Farm Credit on GrownBy: A Flexible Way to Support CSA Members

Farm Credit on GrownBy: A Flexible Way to Support CSA Members


What is Farm Credit?

Farm Credit is a balance customers can hold with a specific farm on GrownBy. It is linked to that farm’s shop and can be used for future purchases, but cannot be used at other farms.



Why Use Farm Credit?

  • Vacation Week Reimbursement – If CSA members take a vacation week, Farm Credit can be used as a refund.
  • Flexible "Spend-Down" Shares – Customers can prepay and use credit as needed in a flexible CSA share.
  • Incentives & Rewards – Farm Credit can be an easy way to give a little extra $$$ to your farm shop. Offer early sign-up bonuses, volunteer appreciation, or barter with other producers.
    • EX 1 You may offer CSA distribution managers extra credit for their efforts
    • EX 2 You can run a limited time incentive offering a $20 farm credit to encourage customers to sign up for a CSA share before March 1st
    • EX 3 You could also use farm credit in bartering situations if you trade with other producers.
  • Partial Refunds – Farm Credits can be used for a partial refund when a full credit refund might not be necessary.
  • Customer Loyalty – Encourages repeat purchases, keep customers engaged, and committed to your shop

Customer Experience & Key Details

  • Customers can check their farm credit balance from their account page via Account > Farm Credit.
  • Vacation week claims automatically add Farm Credit to the customer’s balance. The Farm Credit is awarded when the customer claims the vacation week, rather than at the original pickup date. The email notification is sent automatically via GrownBy, informing the customer that their Farm Credit has has increased due to "the vacation week requested."
  • Customers receive automated emails and push notifications for all Farm Credit adjustments. When a farmer changes a farm credit balance (either adding farm credit or debiting farm credit) the customer gets an email and push notification saying how much it has changed, what the current balance is, and the reason for the adjustment which is the “message to customer.”
  • Farm Credit is prioritized for automatic payments but cannot be used for manually charged invoices. 
  • Farm Credit cannot be purchased using offline payments.

How Farm Credit can be applied to a purchase:

  1. A customer cannot purchase farm credit with farm credits; if a customer's cart contains farm credit, they will not be prompted to use farm credit to pay for it.
  2. If the farm credit covers their entire purchase, they'll be prompted to pay the balance with a credit card.
  3. If using installment payments, the Farm Credit will be automatically applied to their next invoice.
  4. If the Farm Credit amount does not cover the entire order, customers can use a credit card or EBT card to pay for the remaining balance. NOTE Farm Credit cannot be applied to part of an offline purchase, so customers will need to deselect the box that says "Use Farm Credit Balance" to complete their purchase.
  5. Even if customers use Farm Credit to cover the full order, there is an associated invoice that indicates the invoice was paid with farm credit.


Farmers Can:

  1. Create a farm credit product. Farmers only create this digital item one time, but can edit it from their product page.
  2. Check a customer’s balance on the customer’s detail page. You can also see all of the farm credit balances on the Customer .csv export.
  3. Adjust a customer’s farm credit balance on the customer’s detail page. Farmers can add or debit a customer’s farm credit by clicking “Adjust Farm Credit”. You must include a message to the customer, who will receive an automated notification about the changes in their balance. 
  4. Receive cash or check and and manually add Farm Credit to a customer's account.
  5. See if Farm Credit was used to pay an invoice via the invoices page.
  6. Check the whole history of farm credit usage on a customer's account via Stripe. This is also where you can see when and how farm credit was awarded and used for each customer. 

Keep In Mind

  1. Farm Credit can be used for any product in your shop, including those sourced from other farms.

  2. On recurring invoices, Farm Credit is automatically applied

    • customers may not immediately notice, and think their balance is incorrect. As a shop owner, you will need to look at the Farm Credit history on Stripe via the "See Details in Stripe" link on their customer detail page.

  3. If a customer claims a vacation week and is awarded Farm Credit for that week and then the farm cancels the entire order, the Farm Credit is not automatically removed from the account. Farmers must adjust the credit manually.

  1. Vacation Weeks
  2. Customizable Shares
  3. Digital Products

Still have questions? We have answers.

Email GrownBy support directly at support@grownby.app, or schedule a one-on-one call with one of our team members. A real human with farming experience will get back to you as soon as possible!

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