Manage discounts in the Backoffice
This article applies to Dutchie POS.
Set up discounts in the Backoffice so you can apply them at the POS. Discounts can be applied manually by a user (with or without a manager PIN) or automatically when specified conditions are met, restricted to certain customers and products, applied only on certain days and times (happy hours, holidays, and daily deals), and activated by scanning or entering a code.
This article covers only core discount features. Bundled discounts offer more advanced options and flexibility.
Things to consider
- Check your local cannabis regulations to make sure your discounts and promotions are compliant. Consider enabling these settings in the Backoffice under Settings > Location:
- Only Discount Cannabis Items to a Minimum of $0.01 may be required to keep "buy one, get one" deals compliant in states that prohibit giving away free cannabis items.
- Only Discount Items to their Cost prevents discounting any item below cost.
- Permissions: Creating or editing discounts requires both View discounts and Edit discounts permissions. The Override discounts permission enables a user to manually edit Percent off price and Amount off price discounts and change the distribution of discounts in the register. Learn more about permissions.
- Discounts are shared across all your locations, though you can restrict discounts to certain locations.
- You can restrict discounts to certain customers by creating Customer groups before creating discounts.
- If your Dutchie POS location is integrated with Dutchie Ecommerce and Discount Sync V2 is enabled, you will see additional Ecommerce options on the Discounts page in Dutchie POS.
Create and edit discounts
- Go to Marketing > Discounts.
- Click Create discount, or select an existing discount to edit it.
Primary options
The Details tab is where you choose the main features of a discount:
Field/option | Description/notes |
Name |
Name the discount something distinct and easy to understand and identify. Discount names also appear on customer receipts if the Itemize discounts setting is on. You can change this under Settings > Receipts. |
Code |
Required only if you make the discount applicable by code (see below). Codes can be manually entered or scanned from a barcode. If you've integrated Dutchie Ecommerce with Dutchie POS, you can create a matching coupon code in Dutchie Ecommerce which will automatically apply to the cart in Dutchie POS when a customer enters it on their Dutchie Ecommerce order. |
Start | The date that the discount becomes available. |
End | The date that the discount is no longer available. You can set the end date well into the future if you plan to offer it indefinitely. |
Application method |
Automatic: Apply the discount when certain conditions are met (see additional options and restrictions). Manual: Apply the discount by selecting it from a list. Code: Apply the discount by entering or scanning the code from above. By Springbig or By Alpine IQ:
|
From this point, the available options depend on the application method you selected.
Automatic and by-code discounts
Field/option | Description/notes |
Discount stacking |
Choose Yes (default) or No. This influences whether and how the discount can be applied when there are multiple discounts on a transaction:
|
Threshold |
Minimum requirements for applying the discount. Choose from:
|
Group by SKU |
For discounts with a threshold, choose whether all items must be the same product/SKU to qualify for the discount. |
Discount method |
Choose from:
|
Amount or percent |
Enter the dollar amount or percent of the discount depending on your discount method selection. |
Manual and third-party integrator discounts
Field/option | Description/notes |
Discount method |
Choose from:
|
Apply discount method to |
For amount off, price to amount, and price to cost plus percent, choose from:
For percent off, choose from:
|
Amount or percent |
Enter the dollar amount or percent of the discount depending on your discount method selection. |
Additional options
Click the Options tab to set these optional conditions:
Option | Description | Notes |
Weekly recurrence | Select days of the week and times of day when the discount is valid. | Leave these boxes unchecked to make the discount valid on all days and times. |
Available online? | Choose whether to offer the discount online via Dutchie Ecommerce. | |
Loyalty points to redeem | Number of loyalty points a customer must use to get the discount. | Applies to manual discounts only. |
Restrict to customer type | Restrict the discount to specific customer types (medical, recreational, etc.) | |
Restrict to locations | Restrict the discount to selected locations. | By default, discounts are available at all locations. |
Restrict to groups | Restrict the discount to specific Customer groups. | Inactive or deleted customer groups are not considered for the purpose of applying discounts. |
Include non-cannabis items | Yes/no | A non-cannabis item is a product that has Cannabis product set to No on its Product Details tab. |
Ignore net tax rates |
If No, tax will be calculated on the discounted subtotal. If Yes, tax is calculated as if the discount was not applied. |
This setting is designed to support Montana regulations. |
Require manager approval | A manager (a user with the POS Manager permission) must enter their PIN to apply the discount. | Applies to manual discounts only. |
Per customer limit | How many times each customer can redeem the discount across all applicable locations. | |
Redemption limit | How many total times the discount can be redeemed across all applicable locations. |
Only available for Code discounts. The Register shows an error message when a user tries to apply a discount that has reached its redemption limit. |
First time customer only |
|
Not applicable to anonymous customers |
Restrictions
On the remaining tabs, select which strains, categories, brands, vendors, product weights, product or inventory tags, pricing tiers, or individual products the discount applies to.
On each tab, choose the Restriction type (Restrict to or Exclude).
The Products tab shows only the products that meet your other restrictions.
Click the Restriction summary tab to see the full list of products the discount will apply to.
When you’re finished, click Create and refresh.
Delete a discount
Discounts are automatically hidden from the list and are no longer available at the register after the end date has passed. Select the Expired filter to view all discounts.
To permanently delete (deactivate) a discount:
- Go to Marketing > Discounts.
- Click the 3 dots next to the discount you want to delete.
- Click Deactivate.
Copy a discount
Save time creating similar discounts by copying and modifying a discount.
- Go to Marketing > Discounts.
- Select the discount you want to copy.
- Click the cog and select Copy.
- Click the back button to return to the discounts list. The copied discount appears with COPY added to the name.
Settings that affect discounts
Location settings
The following options are located in the Backoffice under Settings > Location:
- Only Discount Cannabis Items to a Minimum of $0.01 may be required to keep "buy one, get one" deals compliant in states that prohibit giving away free cannabis items.
- Only Discount Items to their Cost prevents discounting any item below cost.
- Show Product Auto Discount Setting allows you to show or hide the Allow automatic discounts setting on products in the Catalog, which allows you to exclude a product from automatic discounts.
-
Round Percent Discounts rounds the dollar amount of a percentage-based discount to the nearest dollar. This is meant for dispensaries that want to keep transaction totals at even-dollar amounts and minimize the use of coins. For example, with this setting enabled:
- A $15.00 item with a 10% ($1.50) discount becomes $13.00 because the discount amount is rounded up to $2.00 (or 13.33%).
- A $15.00 item with a 9% ($1.35) discount becomes $14.00 because the discount amount is rounded down to $1.00 (or 6.67%).
- This setting does not affect a user's ability to change the amount, percentage, or applicability of a manual discount.
- Apply Loyalty as a Discount, Apply Loyalty as Cash Value, and Apply Loyalty Points Automatically to Cart. Learn more about these in Set up a loyalty program.
User settings
You can leverage User Settings to see event logs that allow you to see who made edits to your discount configuration. Go to Settings > Users:
- Click User Event Logs.
- Select Discounts from the dropdown.
- Select a date range of changes that took place.
- Click Run.
From here you can use the Search bar to locate a specific discount or filter by Update to review the updates made.
What’s next?
- Learn how to apply discounts at the POS
- Learn about bundled discounts
- Create a loyalty program to encourage repeat customers
- Set up Customer Groups