Farm Credit

Farm Credit

Farm Credit is a balance that a customer can carry with a specific farm on GrownBy. It is linked to that farm’s shop and cannot be used at other farms.

Why Farm Credit?
  1. Farm credit is used in GrownBy as reimbursement for vacation weeks if you allow CSA share members to take vacation weeks.
  2. Farm Credit is a way of making a flexible share option, like what is sometimes called a spend-down share.
  3. It is also an easy way for a farmer to give a little extra $ to a customer. For instance, you may offer CSA distribution managers extra credit for their efforts, or you might say that customers that sign up for a CSA share before March first get $20 in farm credit to use in your store. You could also use farm credit in bartering situations if you trade with other producers. Or maybe you want to give your mom a little farm credit to your shop because, well, she’s your mom.
  4. It can be used for a refund when a full credit refund might not be necessary.
  5. It's a good way to keep customers engaged and committed to your shop.

Things farmers might need to know from a customer’s perspective:
  1. Customers can check their own farm credit balance from their account page. (They got to Account > Farm Credit.)
  2. Claiming a vacation week for a CSA share automatically gives that week’s cost of the share in farm credit. The Farm Credit is awarded when the customer claims the vacation week, not at the original pickup date occurs. The email notification for this comes from the farm via GrownBy and says that the credit has increased and that the reason is "the vacation week you requested."
  3. When a farmer changes a farm credit balance (either adding farm credit or debiting farm credit) the customer gets an email and push notification saying how much it has changed, what the current balance is, and the reason for the adjustment which is the “message to customer.”
  4. If a customer invoice is charged by the farmer, farm credit will not be used first as opposed to automatic payments when farm credit is always prioritized. 

How Farm Credit can be applied to a purchase:
  1. If a customer has a farm credit balance they will be prompted to use it at their next checkout. They can choose to not use the farm credit by deselecting the box.
  2. If a customer's cart contains farm credit, they will not be promoted to use farm credit to pay for it. IE a customer cannot purchase credit with credit. 
  3. If the farm credit covers their entire purchase, they'll be prompted to pay the balance with a credit card.
  4. If using installment payments, Farm Credit will be automatically applied to their next invoice.
  5. If they don't have enough Farm Credit to cover the whole order, they can use a credit card or EBT card to pay for the remaining balance. Farm Credit cannot be applied to part of an offline purchase, so they'll need to deselect the box that says "Use Farm Credit Balance."
  6. Even if they have used Farm Credit to cover the full order, there is an associated invoice that shows as paid with farm credit.

Farmers can:
  1. Create a farm credit product. Farmers only create this item one time but they can edit it from their product page.
  2. Check a customer’s balance on the customer’s detail page. You can also see all of the farm credit balances on the Customer .csv export.
  3. Adjust a customer’s farm credit balance on the customer’s detail page. You can add or debit a customer’s farm credit by clicking “Adjust Farm Credit”. You must include a message. The customer gets a notification about the changes in their balance. 
  4. See if Farm Credit was used to pay an invoice via the invoices page.
  5. Check the whole history of farm credit usage on a customer's account via Stripe. This is where you can see when and how farm credit was awarded and used.

Note:
  1. Farm credit can be used for anything in a farm’s shop, so if you carry items from other farms, customers can use the farm credit they have with you toward those items.
  2. When Farm Credit is used on a recurring invoice, sometimes a customer doesn't notice and feels like their balance is incorrect. That's when you'll need to look at the Farm Credit history on Stripe via the "see Details in Stripe" link on their customer detail page.
  3. Farm Credit as a digital product is automatically applied to an account. If a farm has customers who are buying Farm Credit with offline payments, the farm may want to manually remove that farm credit from the customer's account with a message that says "Your Farm Credit will be applied to your account when your payment is received." Then the farm can add it again when the invoice is marked as paid. 
  4. If a customer claims a vacation week and is awarded Farm Credit for that week and then the farm cancels the entire order, the the Farm Credit is not automatically removed from the account.

Related articles:
  1. Vacation Weeks
  2. Customizable shares
  3. Add a digital product

    • Related Articles

    • Customer Notifications

      Shoppers on GrownBy get notifications from the farms they buy from. Here's a list of the notifications that customers receive: Account set up Notifications: Welcome Email: When you join GrownBy or when a farmer Adds you as a customer to GrownBy ...

    • Adding Customers to Your Farm on GrownBy

      A farm admin can add customers through their GrownBy dashboard. You might want to do this if: You are moving from another platform or system to GrownBy and you want to get everyone started You have customers who are having trouble getting started ...

    • Create or Update Your Farm Profile in GrownBy 3.0

      Think of your farm profile as your farm's homepage on GrownBy. It's a place to tell your farm's story, share your certifications, and add photos and tags that help customers get to know you. What you'll need to create a profile: An image or two of ...

    • Customizable weeks options

      Some customers might want only a few weeks of a share. Or they may want to join your CSA, but will be gone multiple weeks over the course of the share. There are a few ways that you could make a very flexible share in GrownBy. And please let us know ...

    • Claiming a Vacation Week

      In GrownBy, you can claim a vacation week from a subscription and receive farm credit to be used towards a future purchase. Your farm may have specific policies about how many vacation weeks you can claim, when and for what products you are allowed ...