Every business is different. A restaurant in Accra will not have the same rules as a salon in Lagos. That is why Arova gives you lots of settings to make your loyalty program work the way you want. In this guide, we will walk through every settings tab on your dashboard, one by one, so you know exactly what each option does.
Your settings page has seven tabs across the top: General, Reward Engine, Risk & Limits, Loyalty Config, Messaging, Security, and Customer Fields. Let us look at each one.
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1. General Settings
The General tab is where you keep your basic business information. Click Settings on your dashboard, and you will land here first.Here is what each field means:
- Business Name: The name of your business as it appears everywhere in Arova.
- Business Country: The country where your shop operates. Changing this will also update your Default Phone Region automatically.
- Default Currency: The money your business uses. For example, GHS for Ghana Cedi, NGN for Nigerian Naira, or KES for Kenyan Shilling.
- Operating Timezone: This sets your business's local time. Arova uses this to know when a new day starts, which matters for things like daily limits.
- Default Phone Region: The country code Arova assumes when you type a phone number without the + sign. For example, if set to Ghana, typing `024 XXX XXXX` is treated as a Ghanaian number.
- Business Logo: Upload your shop's logo here. Customers will see this logo on your branded consumer wallet pages.
At the bottom of the settings page, you will also find quick links to Manage Branches (add or edit your shop locations) and Manage Team (invite staff and managers).
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2. Reward Engine
This is the heart of your loyalty program. Go to the Reward Engine tab to control how customers earn points.
Here is every setting explained:
1. Points Earned per Currency Spent (Earn Rate): This is how many points a customer gets for every 1 unit of your currency spent. For example, if you set it to `1.0000`, a customer who spends GHS 100 gets 100 points. If you set it to `0.1000`, they only get 10 points for the same purchase.
2. Minimum Spend to Earn Points (Per Transaction): The smallest single purchase that can earn points. If you set this to GHS 10, a customer who buys something for GHS 5 will not get any points for that visit. But their total spend is still tracked.
3. Minimum Lifetime Spend to Unlock: This is the total amount a customer must spend across all their visits before they start earning points at all. For example, if you set this to GHS 200, a brand new customer will not earn points until their total spending passes GHS 200. Set to 0 to let everyone earn from their very first purchase.
4. Minimum Eligible Visits: The number of times a customer must visit your shop before they can earn points. Set to 1 to allow points from the very first visit. Set to 3 if you want customers to come back at least three times before earning.
5. Rounding Mode: When the system calculates points, it sometimes gets decimal numbers like 5.7. "Round" means 5.7 becomes 6. "Floor" means 5.7 becomes 5. Floor is safer for your business because you never give extra points.
6. Redemption Value per Point: This tells the system how much money each point is worth when a customer redeems. For example, if set to 0.10, then 100 points equals GHS 10.00 in value. This is auto-filled from your earn rate but you can change it.
7. Tier Downgrade Grace Period (days): This setting only appears if you have loyalty tiers set up. If a customer's points drop below a tier threshold, this grace period gives them extra days to keep their current tier before they are moved down. Set to 0 for immediate downgrade.
8. Points Expiry (days): How many days until earned points disappear. Set to 365 for one year, 180 for six months, or 0 if you want points to last forever.
> Important note: Reward rule changes only apply to future transactions. All your past transaction history stays exactly the same and cannot be changed.
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3. Risk and Limits
This tab protects your business from mistakes, theft, and fraud. Go to the Risk & Limits tab.
Here is every safety control:
1. Daily Transaction Cap (Per Team Member): The maximum number of sales a staff member or manager can record in one business day. If a cashier tries to record more than this number, the system will block them. This stops people from making fake sales.
2. Daily Points Cap (Per Team Member): The maximum total points a staff member can give out in one day. Even if each sale is small, if the total points given reaches this number, the system will stop giving more until the next day.
3. Minimum Redemption Threshold (Points): The minimum points balance a customer must have before they can spend any points. For example, if set to 50, a customer with 40 points cannot redeem yet. They need at least 50.
4. Approval Threshold (Points): Redemptions below this number complete instantly. Redemptions above this number go into a pending queue and need the business owner's approval. Set to 0 if you want every single redemption to require approval. Learn more about how approvals work in our redemptions guide.
5. Minimum Visit Redemption Threshold: The minimum number of completed visits a customer must have before they are allowed to redeem any points at all. Set to 1 to allow redemption from the very first visit. Set to 5 if you want customers to prove they are loyal before spending points.
> Good to know: Daily caps apply to Staff and Manager accounts only. The business owner is never restricted by these limits.
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4. Loyalty Config
The Loyalty Config tab is where you can set up tiers, campaigns, and custom loyalty rules. This is the most advanced tab, but it is also very powerful.Loyalty Tiers
Tiers are like levels in a game. You can create levels such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold. When a customer collects enough points, they move up to a higher tier and earn bonus points. We have a full guide on this: How to Set Up Loyalty Tiers on Arova.Each tier has these fields:
- Name: The tier name (e.g., "Gold Member").
- Min Points: How many points a customer needs to enter this tier.
- Point Multiplier: The bonus multiplier. For example, `1.2000` means customers in this tier earn 20% extra points.
- Benefits Summary: A short description of the perks (e.g., "Free birthday gift").
- Active: A checkbox to turn this tier on or off.
Loyalty Campaigns
Campaigns let you group loyalty rules together. Think of a campaign as a folder for your special promotions. Each campaign has:
- Name: The campaign name (e.g., "Weekend Bonus").
- Description: A short note about what this campaign does.
- Priority: A number that decides which campaign wins when two campaigns apply to the same sale. Higher number = higher priority.
- Active: Turn the campaign on or off.
Loyalty Rules
Rules are the real magic. A rule says: "When THIS happens, give THAT reward." Each rule has:
- Rule Name: A name so you remember what the rule does (e.g., "First Visit Bonus").
- Trigger: What event starts the rule. Arova supports three triggers: SPEND (when a customer buys something), REFERRAL (when a customer brings a friend), and BIRTHDAY (on the customer's birthday).
- Campaign: Which campaign this rule belongs to (optional).
Each rule also has Conditions — extra filters that must be true for the rule to fire:
- Minimum/Maximum Spend: Only fire if the sale amount is within this range.
- Min/Max Visits: Only fire if the customer has visited a certain number of times.
- Min Lifetime Spend: Only fire after the customer has spent a certain total.
- Start/End Time: Only fire during certain hours of the day.
- Days of Week: Only fire on specific days (e.g., only on weekends).
And each rule has Rewards — what the customer gets when all conditions are met:
- Flat Bonus Points: A fixed number of extra points (e.g., +10 bonus points).
- Points Multiplier: Multiply the normal points (e.g., 2x means double points).
- Override Earn Rate: Replace the normal earn rate with a different one for this rule only.
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5. Messaging
The Messaging tab controls how your SMS text messages are sent to customers. You can send campaigns from the Campaigns page, but this tab controls the settings behind those messages.Campaign Messaging Settings
- Provider Mode: Choose who sends your text messages. By default, Arova sends them for you using your included SMS quota. You can also switch to your own Arkesel account if you need more messages.
- Sender ID Override: This is the name that appears when a customer receives your text. By default it says "Arova". You can change it to your business name (up to 11 characters).
- Custom Arkesel API Key: If you switched to your own Arkesel account, paste your API key here.
SMS Quota Dashboard
Below the settings, you will see three cards:- Current Provider: Shows which mode is active.
- Monthly Arova Quota: How many SMS segments your plan includes, and how many you have used this month.
- Current Cycle: The date range for your current billing cycle.
SMS Templates
Templates are pre-written messages you can reuse. Each template has a Name, a Description, and the Message Body. Inside the message body, you can use special tags like `<%customer_first_name%>` or `<%points_balance%>`. When the message is sent, the system replaces these tags with each customer's real information.---
6. Security
The Security tab is where you set your Approval PIN. This is a secret 6-digit number that the business owner uses to approve high-value redemptions.- New PIN: Type a 6-digit number.
- Confirm New PIN: Type the same number again to make sure you did not make a mistake.
- If you already have a PIN and want to change it, you must enter your Current PIN first.
- Forgot your PIN? Check the box that says "I forgot my PIN" and type your account password instead. This lets you reset your PIN safely.
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7. Customer Fields
The Customer Fields tab lets you add custom information fields to every customer profile. By default, Arova already stores a customer's name and phone number. But what if you also want to save their birthday, or their favorite product?To add a new field, fill in the form at the bottom:
- Label: The name of the field (e.g., "Birthday" or "Favourite Drink").
- Type: Choose the kind of data — Text, Number, Date, or Yes/No.
- Required: Check this box if staff must fill in this field when registering a new customer.
You can also delete fields you no longer need. Deleting a field stops collecting new data, but it does not delete the data you already have.
> Note: Custom customer fields are available on the Launch plan and above. If you are on the Starter plan, you will see a message asking you to upgrade.
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