A chalkboard and a jar of paper tokens
Your café lets customers pay forward a coffee or a meal for someone who cannot afford one. A partner charity, a housing project or a GP surgery also refers people for a free meal each week, paid for by a small grant. It is one of the things your customers love about you.
The system is a chalkboard showing how many suspended coffees are waiting, a jar of paper tokens, and a folder of referral vouchers. When someone pays forward, the barista adds a tally mark. When someone redeems, they rub one out. Referral vouchers are stapled to the till roll. At the end of the month the grant funder asks how many referred meals were served, and the manager counts vouchers, some of which have gone missing. The chalkboard says twelve coffees are waiting, but nobody is sure it is right.
Why goodwill is hard to account for
| Scheme | How it is recorded now | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-it-forward drinks | Chalkboard tally | Rubbed off, miscounted, not in the till |
| Referred free meals | Paper vouchers | Lost, not linked to the referring partner |
| Discounted meals for members | Staff memory | Applied inconsistently |
| Staff and volunteer meals | Written on a pad | Not in the accounts |
Dignity matters too. People redeeming a free meal should not have to hand over a voucher in front of a queue or be asked awkward questions. Any system has to be discreet.
How these meals are treated in the accounts, and any tax questions, are for your accountant. We carry their categories through.
What informal tracking costs
The money given by customers who pay forward is held in trust, in effect. If the balance is wrong, either generous customers' money is not being passed on, or the café is giving away more than it has received.
Referral funders want numbers, and sometimes which partners referred whom. Paper vouchers do not give reliable figures, which puts future funding at risk.
And for the people using the scheme, an awkward or inconsistent process can mean they stop coming.
Pay-it-forward and referrals built into the till
What we build sits inside or alongside your till, such as Square, SumUp, Zettle or your café EPOS.
- A pay-it-forward item on the till adds to a live balance when a customer buys one. The balance shows on a screen or a small display by the counter, replacing the chalkboard.
- Redeeming uses a till button that takes one from the balance and records a zero-price sale, with no question asked beyond what your policy wants.
- Referral partners are given a set of reusable cards or codes, or issue a digital code by text to the person they refer. The barista scans or enters it discreetly, and the meal is recorded against the partner and the grant.
- Referral codes can carry a limit your scheme sets, such as one meal a week, checked by the till without the barista having to ask.
- Staff and volunteer meals are recorded with their own button and category.
- Monthly reports show pay-it-forward received and redeemed, referral meals by partner, and the cost against each grant, in the format your funders ask for.
No personal details of the person redeeming are needed unless your scheme or funder requires them, and then only through the referring partner.
A lunchtime with the new process
A customer pays for her lunch and adds a pay-it-forward coffee. The screen by the counter goes from eleven to twelve. Half an hour later a man asks if there is a coffee going. The barista presses one button, the count goes to eleven, and he has his drink without any fuss.
A woman shows a code on her phone from the housing project. The barista scans it and serves her lunch. At month end the manager sends the funder a report showing meals by partner, straight from the till data, and the pay-it-forward balance matches the money received.
Is this how your goodwill schemes run?
- The pay-it-forward balance is on a chalkboard or in someone's head.
- Referral vouchers are paper and sometimes go missing.
- Free and discounted meals are not in the till.
- Funders' questions about referred meals are hard to answer.
- Redeeming can feel awkward for the people using the scheme.