Overview
The Book Club Subscription processing is based on Book Clubs which are subscribed to by members.
A Book Club’s operations may run based on issuing a specified number of books at regular intervals to each customer or member over a nominated period. For instance the same books may go to each customer (member) during the same specified period.
Various incentives can be offered for joining the Club and remaining a loyal member.
For example new customers could get a special offer in the form of additional free books or their first lot of books at a special price. This offer may depend on the source of the customer.
An incentive scheme is available to reward loyalty to the program based on members earning points each time they pay for an invoice within a certain time frame. In addition various milestones can also earn extra points as can special promotions or referrals. Members could also use points as part payment on retail purchases in situations where the company has both the Club and Retail Sales.
Earning points
Points earned from Book Club purchases accumulate automatically when a payment is posted in Accounts Payable.
The rules for earning points need to be established so that for example if payment is received within a specified period a certain number of points are earned.
In addition to earning points customers can be classified into categories indicating their loyalty level being for example how long they have been members or how many books they have ordered and paid for.
The birthday (DD/MM) of the member is held on the Customer Masterfile and when this date is reached each year, a number of points can be added to the customers account (with an appropriate tracking code).
Other points can be earned for referring new members, responding to surveys, etc. An entry program allows the user to add these points onto the customer’s account when appropriate. A reason code can then be entered to indicate how these points were earned.
A tracking facility is available so the make-up of the points a customer currently has can be reviewed.
Paying with points
Book Club earned points can be used as part payment for retail sales where applicable.
A table needs to be established indicating the value of a point. For example: 10 points = A$2.00. Various types of offers are catered for such as using points to purchase books, giving discounts or using points to pay for invoices. These definitions are flexible within the system.
An example of using points to pay invoices could be if a customer has achieved a level of membership being Gold, Platinum or Bronze for example they are permitted to pay Book Club invoices using points already earned.
Payments using points can be identified in Accounts Receivable as a unique payment type so that the information can be transferred to nominated General Ledger accounts.
New subscribers are identified with a status of New and once their first shipment has been processed (invoice generated) this status changes to Active.
Incentive points system
A facility is available to track incentive points. The functions of this system are:
- Points accumulated or redeemed by event and reason code are recorded
- Points are automatically added based on analyzing payments received each day
- Points are automatically added based on analyzing milestones reached
- Manual maintenance of points balance with tracking by reason codes
- Subscriptions are marked and points deducted for use in next subscription release
- Release process generates “payment by points” debtors journals for subscription generated invoices marked to be paid by points
- Links to Accounts Receivable Payment Type (nominated journal type) so that points may be deducted if used to pay a debtor balance
- Inquiry facility by customer account to show available points with drill down into activity resulting in current balance
Points are automatically allocated to Subscription order customers based on the rules set up in TMSSM/RULE-SOS.
Invoices can be printed by 3rd parties. A file is generated which contains the information to be printed on the invoice. The 3rd party can then print the invoice in their chosen format.
Payment messages can be printed (loaded into a file) on the invoice.
TMSSM/RULE-MSG stores the messages to be printed o the invoice.
