Set up a box

Make a farm box: what’s in it, its price, its seasons and box days, pickup and delivery, membership rules and policies.

Go to Sell → CSA boxes and press New box. To change a box later, open it and press Box settings.

The settings have six parts: Box, Price, Season, Pickup & delivery, Membership and Policies. On a wide screen, What members see beside them shows the box as members will see it, as you type.

Selling two sizes? Make a box for each, like “Veggie Share — Small” and “Veggie Share — Large”.

1. The box

• Name, for example “Summer Veggie Share”.
• What kind of share? Vegetable, Fruit, Fruit & vegetable, Meat, Egg, Dairy, Flower, Bread & bakery, Farm box, or Something else. With Something else, type your own name under What do you call it? (up to 40 characters), for example “Mushroom share”. Every box is listed under Subscriptions & Farm Boxes in the shop. Search goes by the box’s name and description, so use the same words there.
• Photo. You need one to publish.
• Description: who grows it, how the box changes through the season, and why people join. It opens the box’s page.
• Size (all optional): Size, Feeds, Items and Weight, for example “2–3 people” or “About 10 lb”.
• Typical items: up to 30 things that usually go in. Type to pick from your products, or paste a list.
• What do members see each week?
  • I’ll list what’s in the box: you post the week’s items before changes close, and members can swap items if you allow it.
  • It’s a surprise — a mix of what’s in season: nothing to post each week. Members see your typical items, and swaps are off.
• Product labels: how it’s raised or made, and dietary labels. Shown next to the price.

2. Price and payment

• Box price: what one box costs.
• Charge 5% GST on this box: off for most boxes, because fresh produce is zero-rated. Check with your accountant.
• Members can pay for the season: one payment covers every box left in the season they join. You can set a Season discount of up to 25%, taken off each box. This needs season dates, so a box that runs all year can’t offer it. Each new season is paid for on its own.

What a member pays shows each line for one box: the box, delivery (if you deliver), the service fee, GST on the box (if you charge it) and the tax on the service fee. With season payment on, it also shows what a season costs for someone joining today.

Members keep the price they signed up at. Each box is charged at that price or your current price, whichever is lower. A lower price reaches everyone. A higher price, or switching on GST, applies to new members only.

3. Season and schedule

• Runs all year: on for a box with no seasons. Off to set seasons, each with a Season name (optional), a First day and a Last day. Press Add a season to add another, up to 6. Members who pay each week carry on into the next season. Members who paid for a season finish with it. If you have another season planned, they get an email inviting them to join it.
• How often: Every week, Every two weeks, or both. Members choose one when they join.
• Box day: pickup and delivery both happen on this day.
• Changes close: 1 to 6 days before the box day, at a time you choose. That’s when skips, swaps and extras lock, the week’s boxes become orders, and members who pay each week are charged.

The box calendar

The Box calendar shows every box day in your seasons (or the next 12 months for a box that runs all year).

• Tap a box day to take that week off. Tap it again to put the box back.
• A week can come off until its changes close. After that it’s shown but can’t be changed.
• Nobody is charged for a week off. Members who paid for the season get that box back as Local Coins, with 5% extra.

Under the calendar, Holiday weeks lists the BC stat holidays (and Boxing Day) that fall in a week with one of your box days. Press Take the week off beside one to take it off.

If a change takes boxes away from members (new season dates, a removed season or a new box day), you’re asked first, with how many members it affects. A membership with no box days left ends, and members who paid for the season get their unused boxes back as Local Coins.

4. Pickup and delivery

Offer one or both. Members choose when they join.

Members pick up

• Set the pickup window with Pickup from and Until.
• Tick your Pickup places: your main location and any others you’ve added. To add one, press Add a pickup location in Settings.

We deliver

• You, or your driver, bring boxes to members’ doors on box day. Local Pass couriers aren’t involved, and you keep the delivery fee.
• Towns you deliver to: members can choose delivery only with an address in one of these towns. Many addresses in Saanich, Oak Bay and Esquimalt say “Victoria”, so if you deliver there, tick Victoria too.
• Delivery fee for each box: $0 for free delivery, up to $50. Like the box price, members keep the fee they signed up at, or your current fee if it’s lower.
• Delivered from and Until: your delivery window.
• Delivery notes (optional): shown to members who choose delivery.

Members already in keep what they chose. Turning off delivery, a town or a pickup place doesn’t move anyone already on it.

5. Membership

• Member limit (optional): when the box is full, people can join a waitlist. The first person on it is emailed when a spot opens.
• Boxes before a member can cancel: for members who pay each week. 0 lets them cancel any time. Members who paid for the season can always cancel and get back what’s left.
• Limit skips: off is recommended. Members who pay each week aren’t charged for a week they skip. Turn it on to allow a set number of skips each season (each calendar year for a box that runs all year).
• Members can pause: for members who pay each week. Set a Longest pause in weeks, or leave it blank for no limit.
• Members can swap items: for alternatives you offer each week, of about the same value. Set how many items a week. The price doesn’t change. Not shown for a surprise box.
• Members can add extras: your other products, like eggs, bread or honey, charged with that week’s box.
• Members can donate a week’s box: you still pack it and you’re still paid. Enter Who receives donated boxes, for example a food bank.

6. Policies

Write these in your own words. Members read them before they join.

• Member agreement: members tick a box agreeing to it when they join. Leave it empty and they aren’t asked. A change applies to people who join after you save.
• Missed pickup: what happens to a box nobody collects.
• Cancelling (optional): anything to add, like asking for a week’s notice.
• Crates and bags (optional): if you’d like crates or bags back.
• Welcome message (optional): added to the welcome email members get when they join.

For an empty agreement or missed-pickup policy, press Use our starting text and edit it. Rules members will see lists the rules written from your settings, so members see the same rules Local Pass holds them to.

Save and publish

• Publish puts the box on sale. People can find it on localpass.ca and join.
• Save draft saves it without putting it on sale.
• Once published, use Save changes. Unpublish moves the box to drafts: nobody can join, no boxes are made, and members who paid for the season get Local Coins for each week missed.

If something needs fixing, the bar at the top says how many things, and takes you to each one.