How does the Scanner work at the venue?

The Scanner reads event tickets and loyalty cards on one screen — award stamps or points, enrol customers on the spot, redeem rewards and adjust balances.

The Scanner (sidebar → Front of house; it also works in the staff portal) is one front-of-house tool for two jobs: checking event tickets at the door and running your loyalty scheme in the venue. It appears once events or loyalty is available to you.

Two modes, one screen

When more than one Scanner family is available to your venue, a Tickets · Loyalty · Gift cards strip sits at the top — tap Loyalty to scan member cards, Tickets to scan event tickets (with the event picker inside), or Gift cards to take gift card payments (Redeeming gift cards at the venue). The very first time you open the Scanner it lands on the loyalty mode when your scheme is live; after that it remembers whichever mode you used last on that device. And if a customer holds up the wrong kind of code for the mode you're in — a loyalty card in Tickets mode, a gift card anywhere — the Scanner recognises it and offers the right mode in one tap. Once you've allowed the camera on a device, it starts by itself on later visits — first-timers still get a Start camera button.

Finding a member

Scanning the QR on a member's card is quickest, but the search box below the camera works too: Find a member — email, name, phone or code… takes an email address, their name, a phone number or a typed loyalty number. Name and phone searches list the matches — each labelled Member or Not a member yet — and one tap opens the right card. (Searching by name or phone uses the customer list, so it needs the Customers permission; email and loyalty-number lookups work for everyone with Scanner access.)

The member card

Opening a member's card shows it before any buttons: name, balance ("3 of 9 stamps" or points), and their status — Member, or Awaiting confirmation for someone who hasn't confirmed their email yet (no points move until they do). Crucially, if they've already earned today, the screen says Already earned today before you can award anything — so a double award takes a deliberate, explicit tap on Award again (separate visit), and once the member hits the scheme's daily limit the button becomes Daily earn limit reached and stops. And when your scheme awards automatically on a visit, the card shows a small Auto-award is on note if this member has a booking today that hasn't been cleared yet — their visit will earn on its own, so there's no need to award it by hand (at the usual one-a-day limit, awarding manually now simply uses up that automatic one). That note never appears if your venue doesn't mark tables as cleared, because nothing would ever earn on its own — award by hand there. Below the buttons, a Recent activity section lists the member's last five movements — earns, redemptions, adjustments — each with a date and a signed amount; Show more pages further back, and a brand-new member simply sees "No activity yet".

Signing up a customer on the spot

Look a customer up and they're not a member? The Scanner says Not a member yet and offers Enrol this customer — one tap creates their membership and their member card appears straight away, ready to earn. It counts as a normal join, so a join bonus (if your scheme has one) is given as usual. The button shows only to staff with the "Award stamps and points" permission, and only when the lookup carried an email address (typing an email, or picking a name/phone match) — a scanned code that isn't recognised shows Not a member card with no enrol button, because a QR code carries no email address to enrol with.

Awarding a visit

The big earn button matches your scheme: Add a stamp, Award a visit (points per visit), or Award points on per-£-spent schemes — where a number pad asks you to Enter the bill amount and shows how many points that spend earns before you confirm. If your scheme requires a real visit, a picker asks Which visit is this for? and lists today's bookings and walk-ins to link the earn to. Right after an award, a "Stamp added — Undo" message appears for a few seconds; if you awarded by mistake, Undo reverses it cleanly (it works for 5 minutes, only for the staff member who made the award, and the customer can still earn normally that day).

Redeeming

Redeem a reward lists the rewards catalogue — tap a reward and confirm ("Redeem this reward?") to redeem it, exactly once; rewards the member can't yet afford are greyed with how many stamps or points they still need. The member's Saved offers (offers they added to their account) appear on the same screen for one-tap redemption; offers that only apply at online checkout say so instead of offering a button. A waiting booking perk also shows here, with a jump to the booking.

Adjusting a balance

Adjust balance opens a pad with Add / Remove, an amount (up to 50 stamps or 10,000 points per adjustment) and a required reason of at least 10 characters — every adjustment is named and recorded in the activity log. Staff without the adjust permission can hand the device to a manager: their approval PIN authorises that one adjustment, just like refunds and other money actions at the venue. The same adjustment (same pad, same approval) is also available from each row of the Loyalty page's member list — handy at a desk, away from the Scanner.

When something's off

• Not a member card — the code isn't a loyalty member; scan again or look them up by email (an email miss can be enrolled on the spot — see "Signing up a customer on the spot" above).
• No connection — the Scanner tells you plainly: note the visit down and add the points later once you're back online (as a logged adjustment). There's no offline queue, so nothing is silently lost or double-counted.

Access to the Scanner needs the ticket-redemption permission or any of the loyalty permissions (earn, redeem or adjust) — the gift card segment additionally appears for staff who can redeem gift cards. The server re-checks every action.

Related: How do I check tickets at the door? · How do I set up a loyalty scheme? · How do approvals with a manager's PIN work? · How do saved offers work?