User Manual

1. Overview

Local Loyalty is a community-wide loyalty program. Consumers pay a small membership and earn points across every participating local business; businesses attract repeat customers and share access to a shared rewards network; administrators oversee the marketplace.

The system has three roles:

• Consumer — pays for a membership, earns and redeems points.
• Business — owner of one storefront, accepts check-ins, runs rewards and ads.
• Admin — manages businesses, categories, ads, plans, and other admins.

2. Accounts & sign-in

Creating an account

• Consumers: /signup/consumer — pick a plan, enter email + password, verify email.
• Businesses: /signup/business — create owner account, fill in business profile, await admin approval.

Signing in

Use /login with your email and password. After signing in, you're redirected to the dashboard for your role: /app (consumer), /business (business owner), or /admin (admin).

Password reset

Click Forgot password on the sign-in screen to receive a reset email.

Roles & security

Roles are stored in a dedicated user_roles table and enforced by row-level security in the database. Each user only sees the data their role grants them.

3. Consumer workspace

Available at /app after signing in.

• Dashboard (/app) — points balance, recent activity, featured rewards.
• Purchases (/app/purchases) — every check-in, amount spent, points awarded, and business.
• Rewards (/app/rewards) — browse and redeem available rewards across all businesses.
• Reports (/app/reports) — spending by business, visualized.
• Profile (/app/profile) — name, location, membership plan, sign-out.

4. Business workspace

Available at /business for approved business owners.

• Dashboard (/business) — visits, revenue, points awarded today, customer count.
• QR & NFC (/business/qr) — generate and manage check-in tokens (see §5).
• Customers (/business/customers) — list of members who've checked in with this business.
• Rewards (/business/rewards) — create rewards with a name, description, and point cost.
• Ads (/business/ads) — submit ad campaigns with start/end dates. Ads require admin approval.
• Reports (/business/reports) — revenue and engagement charts.
• Profile (/business/profile) — name, category, description, logo, address.

5. QR codes & NFC check-ins

Generating a code

1. Open /business/qr.
2. Click Generate new code.
3. A unique check-in token is created and rendered as a QR image.
4. Print it, place it at the register, or write the URL onto an NFC chip — every scan or tap takes the customer to /checkin/<token>.

Customer check-in flow

1. Customer scans the QR (or taps NFC) at checkout.
2. The check-in page identifies the business and prompts the customer (or cashier) to enter the purchase amount.
3. Points are calculated from the business's earn rate and added to the customer's balance instantly.

You can generate as many codes as you like — one per location, per register, or per device.

6. Rewards & redemption

Creating rewards (business)

In /business/rewards, click New reward. Set the title, description, point cost, and optional expiry. Published rewards appear in the consumer rewards catalog.

Redeeming (consumer)

In /app/rewards, tap a reward, confirm the cost, and present the generated redemption code to the business. Points are deducted on confirmation.

7. Ads & promotions

Businesses can submit promotional ads (title, description, dates) from /business/ads. Submissions are queued for admin review at /admin/ads; approved ads appear on the public homepage during their run window.

8. Reports & analytics

• Consumer reports — spending by business, totals over time.
• Business reports — daily revenue, visits, points awarded.
• Admin reports — system-wide consumer and business performance at /admin/reports/consumers and /admin/reports/businesses.

9. Administrator tools

Available at /admin for users with the admin role.

• Businesses (/admin/businesses) — review every registered business. The View action opens the business workspace in impersonation mode (URL gains ?as=<id>) so you see exactly what the owner sees. A banner at the top lets you exit back to admin.
• Consumers (/admin/consumers) — every enrolled member, with status and points.
• Ads (/admin/ads) — approve or reject submitted campaigns.
• Categories (/admin/categories) — manage business directory taxonomy.
• Plans (/admin/plans) — create and edit membership tiers and pricing.
• Admins (/admin/admins) — grant or revoke the admin role; pick an existing user from the dropdown.
• Reports — system-wide performance dashboards.

Impersonation

The ?as=<businessId> search parameter is preserved across every navigation while impersonating, so all business sub-pages (QR & NFC, Rewards, Customers, etc.) work as the selected business. Click Exit in the banner to return to admin.

10. Memberships & billing

Plans are listed at /plans. Each plan defines a price and benefits. Consumers choose a plan during signup and can switch from their profile. Admins manage available plans at /admin/plans.

11. Public business directory

Anyone can browse the directory at /businesses. Filter by category and open a profile at /businesses/<id> to see hours, description, current rewards, and active promotions.

12. Profile & settings

• Consumer profile (/app/profile) — name, contact, city/state, membership plan.
• Business profile (/business/profile) — public storefront details and logo.
• Sign out — available from the avatar menu in the top bar of every dashboard.