Pay in Store Credit and Custom Currencies

Store credit and points let you reward collaborators with something they spend in your store instead of cash. In Siren, a currency you create is store credit, counted in whole units. “Points” is the same thing under another name and rate. Collaborators earn it in programs that pay in it, and they spend it at checkout.

Custom currencies need Siren Essentials and up. Siren Lite has none.

Create a currency

On WordPress, click “Manage Currencies” on the Programs list or the Distributors list, then “Add Currency”. On Siren Cloud, go to Settings > Currencies, or use the same “Manage Currencies” button. The Siren Cloud form also asks for “Properties”: the stores where credit in this currency can be spent. Choose at least one before you click “Create Currency”. If you have no Property yet, add one first. An organization with one Property has it chosen for you.

Enter a "Code"

It starts with a letter, then upper-case letters, numbers, or underscores, up to 50 characters, such as LOYALTY_POINTS. It can't be a built-in currency code such as USD or a code you already have, and it can't change later.

Enter a "Name" and a "Symbol"

The name can be up to 255 characters and the symbol up to 10, such as Loyalty Points and ★.

Choose the "Symbol Position"

Before or after the amount, such as ★100 or 100 ★.

Set the "Exchange Rate"

A whole number from 1 to 1,000,000: how many units of this currency are worth one unit of your store's currency. The hint under the field shows it, such as ★5 = $1.00.

Click "Create Currency"

The currency appears in the list, and programs can pay in it.

Because units are whole, at a rate of 1, one unit is worth one unit of your store’s currency, such as one dollar. For credit worth cents, use a rate of 100, so 100 units make $1.00. You can edit a currency later from its row in the list. The name, symbol, position, and rate can change. The code can’t. On Siren Cloud, you can also change its Properties.

Pay a program in it

Pick the currency in the program’s “Currency” field. A distributor can pay in a currency the same way.

A fixed amount is typed as the currency shows it, so 5 means 5 units. At a rate of 100, type 500 to give $5.00 of credit. The customer rewards and refer-a-friend recipes create a currency at a rate of 1, so their reward is counted in whole units of your store’s currency, such as dollars. Customer rewards gives 5 and refer-a-friend gives 10 unless you change it when you apply the recipe. On a program made from either recipe, make sure the reward is the whole number you mean to give.

A percentage program counts the sale in hundredths of your store’s currency. So 10% of a $50.00 sale is 500 units. At a rate of 100, that’s $5.00 of credit at checkout. At a rate of 1, it’s $500. A distributor’s revenue pool counts the same way. Pick the rate with that in mind before a percentage program or distributor pays in the currency. A sale with a line in another currency is read at face value too, and a percentage program’s reward on it is held for review, as Sales in another currency describes.

If a site moves from Essentials to Siren Lite, Siren turns off the programs that pay in a custom currency and shows a notice that names them. Switch each one to your store’s currency and turn it back on, or upgrade. Lite leaves your currencies and balances stored as they are, but it can’t show or spend them.

How credit reaches the balance

On WordPress, you pay store credit the same way as any reward: approve it, then create a fulfillment, as How to Pay Collaborators describes. Each currency gets its own fulfillment. When the fulfillment creates a payout in the currency, Siren adds it to the collaborator’s balance in the background and marks the payout paid. “Manage Autofulfillers” shows the currency as auto-managed, so there’s nothing to set up.

A currency you create on Siren Cloud isn’t paid out for you. Siren Cloud keeps each collaborator’s balance, but marking a payout paid doesn’t change it. To pay a payout in credit, add the credit with “Adjust” on the collaborator’s page, as Adjust a balance describes, then mark the payout paid. A balance also changes when a connected WordPress store spends credit or gives it back. Credit can be spent only at connected WordPress stores whose Property the currency is bound to. Shopify and Stripe checkouts can’t take it. A WordPress store that moves to Siren Cloud brings its custom currencies bound to its Property. A currency that uses a built-in currency’s code, or a code your organization already has, stops the move, as Move a WordPress Site to Siren Cloud explains.

How collaborators spend it

Credit is spent at WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, or LifterLMS checkout, so one of them has to be active on your site. A collaborator spends credit when they’re logged in to your store with the WordPress account linked to their collaborator record. At the WooCommerce cart or checkout, Easy Digital Downloads checkout, or LifterLMS checkout, Siren applies a coupon for them. The coupon’s code is the currency code, and it’s worth their available balance divided by the exchange rate. So 2,000 units at a rate of 100 make a $20.00 coupon.

While they check out, Siren holds their whole available balance for up to 30 minutes, so a second cart can’t spend the same credit. The order uses only what it needs, and Siren takes that from the balance once the order is paid: when a WooCommerce order is processing or completed, an Easy Digital Downloads order is completed, or a LifterLMS order is completed or active. The rest stays on the balance. A fully refunded order gives the credit back, and so does a cancelled WooCommerce or LifterLMS order. On LifterLMS, one coupon carries every currency they hold.

For a customer loyalty program, the customer has to be a collaborator with a login to your store, or the credit has nowhere to go at checkout.

When credit doesn’t apply at checkout

If a collaborator’s credit doesn’t come off their order, check these in order:

They’re logged in with the WordPress account linked to their collaborator record.
The checkout is WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, or LifterLMS, on Siren Essentials and up.
Their “Credit Balances” card shows an available balance. On WordPress, a payout adds to it only once a fulfillment creates the payout, and another checkout in the last 30 minutes may be holding it.

On Siren Cloud, also check that the store is a connected WordPress site whose Property the currency is bound to.

Adjust a balance

Once you have a currency, the collaborator’s page shows a “Credit Balances” card. To give or take credit by hand, click “Adjust” on it.

Choose the "Currency"

Type the "Amount" as the balance shows it

5 adds 5 units, and -5 deducts them. The line under the field says what the adjustment will add or deduct.

Add a "Description"

The reason, such as a starting balance. Left empty, it reads "Manual adjustment".

Click "Submit"

Collaborators see their balances in the portal. See The Collaborator Dashboard.

Delete a currency

Click delete on the currency’s row. The dialog lists the programs that pay in it, other than inactive ones, and deleting the currency sets them to inactive. Siren refuses while the currency has obligations that have not been paid out or unpaid payouts, so settle or cancel them first. It also refuses while collaborators still hold a balance in it, positive or negative, unless you tick “Also delete all credit balance entries for this currency”. The currency’s checkout coupons are removed. In Easy Digital Downloads, a coupon that has been used is turned off instead.