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Raffles

Admin Manager

Use this page to run a prize draw where customers buy entries at the register.

Quick steps​

  1. Go to Settings, click Edit Settings and open the Operations tab. Under Promo Games, tick Enable Raffles, then click Update Settings.
  2. Open Raffles in the admin menu and click New Raffle.
  3. Fill in the Name, Prize, Entry Price ($) and Draw Frequency (and Draw Day for weekly or biweekly draws). Leave Active ticked.
  4. Click Create Raffle. An entry product (for example "Weekly Ounce Draw Entry") is added to your catalog.
  5. At the register, attach the customer, then ring up the entry product. Each one sold is one entry.
  6. On draw day, the draw runs by itself. To draw now, open the raffle and click Draw Now (private) or Go Live & Draw.
A customer is required

The register won't complete a sale with a raffle entry and no customer on it.

Common questions​

Do I have to draw it myself? No. Active raffles are drawn automatically within about 15 minutes of the draw time, and a weekly, biweekly or monthly raffle then opens its next round on its own.

I drew the raffle myself. How do I start the next round? Open the raffle and click Reset & Start New Round. Until you do, the register won't sell entries for it.

How are winners told? After an automatic draw or Go Live & Draw, winners with an email on file get an email with your Claim Instructions. Draw Now (private) sends no emails.

What if a sale with entries is voided or refunded? Those entries are removed from the draw. An entry that has already won is not taken back.

More detail: turning raffles on and how they work

Raffles let customers purchase entries at the register for a chance to win a prize. Each raffle automatically creates a sellable product in your catalog — cashiers ring it up like any other item and entries accumulate until the scheduled draw. Winners are selected randomly and can be drawn manually or on an automatic schedule.

Enabling Raffles​

The Raffles feature requires a feature flag to be active:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Edit Settings and open the Operations tab.
  2. In the Promo Games section, check Enable Raffles.
  3. Save settings.

Once enabled, the Raffles link appears in the admin navigation and sales of raffle entry products start recording entries.

info

Brother POS support can also switch raffles on for your store.

How Raffles Work​

  1. An admin or manager creates a raffle with a name, prize description, entry price, and draw schedule.
  2. The system automatically creates a product (e.g., "Weekly Ounce Draw Entry") in a Raffles category.
  3. Cashiers add this product to a sale at the register. Each unit sold creates one entry for the attached customer.
  4. Entries accumulate until the draw date arrives.
  5. Winners are selected randomly from all active entries — either manually by an admin or automatically when the draw date arrives (the system checks every 15 minutes).
  6. After an automatic draw, a recurring raffle (weekly, biweekly, monthly) opens its next round on its own. After a draw you run yourself, click Reset & Start New Round to open the next round (a Go Live & Draw with Last One Standing reopens by itself once the reveal is over). One-time raffles stay drawn.
Voided and refunded sales leave the draw

If a sale that bought raffle entries is voided or refunded, those entries are removed from the draw. An entry that has already won is not taken back.

Customer required

A customer must be attached to the sale to buy raffle entries. If the cart has a raffle entry product and no customer, the register refuses the sale with A customer must be attached to the order to purchase raffle entries.

More detail: every raffle setting

Creating a Raffle​

Navigate to Raffles in the admin panel and click New Raffle.

Basic Settings​

FieldRequiredDescription
NameYesIdentifies the raffle. Also used as the POS product name (e.g., "Weekly Ounce Draw").
PrizeYesShort description of the prize shown in the raffle list and on the detail page.
DescriptionNoOptional longer description.

Pricing & Limits​

FieldRequiredDescription
Entry Price ($)YesCost per entry, charged at the POS. Must be greater than $0.
Max Entries Per CustomerNoCap on how many entries a single customer can hold. Leave blank for unlimited. The register won't sell entries past the cap (see Entries the Register Refuses).

Draw Settings​

FieldRequiredDescription
Draw FrequencyYesWeekly, Biweekly, Monthly, or One Time.
Draw DayConditionalDay of the week the draw occurs. Required for weekly and biweekly raffles.
Next Draw DateNoDate and time of the next draw.

If you type a Next Draw Date, that date is used. Leave it blank and it's worked out for you from the frequency and draw day. If you later change the frequency or draw day, the date is worked out again, unless you also change the date in the same save, in which case your date is kept. For monthly raffles the draw falls at the start of the next calendar month: the 1st when the draw day is Sunday, the 2nd for Monday, and so on. For one-time raffles the date you enter is used as-is; if you leave it blank, it is set to the next draw day, a week or less away.

Draw Style & Mode​

FieldOptions
Draw StyleHow the draw is animated: Spin Wheel, Lotto Balls, or Grid Elimination.
Draw ModeSingle Shot (instant) picks the winners at once. Last One Standing (elimination) removes entries one at a time until the winners are left. Spin Wheel only works with Single Shot; Grid Elimination only works with Last One Standing; Lotto Balls works with either.
Elimination PacingFor Last One Standing only: Fast (5 seconds per entry), Medium (10 seconds) or Slow (30 seconds).

Prizes​

Set Number of prizes (up to 10) and list each prize from highest to lowest rank. The 1st-rank prize goes to the first winner drawn.

Broadcast & Claim Instructions​

FieldDescription
Broadcast this raffle on the public live pageShows the raffle and its draw on your public live raffle page (your store's address followed by /raffles/live), which you can put up on a TV.
Claim Instructions (shown in winner email)What a winner should do to collect their prize, e.g. "Show this email at the register within 7 days."

Active Toggle​

Check Active to make the raffle live. When active, the POS entry product is available and new entries can be created. Deactivating a raffle deactivates the entry product but does not delete existing entries.

Click Create Raffle to save.

More detail: the entry product at the register

The POS Entry Product​

When a raffle is created or its price/name/active state changes, the system automatically syncs a linked product:

  • Name: {Raffle Name} Entry
  • SKU: RAFFLE- followed by a number (unique, used for barcode scanning)
  • Category: Raffles (created automatically if it does not exist)
  • Stock: Set to 999,999 — treated as unlimited
  • Price: Matches the raffle entry price
  • Active: Mirrors the raffle's active state

The detail page shows the product's name and SKU. To adjust the product description or other catalog fields, use the Edit Product link beside it.

Entries the Register Refuses​

A raffle entry can't be sold when it couldn't be recorded:

  • The raffle has been drawn and is waiting for Reset & Start New Round, or it isn't active.
  • The customer would go over the cap. The entries they already hold plus the ones being bought come to more than Max Entries Per Customer.

When the register is online, it checks as the entry is added to the cart and shows a message such as "Jane Smith can have at most 5 entries in Weekly Ounce Draw and already has 4. Lower the quantity or remove the entry." The sale is checked again when it's completed, and refused before anything is recorded, with a message such as "Weekly Ounce Draw has been drawn and is waiting to be reset, so it isn't taking entries. Remove the raffle entry from the sale."

More detail: entries, draws and new rounds

Managing Entries​

The raffle detail page shows a paginated table of all entries. Each row includes:

  • # — the entry number (numbered in order)
  • Customer name
  • Receipt # of the sale (for entries added from sales)
  • Phone (as it was on the customer record when the entry was bought)
  • Purchased date and time
  • Status: Active (in the draw pool) or Winner (already drawn)

Entries are created automatically when a sale with the entry product completes. They can't be edited or removed one by one.

Add Entries from Sales​

While a raffle is active, the Add Entries from Sales section enters past purchases into the draw ("every purchase is a ticket"):

  1. Choose a Start date and End date.
  2. Under Entries, choose One per sale (repeat visits = more chances) or One per customer (cash sales counted individually).
  3. Optionally set a Minimum spend ($).
  4. Click Add Entries and confirm.

Sales without a customer are included too. Their entry is identified by its receipt number, and a winning entry shows the receipt number so you can post it for the customer to claim. A sale that already has an entry in this raffle isn't added twice.

Running a Draw​

Manual Draw​

  1. Open the raffle detail page.
  2. The Draw section appears while the raffle hasn't been drawn yet and has at least one active entry. It shows how many entries are in the pool.
  3. Choose how to draw:
    • Draw Now (private) — runs the draw on your screen only. Available for Spin Wheel and Lotto Balls raffles.
    • Go Live & Draw — runs the draw on your public live raffle page so customers can watch. This is the only option for Grid Elimination raffles.
  4. The animation plays and the winners are revealed. The raffle is now drawn.

The winners are chosen before the animation starts; the animation only reveals them.

Automatic Draw​

Every 15 minutes, Brother POS checks for active raffles whose draw date has arrived and draws the ones that have entries. For recurring raffles, the next round opens automatically once the draw is finished (for a Last One Standing draw, once the reveal is over) and the next draw date is set.

If the draw date passes while a recurring raffle has no entries, nothing is drawn and the draw date moves on to the next scheduled day. The next ticket sold waits for that date rather than being drawn right away. A one-time raffle keeps the date you chose.

Winner Emails​

After an automatic draw or a Go Live & Draw, each winner who has an email address on file is emailed. The email names the prize and its rank and includes your Claim Instructions. A Draw Now (private) draw does not send winner emails.

Resetting for the Next Round​

Automatic draws on recurring raffles open the next round by themselves. When you draw a recurring raffle yourself and it stays drawn, start the next round by hand:

  1. The winner banner appears on the raffle detail page.
  2. Click Reset & Start New Round.
  3. Confirm the prompt.

The reset:

  • Clears the winner banner
  • Deletes the round's other entries, so the new round starts empty
  • Keeps the winning entries, so you still have a record of who won each round (a past winner can't be drawn again)
  • Recalculates the next draw date based on frequency and day. A biweekly raffle whose draw date has passed stays on its every-two-weeks schedule, instead of drawing again the following week.
Reset promptly

While a raffle is drawn and waiting for a reset, the register won't sell entries for it. Reset promptly after a manual draw.

One-time raffles do not show the reset button. They stay drawn permanently.

caution

Resetting can't be undone. The non-winning entries from the completed round are permanently deleted.

Raffle Statuses​

StatusMeaning
ActiveAccepting entries; eligible for draw.
DrawingDraw is in progress (brief transitional state).
DrawnWinners have been selected. A recurring raffle drawn by hand waits for Reset & Start New Round; a one-time raffle is closed.

On the Raffles list, each raffle shows its entry count and how often it's drawn. A raffle waiting for its draw also shows Next: and the draw date; a drawn raffle shows the day it was drawn (for example Drawn September 29, 2026) instead.

More detail: best practices

Best Practices​

  1. Attach customers at the register. A raffle entry can't be sold without a customer on the sale. Train cashiers to look up or create a customer record before ringing up a raffle entry.
  2. Set an entry cap when appropriate. Max Entries Per Customer prevents one customer from dominating the pool without limiting overall participation.
  3. Use one-time raffles for special events. One-time draws are useful for grand prize giveaways where you do not want automatic recurrence.
  4. Let the auto-draw run for recurring raffles. Scheduled draws are picked up within 15 minutes of the draw time, winners are emailed, and the next round opens on its own.
  5. Collect email addresses. Winners are only emailed if their customer record has an email.
  6. Review entries before drawing manually. The entry count and list are visible on the detail page — confirm the pool looks correct before you draw.
  7. Do not delete a raffle with entries unless intended. Delete Raffle removes the raffle and all its entries. The POS entry product is not deleted — deactivate it from the product page if you no longer want it. The action prompts for confirmation and cannot be undone.

What's Next?​

  • Promo Games — Spin-to-win and scratch card promotions triggered by sales.
  • Sale Campaigns — Date-range and BOGO discount campaigns.
  • Feature Flags — Enable or disable raffles and other optional features.