Boonora

How the whole system works

One card, carried by a client, that earns and spends at every business in the network — whether that business is part of the Business Lab or not. This is what each side gets, and exactly how the money moves.

The one rule

Everything below follows from this. There are no exceptions.

Whoever took the money owes it. Business Lab is the clearing house in every case. It is only the funder when it actually received the cash.

What happened	Who received the money	Who owes the value
Client buys a gift card	Business Lab	Business Lab
Client tops up their card	Business Lab	Business Lab
A business gives Boons back on a sale	Nobody — the business minted it	That business
Affiliate earns commission	Business Lab	Business Lab

When a client spends, the system knows which of those funded each dollar, and settles from that funder to whichever business served them.

The three kinds of value

They sit in one balance the client never has to think about, but they are not the same money.

Bucket	Where it came from	Backed by real cash?	Spent
`promo` — Boons	Earned at a business, or a signup bonus	No — it is a loyalty reward	First
`purchased`	The client bought credit	Yes — Business Lab holds it	Second
`gift_card`	Someone bought it for them	Yes — Business Lab holds it	Last

Spending in that order is deliberate: unbacked rewards drain before real money does, so the cash Business Lab is holding shrinks last, not first.

Why this matters at the counter. A member paying with Boons is spending value the business that gave them minted — that business settles it. A member paying with a gift card is spending cash Business Lab is already holding on their behalf. The client sees one balance; the ledger never confuses the two.

What happens when a member pays $50

Member pays $50 → Their one wallet → drawn down in this order:

1st→ promo — Boons ··→ the business that minted them settles →Business served

2nd→ purchased credit ··→ Business Lab settles →Business served

3rd→ gift_card balance ··→ Business Lab settles →Business served

Boons come out first, at the redeeming business’s own Boon value.
Then purchased credit, at face value.
Then gift-card balance, at face value.
For every dollar that came from another business, a settlement row is raised — that funder owes the business that served the member.
Business Lab pays the serving business and collects from the funder.

For a client

Joining — and why the door matters

How they joined	What it means	Do they owe anyone?
Through a person’s referral link	They become that person’s referral; the referrer earns on their spend	No — the referrer is paid by Business Lab
Through a business — QR at the counter	Attributed to that business	No
Straight from the website	Attributed to the Business Lab clearing house	No

Signing up is a name and a mobile number. On completion they automatically get a person record in the master database, a referral code of their own, a Boonora card issued, enrolment in the shared wallet, and 100 Boons ($1.00) instantly — so they see a balance before they have spent anything.

18 and over. A Boonora account is for adults. Signup asks the member to confirm their age, and the server refuses if it is not answered — a blank answer is never read as “adult”. Under-18s go on a parent or guardian’s card: the adult holds the balance, sets the PIN and is the party to the terms. A public QR cannot verify who somebody’s parent is, so that has to be set up by a team member from the parent’s own file.

What they can do

Earn everywhere

Every business in the network, into one balance. Nothing to clip or remember.

Spend anywhere

Boons earned at one business spend at another. That is the whole point.

Pay from the card

When it holds money, it pays like a gift card. PIN-protected.

Gift it

Buy a card for someone else. Unknown recipients complete their file on first sign-in.

Refer people

Earn on their spend, taken as Boonora credit.

Be recognised by a tap

After one scan, paying with Apple Pay identifies them automatically.

Fix their own problems

Change phone or email, replace a lost card, close the account — confirmed by a code to the contact already on file.

Carrying it

Printed card, the web app on a phone, or a pass in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. All three show the same member code and the same balance.

Tiers — earned, not bought

Tier comes from lifetime Boons earned, so it reflects use of the network rather than a purchase.

Tier	Reach it at	Earn rate	Referral	Member discount
Member	0	1×	10%	—
Boonora+	5,000 Boons	1.25×	12%	Yes
Boonora Elite	10,000 Boons	1.5×	15%	Yes

A Boon is a cent, so 100 Boons is $1.00. Reaching Boonora+ means having earned $50 in rewards. The member discount starts at Boonora+: it is a reason to keep using the network, not a giveaway at the door. It is applied automatically when the member’s code is scanned — staff never key it, and never need to know the member’s tier.

Identity — a phone is a household

Families share phone numbers, so signing in on a shared number asks which person rather than guessing. The same rule applies to a shared payment card at the counter, and to looking a member up by phone at the till — two people on one number always means staff pick, never the system. A phone in a digital wallet is personal, so that one is trusted silently.

For an affiliated business

Be Well, Pastry Palette, Birmingham Place, Infinity Capital, The Business Lab.

They run the full Business Lab platform — point of sale, kitchen display, café ordering, booking, intake forms, staff management, time clock, accounting views — and Boonora on top of it.

What they control

Earn rate — what percent of each sale comes back to the member as Boons
Member discount — what Boonora+ and Elite members get off at the counter
Boon value — what 100 Boons is worth when redeemed with them
Specials and gifts — offers that appear across the network

At the counter

Staff scan the member’s code to award Boons, or take Boons as payment. No code on them? Look them up by phone. A member tapping Apple Pay is recognised automatically once their card has been linked. Card readers take contactless, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.

A small Boons-only redemption goes through without a PIN — that is our own marketing spend, and asking for a PIN on a dollar of Boons is stricter than a contactless card. Anything reaching into money the member paid — purchased credit or a gift card — always asks for the PIN, at any amount.

Super-admin, Business Lab only

Switch into any company’s portal, see clients across every company, and view every business — affiliated or not — on one screen with its rates.

For a non-affiliated business

Bob’s Shoe Store, and every merchant signed after it.

No Business Lab presence at all. They hold Boonora credentials only. The two companies are integrated behind the scenes and separate in front of the merchant.

How they come on

A salesperson visits the shop
An agreement is emailed — owner’s name, manager, email, phone, and a link to connect banking
On approval they are provisioned: Merchant ID by email, PIN by SMS
A QR code goes on the counter

What they get

A terminal that installs on an iPhone like an app. From it they award and redeem Boons, set their own earn rate, member discount and Boon value, recover their own credentials, and connect Stripe to get paid.

What they do not get

Anything Business Lab. No portal, no point of sale, no client database. They see their own merchant activity and nothing else.

Getting paid

Settlement	Weekly — Fridays 09:00 ET, minimum $25
Issuance fee	1%
Redemption reserve	100%

One gap we have not closed. Settlement pays through a Stripe Connect account attached to merchant credentials — which only non-affiliated merchants have. An affiliated business has no Merchant ID and no terminal, so it has no route to be paid. Money owed between Business Lab and a company under the same ownership is arguably a book entry rather than a payout, but the code does not yet make that distinction. Unresolved.

The affiliate programme

Any member can refer people and earn a percentage of what those people spend — 10%, rising to 12% at Boonora+ and 15% at Elite.

Earnings are taken as Boonora credit, spendable anywhere in the network. Nothing converts to cash. That keeps the money circulating among the businesses, needs no float and no bank transfers, and keeps the whole system closed-loop.

One deliberate exclusion: referral rewards are switched off for the clinic. Paying a third party for sending a patient to a licensed practice is fee-splitting under Michigan’s Public Health Code, and it applies to anything of value — not just cash. A member’s own earning on their own spend is untouched, because that is a discount to the patient rather than a payment to a referrer.

Where it stands

Verified against production, 14 August 2026.

Piece	Status	Notes
Client signup, wallet, one card	Live	18+, with the parent-card route for under-18s
Counter: award, redeem, card readers	Live	—
Look a member up by phone	Live	Shared numbers always ask which person
Earn rates	Live	Set per business — members are earning
Member discount	Live	Applied automatically from the member’s tier on scan
Tiers and multipliers	Live	—
Affiliate earnings as network credit	Live	—
Member self-service	Live	—
Weekly settlement	Proven	Has really paid out; affiliated-merchant route still open (above)
Text messaging, both directions	Live	Pastry Palette texts on its own number
Apple Wallet pass	Nearly	Built and verified — needs the Pass Type ID certificate
Google Wallet pass	Waiting	Google’s review
Dependent card for under-18s	Not built	Signup sends them to a team member; the staff-side button does not exist yet

Boonora is a trading name of Loop Rewards LLC. Business Lab is the clearing house, not the owner of the value. This page describes the live behaviour of the system, not a proposal. Rates and tiers are set per business and can change — the numbers a member sees at the counter are always the live ones.