The new reward point system in Viart seems like a great feature we would like to use. Unfortunately, I cannot locate any information about HOW to use it.
 
Why are features added to the product, but the manuals are not updated to explain how to use them?
 
Under Product Settings, there is a setting "Conversion rate for money to points". What am I supposed to put here (a percentage or what?)
 
The manual seems very good at stating the obvious, but makes no mention of things that actually need explanation and details.

I understand that a sparkling new manual is in production - I too have mentioned that we need more explanations and definitions. This is an excellent program built by techie experts who have yet to find a way to communicate with simple souls like me. Nevertheless they are very patient and I find the support service extremely helpful.
 
I posed questions about bonus points when they were introduced recently and the responses are below, which may help. I am sure that Anjula will not mind me posting these here.
 
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1: When a customer completes a purchase I want to give him/her 20 Bonus Points for every ?10 ordered.
 
To specify 2 points per 1 pound you can use the following formula:
percentage = (reward_points * 100) / (price * points_conversion)
From your example reward_points = 20, price = 10, and from the second point we can get points_conversion = 200
As the result percentage = 1
 
In case you use 200 points conversion rate you are to specify the following parameters:
Reward Points Type = Percentage per product/option selling price
Reward Points Amount = 1
 
2: I want each Bonus Point to be worth ?0.005 on redemption?
Or this would be shown that 200 points will earn ?1 off the sales total when redeemed?
 
In this case the conversion rate for money to points will be 200.
 
3: Can I change this by product - e.g. if I want to allow customers to redeem 200 points for a ?2 discount for hair products?
 
Yes, it's possible to specify exact price in points for certain products. For instance, you can add special offers for some products, like buy this product only for 10 points.
 
4: Can I choose to issue a higher rate of points on some products?
E.G. where a product is more profitable I would offer more points.
 
Yes, sure. You can set a higher rate of points per each particular product via Administration > Products > Products&Categories, select a certain product and click the 'Points' tab.
 
5: Can the variation by product be created by product type? This would save the tedium of having to change dozens of products.
 
Unfortunately, so far there is no possibility to set different points rate per each product type.
 
I would also like to ask:
a: What does "Number of Decimal Points" mean?
 
This means, in what format you would like your points to be displayed and calculated. If you specify '0' in this field, then your points will be displayed like 70. In case you specify '4' - max allowed value in this field, then the points amount will be equal to 70.0000
 
b: what is "Reward Points Amount"?
 
This amount shows how many points are given to a customer who will purchase this order.
 
c: Show points Price = what does this actually show?
 
Points Price is like a conversion rate, in other words, this is the price that you want your clients to pay in points for the product.
If you want to display the cost of product in the points after the real price, like here, you can select the pages where this points cost will be displayed:
Price: 100 pounds
Points Price: 20000 points
 
d: Show reward Points = I presume this shows how many points the customer has accumulated?
 
Yes, it shows how many points your customer will get when purchasing this or that product.
 
e: Accumulate Points - does this just mean that the customer can collect points over a number of orders and redeem them when they choose - such as saving for Christmas?
 
Sometimes, you may want your user to earn points when he pays for the goods with points as well.
In case, you are not going to allow your customers to earn points when they pay with points you can un-check this check box.
 
in : Administration > Order Statuses > Edit Status there is the field: Points Action with options: Subtract points from user balance Return points to user balance Could you please explain these?
 
This means that for some order status you can select whether to subtract points from a user balance or not.
For example, as a rule when the status of the order is changed to a Paid and a user pays with points for some products it can automatically subtract the points from his balance. In case you decide, for some reason, to Refund the order with the product bought for points and set an appropriate status with the 'Return points to user balance' option, it will automatically return the points amount to a user balance.

Thanks for posting this. We will be replacing our current shop system with ViArt and I am truly amazed about the completness and feature richness of the application.
 
On the other hand, I think from ViArt perspective, this application is too support intense. There is considerable time required to understand the structure of the application. For example I had a really hard time finding out the correlation between the various email templates. It is not always logically where to find what.
 
ALso the customization is not easy and required us to get ViArt involved.
 
However, I must say that this company offers one of the best support I have ever seen. They are very patient answering my (dumb) questions and explaining how things work.
 
A new manual is surely needed and I hope it will be there soon.
 
Other then that, this is the coolest commerce solution I have come accross.

Hello DickS
 
I totally agree with you.
 
I have found Viart people excellent but I, also, would be happier with a detailed manual that gave reasons and tips for features as well as the technical details and descriptions.
 
I also struggle at times with definitions - the meanings of words/phrases used in Viart often do not tie in with my real-world usage. So, defining field labels, column headers, etc would also be very important.
 
Regards
 
Chris