PerkStack

How Points Work

Every customer has a points balance and a running history of how they got there. Points go up when a customer earns, down when they redeem a reward, and you can adjust a balance by hand at any time. Every change is recorded, so a balance and its full history are always accurate.

Balances and activity

A customer's balance is simply the points they have available to spend right now. Behind it is an activity history — a dated list of every change, each with a plain-language label:

  • Earned — from a purchase, signup, review, social share, birthday, or referral.
  • Redeemed — points spent on a reward from your catalog.
  • Adjusted — points you added or removed by hand from the customer's page.
  • Expired — points removed by your expiry policy, if you use one.

Customers see their own recent activity on the loyalty page and in their account, filtered by type and time period. You see the same history, plus manual controls, on each customer's detail page.

Refunds reverse points

If an order is refunded or cancelled, the points earned on it are reversed automatically, so a customer can't keep points for a purchase they returned. You never have to chase this down by hand.

Need to correct a balance — a goodwill gesture, a fix after a support ticket? Use Adjust points on the customer's detail page. The change and your reason are recorded in their history.

Points expiry

Essential By default, points never expire. If you'd rather keep balances active, you can set an expiry period so unused points clear after a while — a gentle nudge for customers to come back and spend. Configure it in PerkStack → Settings → General.

  • Expiry period (months) — how long points last after they're earned. Default: never. Expiry is based on when each batch of points was earned.
  • Notification (days before) — how far ahead to warn customers. Default: 30 days.

Before points expire, PerkStack sends two reminder emails so customers have time to earn or redeem and reset the clock. Expired points are removed automatically — there's nothing for you to run.

Turning on expiry applies to points customers have already earned. Consider giving customers a heads-up before you enable it.

Points delay

Essential Points delay holds a customer's purchase points as pending for a set number of days after an order, then releases them. If the order is refunded within that window, the pending points are simply cancelled — no awkward clawback from a balance the customer thought they had. Configure it in Settings → General.

  • Delay purchase points — off by default (purchase points land right away).
  • Delay (days) — how long to hold points. Default: 30, allowed range 1–365. Matching your return window is a good rule of thumb.

Only purchase points are delayed — signup, review, birthday, social, and referral points are awarded immediately. Pending points don't count toward a customer's balance or VIP tier until they're released. Customers see their pending total on the launcher, in their account, and at checkout, so there's no confusion about when points arrive.

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