With the release of version 2.3, we’ve introduced the concept of a Pantry Point Period. This means pantry members will have a certain number of points at the start of a period that will gradually decrease as the member places orders over the period. When the period ends, the member’s points are reset.

At the start of the period, the amount of points available to a member depends on either the “Menu Family Point Limit” set per menu:

Or the “Points” field which allows members maximum points to be overridden from the members intake form, regardless of their family size:

Once the period ends, the points available to the member will reset to the default value.

You can choose to set the point period for all members under a site or you can set the point period on an individual basis. To set the period for the site, access site maintenance by choosing the Pantry Maintenance menu option on from the main dashboard

From Pantry Maintenance, select “Sites” under the “Maintenance” menu option

And then click on the edit button for the site you want to modify.

The relevant site options for the Point Period are “Limit by Category”, “Point Period” and “Start of Week”.

“Limit by Category” - Whether unused points should be made available for an entire order or just for items in the same category as the category the points were used from. For example, if I use 30 out of 50 available points on a dairy category, if “Limit by Category” is checked, on my next order within the period I’d only have 20 points left available for the dairy category. I wouldn’t be able to use those 20 unused points on items in another category. If, however, “Limit by Category” is unchecked, I would be able to use those 20 points on items of other categories up to the category limit set on the menu.

Point Period - Determines the length of time that points will keep rolling over before resetting. The drop-down options available for this setting are:

• Visit - This is the default option and means the number of points available to a member will reset every time they place an order.
• Day - The points available to a member reset at the start of every new day. (This would be for the case where you have members ordering multiple times in a single day.)
• Week - The points will reset for the member at the start of each new week. The start of the week is based on the value set for “Start Of Week” where Monday is the default.
• BiWeek(Even)/BiWeek(Odd) - The weeks in the year will be split into either even or odd weeks (1^st week of the year is odd, the second week is even, the third week is odd, etc.) The points will reset at the start of the next even or an odd week depending on the selected value.
• Semi Month - The month is split into half and the points will reset on both the first and the fifteenth of each month.
• Monthly - The points will reset on the first of each month

Start of Week - This option affects the Week, BiWeek(Even) and BiWeek(Odd) options of the point period. For the Week option, the member points will reset on the day that is selected for Start of Week. For the BiWeek options, the first week will start on the first day selected for Start of Week within the year. The following (even) week will be seven days from that first date.

On the member intake, we can choose to override the site default by setting “Point Period” which serves the same purpose as the Point Period drop down from Site Maintenance (note that the drop down on the intake has a “Use site default” option which serves as the default unless overridden by a user) and “Restrict unused points to be used only on items of the same category on the next order” which serves the purpose of the “Limit By Category” checkbox in site maintenance.

Now that we’ve set up the point period for a site or individual pantry member, we’ll find that points used on an order do not get automatically reset until the start of the next point period. So, if my Test Member1 had a setup like this on their intake form:

The member would only be able to use 150 points per week and the unused points would only be usable on items of the same category on the members next order within the period.

On the members first order within the week, they would have 500 points available. If they ordered 30 points worth of items from the fruits and vegetables category, then

On the next order for the member within the same week, the points available for them to use in the fruits and vegetable category would be limited to 60.

Notice that the overall limit of the order changed to 470 instead of the 500 from the original order.