Customer offers: buy X get Y free, spend and save, and money off

Who is customer offers for?

It is for any shop, wholesaler or trade counter that runs deals and is tired of doing the maths at the counter. A grocery wholesaler giving one free carton with every ten, a hardware shop offering money off when a customer spends over a set amount, and a pharmacy putting a few lines on special for the weekend all fit here.

The point is that you set the rule once. After that, nobody has to remember it, look it up on a sheet taped to the till, or argue with a customer about whether it applied.

What does it do?

• Runs three kinds of deal: Buy X get Y free, Spend and save, and Discount on products.
• Applies them by itself on the till, on orders and on invoices you type in the dashboard.
• Puts free items on their own line at no charge, so the receipt or invoice shows exactly what was given.
• Tells the customer at the till how close they are, for example "add 1 more to get 1 free".
• Counts what every promotion gave away, at selling price and at cost, in the Promotions given report.

How do I switch it on?

Customer offers is normally already on. Look for Customer offers in the menu; owners, managers, finance and sales managers see it. If it is missing, or a page shows "Upgrade to unlock", your EasyTaskr contact switches it on for you. Businesses cannot turn add-ons on themselves from Settings yet.

Only an owner or manager can create and edit promotions. Other staff see the list and are told "An owner or manager sets promotions up."

Restaurants and street-food businesses keep their own offers screen for menu items, so this page does not describe what they see.

What are the three kinds of deal?

When you press New promotion, the first question is "What kind of deal is it?" and you pick a tile.

For Buy X get Y free you fill in two blocks, Customer buys and Customer gets. The free item can be the same product or another product. By default the deal repeats, so a customer who buys 20 gets 2 free. Switch on Limit free items per sale if you want a ceiling.

For Spend and save you set what the customer must spend and choose the Reward: Money off, Free gift or Free delivery.

How do I control who gets a deal, and when?

Every promotion has the same sections down the left of the editor, with a plain-English Summary on the right so you can read back what you have built.

• Who gets it: Everyone, Walk-in sales only, Named customers only, Rewards members only, Chosen customers, or Customers on a price list. Rewards members only needs customer rewards to be on.
• Where it runs: Till, Orders, Invoices. Spend and save deals can also run in your online store and online menu.
• When: a start date, an optional end date, the days of the week, and Only at certain hours for a happy hour.
• Limits: Stop after a number of sales, Budget, Uses per customer and First order only.
• With other promotions: switch on Combines with other promotions if this deal may stack with others.

There is also a Code section with Customers type a code. That turns the deal into a coupon, which has its own page: coupon codes.

What happens at the till?

The cashier rings up the sale as normal. When a deal applies:

1. A free item drops into the cart on its own line at no charge, labelled with the promotion.
2. A spend saving comes off the lines it covers, and the cart shows the saving.
3. A hint line tells the customer what they are close to, such as "Buy 2 more, get 1 free".
4. The receipt prints the free lines, so the customer sees what they were given.

If two deals could apply, EasyTaskr picks the one that gives the customer the most, and a small info mark on the line explains which deal won and which it beat. The till shows the figure; the server works the price out again when the sale is saved, so an out-of-date till can never charge a different amount.

If the customer does not want the free item, the cashier can take that line off. The removal is noted on the sale for you to see later. Free lines cannot have their price changed.

Step by step: set up "buy 10 get 1 free"

1. Open Customer offers from the menu. You land on the Promotions tab.
2. Press New promotion. If you have none yet, you can press Use this on the "Buy 10 get 1 free" template instead.
3. Pick the Buy X get Y free tile.
4. Under Name, give it a name the cashier and customer will understand, such as "Rice: buy 10 get 1 free".
5. In Customer buys, choose the product and set the quantity to 10.
6. In Customer gets, choose Same product and set the free quantity to 1.
7. Under Who gets it, keep Everyone, or narrow it to the customers you want.
8. Under Where it runs, tick Till, Orders and Invoices as you need.
9. Under When, set the start date and, if it is a short promotion, an end date.
10. Read the Summary on the right, then press Create promotion.
11. Open the till, add 10 of the product, and check the free line appears.

Can a brand pay for the free goods?

Yes. On a promotion that gives free items (Buy X get Y, or Spend and save with a free gift), switch on Funded by a supplier, pick the supplier and the share they pay, 100% unless you agreed less. Each free item given then records what the brand owes, at the item's cost.

The Supplier claims tab under Customer offers shows what is ready to claim per supplier. Start a claim for a period, check the lines, and send it as a CSV or a printed page. Mark money in by cash, bank or the brand's credit note; the claim moves to Part paid or Paid, or Rejected for what the brand will not pay. Products with no cost are listed as Cost missing and left out until the cost is filled in. Money-off deals cannot be funded, because brands pay for units.

Can I test a promotion before switching it on?

Yes. The Try it panel in the promotion editor runs a basket you pick through the same rules a real sale uses, as if the promotion were on. It shows the free lines, the money off, which promotions applied, and why the others did not. Before you save, it also warns when the new promotion clashes with one already running.

How do I see what promotions cost me?

Open the menu on the Promotions list and choose Promotions given report. Pick a From and To date and you see, for each promotion: Times used, Free items given, Value at selling price, What the free items cost and Money off sales.

A worked example: a wholesaler runs "buy 10 get 1 free" on a 25 kg rice bag that sells for 2,400 and costs 2,000. Over a month the report shows 38 uses and 38 free bags. That is 91,200 at selling price, but the real cost to the business is 76,000. Cancelled orders are left out, so the figures match what really went out of the door.

How do I pause, copy or remove a promotion?

Each row on the list shows its status (Running, Scheduled, Paused or Ended), its dates and how many times it has been used. The row actions are Edit, Pause or Switch on, Duplicate and Delete.

A promotion that has already been used on a sale cannot be deleted. Pause it instead, so it stays in the report. Duplicate is the quick way to repeat last month's deal with new dates.

What does it not do yet?

• Quotes (proformas) do not apply promotions.
• The trade-specific counters that keep their own sales, such as the paint, tile, print and sports counters, do not apply promotions.
• When an order is edited later, its free lines stay as they were when it was created; the deal is not worked out again.
• A return of a free line after its supplier claim has been sent does not change the claim.
• Restaurants keep the older menu offers screen.

Related features

Promotions work closely with customer rewards, where customers collect points, and coupon codes, where a deal only runs when someone types the code. If you print shelf labels with offer prices, see barcode labels. For pricing advice, our guide to how to price products and markup vs margin explain how much room a deal really has before it eats your profit.