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Receive donations for coffee and deduct coffees from donation account

Hi,

We operate a pay it forward scheme at our coffee shop whereby people can pay forward a cup of coffee to someone disadvantaged. I am wondering if there is some way we can setup a payment type that records these amounts that can then be used to "pay" for the free coffee so that we can track and ensure there is an audit trail.

 

Appreciate your advice.

 

Many thanks,
Ben

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Admin

Hey @bbollard,

 

Thanks for reaching out!  At the moment you're not able to add custom payment types, and in this instance you probably wouldn't want to, as a payment types needs an assigned dollar value added to it - in this case the coffee has already been paid for, so you'd be doubling up your sales by recording it again. I can suggest a couple of alternatives though!

 

1) You could create a $0 item called "Coffee (Paid Forward)" or something like this - you could then track how many you're selling via your item reporting.

 

2) You could also create a 100% discount called "Paid Forward Coffee" and apply it to a regular coffee to note that it's been paid forward. You can also track use of this discount via discount reports.

 

Hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions ๐Ÿ™‚

 

EDIT: Hey again @bbollard, I wanted to give you a heads up on another solution here as it came to light - one of our Super Sellers from the US, @ryanwanner, uses Square's gift card system! To quote his post from this thread

 

"we use our physical gift cards. If they want to pay it forward, we have them buy a card for whatever amount they want to put forward. We don't have it set up where people can "shop" for what drink they want (where the PIF board has various drinks available)... we found that to be too cumbersome in a busy environment.

 

But if they want to pay it forward, they just tell us how much and we load a card. Since PIF works just like gift cards would in the way that the money isn't technically ours until it's redeemed, we found this is best.

 

The other idea would be to create a Pay It Forward item on your POS. A guest "loads" the PIF item with however much they want, and you jot it down on a card or pad next to the register. (or on a PIF board if you prefer). When it is redeemed, you can use the Other Tender Type->Gift Certificate option for cash out. The biggest thing you'll have to keep track of in the office is that the PIF items aren't technically sales in: your bookkeeper or accountant will have to take the PIF sale out of the daily sales. (Very similar to how a gift card would work)"

Seamus
Square, Australia
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