2025 Cookie Program FAQ

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Girl Scout Cookie Program. If you
have additional questions, email info@gsnorcal.org or call the Cookie Hotline at 510-995-2900

Scroll through the questions below or jump to a topic below:

General

What do I do if someone steals money or cookies?
Complete and submit the Incident Report Form and/or the ACH Credit Form.

If I have material shortages, like order cards or receipt books, who should I contact?
Reach out to your Service Cookie program Advisor, who has extra materials. If you still need more or they don’t have what you need, please email info@gsnorcal.org, with your needs, troop number, and the address you would like that sent too, with Subject Line: TROOP MATERIALS NEEDED.

What is the difference between “Go Day” and the Cookie Delivery Date?
“Go Day” has been discontinued this year.

• January 13: Digital Cookie (DC) opens, and the program begins. You can start taking preorders (e.g., from friends, family, or parents’ workplaces/schools).
• January 29: Troop cookie deliveries begin. Once troops have received their cookies, they can start door-to-door sales and cookie deliveries. Money should be collected at delivery. Once cookies are in hand, you can deliver them, run booth sales, and participate in secured council or service unit booths.

Can Girl Scouts still participate after the program begins?
Yes, contact the Cookie Hotline at 510-995-2900 or email info@gsnorcal.org with your Girl Scout’s details.

What should I do if a parent has not paid the troop?
Submit the Parent Past Due Cookie Account Form by March 23, 2025. If the form is not submitted by this deadline, the troop cookie manager will be held accountable for any missing funds. They will need to work with the caregiver directly to resolve the issue or decide to let it go. Contact info@gsnorcal.org with further questions.

How do I ensure my mailing address is up to date?
Update your mailing and email addresses in MYGS before March 1, 2025 to ensure accurate information for reward distribution.

What should we do if we find or see a Girl Scout selling cookies before the program start date?
Encourage troops to act honestly and fairly, following the Girl Scout Promise and Law, to address the issue early. If preventative measures fail, contact the Cookie Hotline at 510-995-2900 and provide the troop number, date, time, and location.

Additional Guidance: To avoid consumer confusion, wait until you have cookies in hand before going door-to-door.

Can Girl Scouts change troops after the program begins?
Yes, in special circumstances. Please reach out to info@gsnorcal.org or the Cookie Hotline at 510-995-2900 for assistance.

What are the opt-out options for troops?
Troops of all ages can opt out of all individual rewards in exchange for an additional $0.15 per package sold. Girl Scouts will still receive any earned patches, troop rewards, the 1000+ acrylic, and the 2000+ CEO reward.

I’ve submitted my rewards. Can I still make updates?
Updates can be made until the troop submission deadline. Troops can be unlocked and resubmitted. However, once GSNorCal submits the order to the baker, no changes can be made. Refer to your cookie program calendar for details on submission deadlines.

What should I do if I have not received my rewards?
Contact your Troop Cookie Chair or Service Unit Cookie Program Advisor to report missing rewards.

What should a Service Unit do if troops don’t pick up their rewards?
Hold the rewards for one year and actively try to reach troop leaders. After one year, rewards can be used as prizes for service unit events.

Where can I find extra help with allocating Care to Share in Smart Cookies?
Check out the gsHelp Center article Allocating Care To Share in Smart Cookies.

When a customer purchases Care to Share in Digital Cookie, does Care to Share automatically allocate to the Girl Scout in Smart Cookies?
When customers order Care to Share cookies through Digital Cookie, it depends on how they were ordered as to where the Troop Cookie Chair needs to allocate them in Smart Cookies. It is suggested you wait until the end of the program, after cookie sales have ended, to allocate all Care to Share cookies that came through Digital Cookie and
need allocated. These are allocated through the Virtual Cookie Share page under the Order tab>Virtual Cookie Share in Smart Cookies.

Use the chart below for some clarity:

Order Type	Allocate in Smart Cookies?—Where?	Same as eBudde
Girl Delivered with Donation	Yes, via the Virtual Cookie Share Tab
Shipped with Donation	No, it is automatically credited in Smart Cookies
Donated only	Yes, via the Virtual Cookie Share Tab
Cookies in-hand at a booth (troop inventory)	Yes, via the Smart Booth Divider Tab
Cookies in-hand (not at a booth/in-person/door-to-door)	Yes, via the Virtual Cookie Share Tab

If customer orders Care to Share with cash and in-person, do I need to allocate that to the Girl Scouts in Smart Cookies?
Yes, if a customer purchases Care to Share in-person (not at a booth sale) using cash, troop volunteers must allocate any Care to Share Cookies via the Virtual Cookie Share tab (we are a direct sale council). When the cash is submitted, troop volunteers must also record the payment in the Finances tab.

Do we need to record money we collect from families/Girl Scouts in Smart Cookie?
Yes, money collected from Girls Scouts/families and submitted to the troop, needs to be recorded in Smart Cookies. This includes all forms of payment, cash, credit cards, or checks (if your troop is accepting checks). This is done in in the Finances tab (Digital Cookie transactions automatically populate in Smart Cookies).

Does the cash collected at the booth need to be recorded in Smart Cookies?
No, as long as you are using the Smart Booth Divider to credit Girl Scouts with the sales. Just deposit the cash into the Troop Bank account, you do not need to record it in Smart Cookies.
A Girl Scout selling their own stock at a booth should be treated as an individual sale and not a booth sale and should be credited as a payment in Smart Cookies under the Finances tab for
that Girl Scout. She is just selling her own cookies.

Why are we allocating booth cookies to girls?
Girl Scouts receive credit for all the packages they sell. If the cookies are not allocated to the Girl Scouts who worked the booth, they will not be properly rewarded at the end of the cookie program.

What does “booth cookies” mean?
Booth cookies are troop inventory sold at a booth.

How is it best to allocate my booth cookies?
By using the Smart Booth Divider. From the Booth Tab > Troop Reservations, locate the booth you wish to divide. Select the 3 dots and click on Smart Booth Divider.

• Enter the amounts of each variety purchased at the booth, including how many Care to Share.
• Then select “Save and Distribute” to select the Girl Scouts you wish to give credit to, then the Smart Booth Divider will evenly distribute the cookies across all the Girl Scouts. You can then manually make adjustments to these amounts based on how long Girl Scouts were at booths or as you see fit. Please note uneven amounts will need to be adjusted until all cookies have been allocated.
• To reconcile finances from the Booth tab > View Credit Card Payments and sort to find that booth location or download the Excel file and sort it to find the specific booth (date, time, location). Verify the amount of credit card payments and reconcile with total cash collected.

How about door-to-door that uses troop inventory?
When going door-to door, it is best practice for Girl Scouts to use their individual stock. However, Girl Scouts can use troop inventory, so as to not have financial responsibility. To do so, you can transfer cookies using the Troop to Girl Transfer.

• Write a receipt for the troop cookies they will be using.
• Once the cookies and money are returned, transfer the amount sold by each Girl Scout using a Troop to Girl Transfer under BOOTH CASES/PACKAGES. This assumes the troop collected all monies and is only allocating credit to the Girl Scouts for packages sold.

How do I distribute Initial order stock?
It’s good practice to schedule staggered pick-up times, if you’re not doing it at your troop meetings. When distributing initial orders, make sure both parties count out the cookies, write a M3 receipt, have both parties sign, and leave with a copy. Then make sure to transfer the cookies in Smart Cookies from the troop to the Girl Scout using a Troop to Girl Transfer.

I did a girl-to-girl (G2G) transfer in Smart Cookies, where can I see it? I cannot see it under the Transfer filter.
If you have made many transfers, you made need to do a refined search to view your girl-to-girl transfers. To do this start by selecting Orders>Manage Orders, below the white filters bar click on the Refine Serach drop down arrow. Then select the Girl Scout (s) you are looking for, or click All, scroll down then select Apply Search Parameters.

Does Direct Ship Orders come from Girl Scout inventory?
No, Direct Ship cookies come directly from GSUSA inventory and not the Girl Scouts inventory. All direct ship orders physically and financially are credited to the Girl Scout in Smart Cookies.

Why don’t the total number of cookies sold in Smart Cookies and Digital Cookie look like they match?
The reason is Smart Cookie shows ALL cookies allocated to a Girl Scout from the troop inventory or various transfers (T2G, G2G) whether they are sold or not.  Digital Cookie shows all orders paid for by credit card.

The Sold By Channel tab on the Dashboard in Smart Cookies is displaying the total number of cookies that have been allocated to a Girl Scout including initial order cookies, net transferred (T2G,G2G), booth cookies, Care to Share, and direct shipped, as well as the total finances equivalent to the number of boxes allocated. Digital Cookies is only showing the sold number cookie orders.

What happens if we used the Troop Site link for in person delivery instead of our Girl Site link? Where can I see these sales?
From Smart Cookies click on Booth> Troop Reservations. These sales get dropped into a Virtual Delivery— Pending Distribution, Online Booth Sales for deliver holding tank, that you will need to distribute using the Smart Booth Divider. These in-person delivery orders from the troop site link, will have the finances attached to them when distributed to the appropriate Girl Scouts.

What happens if I miss the acceptance deadline for girl-delivered orders?
At the time of ordering, customers choose their secondary fulfillment option: shipped, donate, or refund. This selected option will be automatically applied if the deadline is missed.

When girl-delivered orders come into Digital Cookies, do I need to allocate those cookie
in Smart Cookies?
Yes, all girl-delivered cookie orders must be credited to the Girl Scout, when caregiver picks them up from the troop and signs a receipt, in Smart Cookies, via Troop to Girl Transfers.

Do we need to connect our own account to use PayPal or Venmo?
No, PayPal and Venmo are linked through the Digital Cookie app and payments will be reflected in Smart Cookies.

What are some of the more useful reports in Smart Cookies?
From Reporting > Current you can pull several reports. Some of the most helpful and common
are the following:

Girl Cookie Order Details

• Show their total Digital Cookie sales broken down (between DC and SC)
• Show total Care to Care
• Show order by variety

Girl Balance Summary

• All transfers of cookies in and out of Girl Scouts account
• All financial transactions by type (including DC, SC, Booth, and In-Person)
• List totals – not broken down

Available Booth Sale Summary

• Lists all available booth locations and time slots.
• Selection criteria include location, start and end date

Troop Balance Summary

• Reports Troop information including proceed and recognition plans, girls registered and selling.
• Initial orders, transfers, Ship only and cookie share orders.
• Reports troop proceeds and amounts due to Council and all financial transactions. Useful as a final report.
  
  You can also consult Reconciling Reporting in Digital Cookie and Smart Cookies – Troops (Quick Bite).

Where can I find the program dates?
Check out the 2025 Girl Scout Cookie Program Resources gsHelpCenter article, or the Troop Cookie Chair Guide.

What kinds of things will I find the Google Drive?
The Google Drive contains slide decks, contact list, Excel workbooks, and other supporting documents that may contains links that can be found in your Troop Cookie Chair Guide.

What will I find in the Troop Cookie Chair Guide?
Almost all the information and answers to most of your questions will be found in the Troop Cookie Chair Guide, so refer to this as your go-to resource! It is a digital document that covers the topics of:

What will I find on the 2025 Girl Scout Cookie Program Resources gsHelpCenter article?
Links to all three Cookie Program Guides (Troop, Service Unit, and Family). You will also find links and information about:

• Care to Share
• Program Calendar
• Cookie Training
• Marketing Materials
• Cookie Program FAQs
• Council Credit Information

When should I contact ABC Bakers?
If you need help with Smart Cookies, ABC Bakers are ready to assist from 6am to 9pm PST. Call 855-444-6682 or email at ABCSmartCookieTechSupport@hearthsidefoods.com.

When should I contact the Entrepreneurship Program Team?
While we understand many questions may arise throughout the program, our mighty team of six are working hard to meet all your needs. To help ensure that urgent needs are met immediately, consult with your Service Unit Cookie Program Advisors as they are your first line of support. If they are unable to help you, and the trainings and resource materials do not have the answers you are seeking, please submit your inquires to info@gsnorcal.org or call the Cookie Hotline 510-995-2900.

What if I am a Service Unit Booth Coordinator who needs support?
If you are Service Unit Booth Coordinator and you need support with booth uploads, have errors you can’t correct, or have issues with council booths (BART, CalTrain, Sam’s Club, & Walmart), email Tashianna Avery directly at TAvery@gsnorcal.org, with Subject Line: SUBC SUPPORT.

What if I have questions about Council Credit Conversion?
If you have questions regauging conversions or council credits for Fall Product or Girl Scout Cookie Program, contact Audriana Resendez at AResendez@gsnorcal.org, with Subject Line: CONVERSIONS/COUNCIL CREDITS.