name, masked phone, and
6 / 8 · 2 to go, or “next one’s on us” on the last stamp. Any live campaign
promise appears under it in butter, so whoever is standing there honours it
without the guest having to argue for it. The chip also names who attached them.
An X removes them. Once the bill is settled the member stays and the X is gone.
If nobody finds them, the counter says so plainly: No member on that number. The same sentence covers “not a member here” and “not a member at all”, on purpose.
Signing somebody up
While a bill has no member on it, a quieter row offers Show the sign-up QR. It is your outlet’s own code, so the sign-up is credited to this store, and the pitch is on the dialog: they scan with their phone camera and the card lands in their wallet with the first stamp already on it.
The link is printed in words under the QR too, for a guest whose camera will not cooperate.
The stamp
Nobody presses a stamp button. Settle the bill and the stamp is part of settling it.
It appears inside the settled-payment card, under Payment settled: Stamp
added, the meter with the new cell popping, and +1 stamp · 2 to go. There is
nothing to dismiss and it never stands between you and the next table.
When that stamp completes the card it reads Card complete instead, and adds a strip naming the reward with the line “Banked. Redeem it on their next bill.” There is deliberately no redeem button there: this bill is already paid.
A settle that earned nothing shows nothing. That is normal, not a fault.
Redeeming on a bill
A member with something banked shows a butter strip reading REWARD READY, the reward, and whether it expires, over one button: Redeem.
Every reward needs a 4-digit code sent to the guest’s WhatsApp, however the guest was attached. A screenshot of a card can earn a stamp, but only the guest’s own WhatsApp can spend a reward.
- Tap Redeem.
- Tap Send code. The screen says “Code sent to WhatsApp ending 4821. Ask the guest for it.”
- Type the code in Code from WhatsApp.
The code works for 30 minutes. Three wrong tries and it stops working: “Code stopped working. Send a new one.” If the guest did not get it, Send again can be tapped after 30 seconds. Too many wrong codes in one day and the reward waits until tomorrow. The full list of messages is on Apple Wallet.
On captain the steps are the same; the last button says Put on the bill.
When a member has more than one reward banked, each one has its own row. Pick the one you are giving before the code is sent.
What happens next depends on the reward type set on Programme rules.
A free item
Redeeming puts the item on the bill at zero. It is its own line, marked Loyalty reward, and its own row in the summary. It is not a discount and it is not on the house, so your discount and comp reports stay about discounts and comps.
Return hands the reward back to the card, right up until the line goes to the kitchen. After that the line reads “with the kitchen” and the way back is to void it.
A percent or rupees reward
The reward comes off the bill as a discount, before GST. It shows as a chip on the bill with its name and the rupees it takes off, for example “10% off your bill”.
- Whole bill. The discount is spread over the lines. A percent reward is worked out again as items are added or removed, and never goes over its maximum.
- One item. Pick the dish on the bill it comes off. It comes off one of that dish, even if the line has two. The figure is fixed when you give it. If the bill has no dish from the reward’s menu sections, it is refused before the code is sent: “Add one coffee to the bill first.”
- A rupees reward bigger than the dish takes the dish down to one paisa, never below.
The checks happen before the WhatsApp code goes out, so the guest is never sent a code for a reward that cannot be used:
| Refused when | The counter says |
|---|---|
| The bill already has a discount code, a manager discount or a discount reward | “Remove the other discount first.” |
| The bill is under the minimum | “This bill is under ₹500. Add items to use this reward.” |
| One item reward, and no matching dish on the bill | “Add one coffee to the bill first.” |
| It is a delivery-app order | “Loyalty discounts cannot be used on delivery app orders.” |
| The bill already has an app payment | “This bill has an app payment. A loyalty discount cannot be added.” |
It works the other way too. With a discount reward on the bill, a discount code or a manager discount is refused with “Remove the other discount first.”, and an app tender is refused at payment. A free item reward can sit beside any discount, including a discount reward.
Taking it off. While the bill is open, staff can take the reward off the bill. It goes back on the guest’s loyalty card. The generic discount remove and Modify bill cannot take it off; only the reward’s own control does, so a reward is never lost.
When the bill changes. On an open bill, the reward comes off by itself and goes back on the card if:
- the bill falls under the minimum: “Reward taken off. The bill is under ₹500. It is back on their loyalty card.”
- the dish it came off is removed: “Reward taken off. The coffee was removed. It is back on their loyalty card.”
Once the bill is raised the minimum is not checked again: the guest was billed with the reward. In Modify bill, removing the dish a one-item reward came off puts the reward back on their loyalty card, and the preview says so before you save.
In reports, a discount reward is counted as a loyalty reward, apart from manager discounts and codes. It never counts toward a staff member’s giveaways or their day-close giveaway total.
After settling, the strip reads Redeemed, enjoy.
The scanner
The scanner is a standalone app for a counter with no POS: “Stamp a loyalty guest by scanning their pass, at a counter with no POS.” It is built for a tablet stood on a counter and it has one screen.
Pairing, once
An owner or admin pairs the tablet once, and their sign-in ends the moment it is paired. Either sign in on the tablet itself and pick the counter and a name for it, or paste the pairing token from Settings into Pair with token.
A token is checked before it is kept, so a bad paste never hands your staff a camera that refuses everything.
The tablet stays paired until an admin revokes it in the CRM. There is no unpair control on the counter, because unpairing is revocation and that is not a counter decision. If the tablet is revoked mid-shift it drops back to the pairing screen with the reason on it: “This device was removed. Ask an admin to pair it again.”
Starting a shift
The tablet says which counter it is, and then asks two things: who is on the counter, from the names with counter access there, and their PIN, punched on the tablet’s own pad.
One line explains why: Every stamp at outlet is recorded against you.
Five wrong PINs locks that pad for fifteen minutes, and only that pad. Nobody is locked out of POS or of Maska generally.
A shift lasts up to twelve hours and slides forward as it is used. End shift is in the footer, next to the outlet and whoever is on it.
Scanning
The camera fills the screen with four corner marks and one instruction: Hold the guest’s pass inside the frame. One scan is one stamp.
A successful scan shows the guest, the meter with the new cell popping, and
+1 stamp · 3 to go, then returns to the camera by itself after a few seconds.
Anything a person has to act on waits for a tap instead:
- Already stamped, calm rather than red, with when and where: “Stamped 12 minutes ago by Front counter.” A guest who scanned twice did nothing wrong.
- No stamp added, when the day’s allowance is already spent. The visit is recorded; the stamp is not.
- Not stamped, in chilli, with the reason.
- Not sent: “No signal. The stamp did not go through. Scan again when you are back online.”
Anything that is not a member pass is refused without ever being shown or recorded: “That code is not a member pass. Ask the guest to open their card.”
There is no offline queue, and that is a decision rather than a gap. A scan that waits and lands later could stamp the wrong visit, so the app would rather tell you plainly that nothing happened. Scanning again after “No signal” is safe: the same scan is never stamped twice.
Find by phone
Find by phone is always there, for a flat battery or a guest who cannot find their wallet. It takes the last four digits or the full number, nothing in between, and the rows it returns are masked, with each guest’s progress.
Nothing found: “No member found with that number. Ask the guest to open their pass, or sign them up on the join QR.”
Giving a reward
When the scanned card has a reward on it, a butter strip appears: Reward ready, the reward, and Give the reward.
Every reward needs a code, however the guest was found. Tap Give the reward, then Send code. A 4-digit code goes to the guest’s WhatsApp; type it in Code from WhatsApp. It works for 30 minutes and three tries, and Send again can be tapped after 30 seconds.
For a percent or rupees reward, the scanner cannot take money off a bill: your own billing does that. So after the code, the card is marked used and the screen tells you exactly what to give:
- “Give 10% off, max ₹100. Bill must be ₹500 or more.”
- “Give ₹100 off.”
- “Give ₹100 off one coffee.”
Give that discount in your own billing. The minimum and the maximum are yours to honour at the counter.
Afterwards the card reads Given: reward with a ticking Undo button, good for sixty seconds, for the moment somebody presses the wrong thing. Undo puts it back and says so: “Back on the card: reward. The guest can use it next time.”
Only the tablet that gave a reward away can take it back, and only inside that minute. After that it is an admin’s problem, and the screen says so.
What actually earns a stamp
The same engine sits behind both doors. A settled bill earns a stamp when:
- The outlet is linked to the card.
- The card is earning, and the member is not blocked.
- The bill clears the minimum spend, measured on what is actually payable, so discounts and redeemed rewards count against it.
- It contains something that qualifies, if you have restricted the card to particular menu sections. Left open, everything qualifies.
- The member has not already used up the day’s stamps a day.
One settled bill is one stamp, never one per item. The scanner has its own separate daily allowance, so a guest who buys a coffee and also gets scanned is not accidentally double-counted, and neither door quietly eats the other’s.
Boosters sit outside that daily cap and carry their own, because a double-stamps weekend that stopped after the first bill would be worth nothing.
Rules are read from the business day, anchored to India time, so a bill settled after midnight lands where the shift thinks it did.
Switching the card off stops earning only. Rewards already banked stay redeemable.