Would you like to understand exactly how RewardsWP decides which points a customer can spend? Each points transaction created in RewardsWP carries a status, and that status determines whether the points are included in the customer’s active balance. Knowing these statuses makes it easier to manage your loyalty program, resolve balance confusion, and follow what happens to points at every stage.
How Points Statuses Work
When a member earns or spends points, RewardsWP creates a points entry with an associated status. The status determines whether that entry is counted in the member’s available balance.
Think of it like a bank account:
- Approved points are like cleared funds — available to spend
- Pending points are like a pending deposit — visible but not yet available
- Expired points are like forfeited funds — no longer valid
- Revoked points are like reversed transactions — removed from the account
Only approved points contribute to the member’s spendable balance.
The Four Points Statuses
Approved
Approved is the most common status and represents points that are fully valid. These points are added to the customer’s balance either instantly or as soon as a qualifying condition is met. When a purchase reaches a confirmed state, or when a customer completes a behavior like signing up or leaving an approved product review, the system records the points as approved. Approved points also include any manual adjustments made by a store administrator.
For customers, approved points mean progress—these points are reflected in their balance, visible in their history, and ready to be exchanged for rewards.
Pending
Pending points are created only when the system is waiting for a final confirmation. This is typically used in cases where the order or action has not fully completed yet, such as Cash on Delivery purchases before payment confirmation, payment methods that require extra verification, or custom approval workflows that delay clearing of points.
Customers can see pending points in their history, but these points are not included in the balance they can spend until the associated condition is completed. Pending is not used by most earning actions, and it exists primarily to ensure accuracy in special payment scenarios.
Expired
If you set up point expiration, points eventually reach a point where they are no longer valid. When a customer’s oldest earned points pass their configured expiration period, RewardsWP automatically updates the status to expired using a scheduled task. Expired points are removed from the available balance, remain visible in history, and can no longer be redeemed or restored.
Revoked
Revoked points represent a reversal. This can happen when an order is refunded (fully or partially), when an administrator deducts points manually, or when fraud prevention systems remove previously granted points. The system immediately subtracts revoked points from the available balance and keeps a log entry explaining the reason.
Customers see the deduction instantly in their balance, along with the revoked entry and its accompanying note in their history.
How statuses affect a customer’s balance
RewardsWP calculates the active balance using only approved entries:
Available balance = Approved earned − Approved spent
Pending, expired, or revoked entries are never included in the active balance a customer can redeem from. They remain in history for transparency and record-keeping but don’t interfere with the points that are currently usable.
That’s it! A well-configured points program shouldn’t require constant supervision. Once earning rules, redemption rewards, branding, and expiration windows are set, the system maintains balances automatically, applies rewards when eligible, and tracks every transition clearly. The statuses act as a logbook, helping you follow what happened when needed, without making the program complicated for customers or administrators.