If you have ever wanted to give a regular customer a free coffee on the next visit inside Poster POS, you have probably discovered that it does not quite exist as a proper object. Poster has discounts, promotions, and a Certificate payment method, but it does not have vouchers in the real loyalty sense.
This is not a flaw in Poster. Poster is a point-of-sale system, and vouchers are a loyalty problem. The practical question is how to add that layer without replacing or modifying the POS. That is exactly where 7stamp Smart Vouchers fit.
Why discounts and promotions are not vouchers
A discount or promo code in Poster is a rule the cashier applies at the moment of payment. It does not follow the customer between visits. It does not expire by itself. It does not know whether the customer has already used it. If someone screenshots a code and forwards it to a friend, Poster does not treat that as a closed loyalty object.
A real voucher is different. It belongs to a specific customer or a specific issuance batch. It has a lifecycle of issued -> active -> redeemed -> expired. After redemption, the same voucher cannot be used again, even from a screenshot, even by a different cashier, even on another day.
What 7stamp adds on top of Poster
7stamp has a full voucher engine designed to sit above the POS. Each voucher can include:
- title and description so the customer understands the reward;
- validity rules such as unlimited, fixed expiry date, N days, or N months after issue;
- Redeem Code as text, QR, and barcode for easier checkout handling;
- state protection against screenshot reuse and double redemption.
The voucher lives inside the loyalty card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. As soon as the cashier identifies the customer in the 7stamp panel inside Poster, active vouchers are visible right there.
Five ways to issue a voucher
Most venues think about vouchers only as a reward after finishing a stamp card. In practice, you usually need several issuance paths:
- Reward for collecting stamps after the card goal is reached.
- Birthday gift issued automatically on the customer's birthday.
- Manual one-off gift to compensate service issues or thank a regular.
- Campaign voucher attached to a wallet push, email, or messenger message.
- Printed paper voucher with a unique QR or code for events, flyers, or delivery bags.
| Scenario | Typical use | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp reward | Buy 9 coffees, get 1 free later | Encourages repeat visits without forcing immediate redemption |
| Birthday gift | Free dessert this week | Runs automatically without staff involvement |
| Manual issue | Sorry for the delay, here is a coffee | Goodwill can be tracked instead of improvised |
| Campaign voucher | Come back, here is 15 percent off | Turns a message into a concrete reason to return |
| Printed voucher | Coupon at an event or in delivery | Lets you capture customers outside the venue |
How to redeem a voucher at the Poster checkout
The redemption flow at the Poster checkout is the same regardless of how the voucher was issued:
- The customer shows the voucher on the phone or on paper.
- The cashier opens the 7stamp panel inside Poster and finds the customer, or scans the voucher QR directly.
- The system shows the active vouchers available right now.
- The cashier taps Use, and the voucher moves to
redeemed. - The cashier records the gift in Poster with one of three standard methods: zero-price promo item, manual promotion, or Certificate payment.
Full step-by-step with screenshots
Redeem Code: the voucher as a digital item
Each voucher can carry a unique Redeem Code such as FREECOFFEE or BDAY25. The customer can see the code as text, QR, and barcode.
This is what makes vouchers compatible with Poster even in low-integration workflows. If Poster already has a promotion configured with the code FREECOFFEE, assign the same code to the voucher. The cashier applies the usual Poster promotion, while 7stamp closes the voucher lifecycle at the same time.
Redeem Codes can also hold payloads beyond a normal promo code, such as a top-up code, a link to a bonus, or an access key to an event. That makes the voucher a reusable marketing object rather than a one-off discount.
Why this is better than faking it with spreadsheets
Many venues imitate vouchers with a paper list, Excel sheet, or informal promo code sharing. The problem is not that the workaround is ugly. The problem is that it creates no reliable status, no customer-level history, and no protection against reuse.
Once vouchers have a real lifecycle, you can finally answer practical questions: which vouchers were issued, which were redeemed, which expired unused, and which campaign actually brought customers back.
Conclusion
Poster as a POS does not need to do everything. It needs to handle checkout, stock, and reporting. Vouchers are a loyalty problem, and 7stamp solves that layer on top without replacing the POS. If you have been approximating vouchers with discounts plus memory, this is the cleaner upgrade path.
