Accounting for Tier Benefits (Tier Discount, Earn Multiplier)

Vendion's loyalty system supports tiers — Silver, Gold, Platinum, or whatever you want to call them. When a guest reaches a certain 12-month spend, they're automatically upgraded, and with the tier come three types of benefits that can affect accounting:

1. Flat discount (e.g., 5 % automatically on every order)
2. Earn multiplier (e.g., 2× points instead of 1×)
3. Birthday bonus (extra points once per year)

Only the first — flat discount — creates a direct accounting effect. It's important to know why the other two don't.

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Overview: Tier effects on accounting

Remember the core principle from article 26: loyalty points are not a liability. Therefore, earn multiplier can give the guest any number of points — it never creates a booked liability. You book full revenue on the sale, and points live separately in the loyalty ledger.

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Flat discount — how it's booked

Suppose your Gold tier gives 5 % flat discount on all orders. The guest is Gold and orders food for 300 SEK (incl. 12 % VAT).

Step 1 — Compute the discount

Original price: 300.00 SEK
Tier discount: 5 % = 15.00 SEK
Guest pays: 285.00 SEK

Step 2 — Allocate over VAT

Net (285 / 1.12): 254.46 SEK
VAT (12 %): 30.54 SEK

Step 3 — Voucher

DR 1580 (Card receivable)       285.00 SEK
   CR 3001 (Food revenue)             254.46 SEK
   CR 2620 (Output VAT 12 %)           30.54 SEK

As you see, this is identical to a regular discount. The discount is baked into the net amount, and VAT is reduced proportionally. No extra accounts needed. From the accounting perspective it makes no difference whether the discount comes from:

• A campaign ("10 % Tuesday discount")
• A loyalty redemption (point conversion)
• A tier benefit (flat %)
• A manual discount moment ("10 % staff discount")

All are revenue-reducing adjustments.

How Vendion applies it automatically

When a Gold member starts an order in the POS:

1. POS reads the guest's current loyalty tier
2. Loads the tier's percentage discount (e.g., 5 %)
3. Applies the discount as a percentage discount on the order
4. UI shows "Gold discount 5 %" as discount row
5. When the order is paid, Vendion allocates the discount proportionally across all VAT rates in the order

You don't need to do anything manually. The cashier sees the discount on the receipt but bookkeeping happens automatically.

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Mixed order with flat tier discount

Suppose a Platinum guest (10 % flat discount) orders 200 SEK food + 100 SEK alcohol = 300 SEK.

Allocation:

• Total discount: 10 % × 300 = 30 SEK
• On food: 200/300 × 30 = 20 SEK
• On alcohol: 100/300 × 30 = 10 SEK

New net per rate:

• Food after discount: 180 SEK → net 160.71 + VAT 19.29 (12 %)
• Alcohol after discount: 90 SEK → net 72.00 + VAT 18.00 (25 %)

Voucher:

DR 1580 (Card receivable)       270.00 SEK
   CR 3001 (Food revenue)             160.71 SEK
   CR 3003 (Alcohol revenue)           72.00 SEK
   CR 2620 (VAT 12 %)                  19.29 SEK
   CR 2610 (VAT 25 %)                  18.00 SEK

Exactly the same logic as loyalty redemption — proportional allocation across VAT rates.

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Earn multiplier — why no accounting effect?

Suppose Platinum gives 2× earn rate. The guest buys for 500 SEK. Instead of 500 points, they get 1,000 points.

Bookkeeping — exactly the same as without multiplier:

DR 1580 (Card receivable)       500.00 SEK
   CR 3001 (Food revenue)             446.43 SEK
   CR 2620 (VAT 12 %)                  53.57 SEK

The extra 500 points land in the loyalty ledger as an earning entry — not in the GL. Fully consistent with the "points aren't a liability" principle.

But what happens when the multiplier points are redeemed?

Then the same rules as article 27 apply — revenue reduction on a future order. Multiplier therefore affects your future margin, not the current one. It's a design choice: Vendion keeps accounting fully tied to current cash flow and ignores future commitments (because they aren't legal liabilities).

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Birthday bonus — "100 extra points on your birthday"

No accounting effect. The automation gives the guest points directly in the loyalty ledger (as an adjustment or bonus). No SEK moves in the GL.

Only when the guest redeems birthday points on a future order does a revenue reduction occur. Same mechanics as regular redemption.

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Free item as tier benefit

Some tiers offer "free specialty coffee every month" or similar. This works identically to stamp card rewards (see article 28):

• Zero-order in the POS (Vendion default) or discount to 0 SEK
• Raw material cost is booked via 4010 purchase as usual
• No liability arises in the GL

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Tier discount + point redemption in the same order — can they stack?

Yes, and Vendion handles it automatically. Suppose:

• Guest: Gold (5 % flat discount)
• Order: 300 SEK food
• Point redemption: 500 points = 50 SEK discount

Calculation:

1. Order starts at 300 SEK
2. Tier discount 5 % = 15 SEK → order net 285 SEK
3. Point redemption 50 SEK → order net 235 SEK

But wait — are points applied to 300 or 285?

Answer: Vendion has a setting for how the discounts stack:

• Additive (default): Both discounts applied to the original. Total discount = 15 + 50 = 65 SEK, guest pays 235 SEK.
• Cascade: Tier first, then points on remainder. 300 → 285 → 235 (mathematically identical in this simple example).

For accounting this doesn't matter — net is the same. You see only a total discount on the order row, and VAT reduces against the total discount amount.

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Edge case: Tier demotion during order

A nightly refresh can demote a guest from Platinum to Gold after a major refund. If the guest has an active (open) order when demotion happens:

• The order keeps the price it had at creation (tier discount is already locked)
• The next order is computed with the new tier
• This is economically correct — the guest really had Platinum status at order time

No manual bookkeeping needed. The system takes care of it.

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When should you create separate discount accounts for tiers?

If you want to report "how much discount have I given away to Gold members vs Platinum members" — create separate 3900 accounts:

• 3911 — Silver discount
• 3912 — Gold discount
• 3913 — Platinum discount

This is uncommon, however. Most restaurants settle for a combined loyalty discount account (or the Vendion default = bake into 3001). Use Analytics → Discounts for tier-separated reporting instead.

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Summary

Bottom line: Tiers are a marketing tool — they affect your operating margin but create no balance-sheet items. You can experiment with tier structures without incurring accounting costs. It's one of the advantages of running loyalty in Vendion compared to large IFRS systems.