Gift Cards and Gift Certificates

Gift Cards and Gift Certificates are treated as two different mechanisms in the system. Basically, gift cards are products, services or cash preloaded and assigned to a serial number, usually printed as a barcode or mag-swipe on a plastic or paper card. Items are purchased on the card, or redeemed from the card, and are tracked using the Gift Card Module.

To provide as much flexibility as possible, gift cards can be pre-created as single cards or batches of cards, or can be created on the fly during the cash out process. The later provides a great way to provide your customers with pre-paid plans or packages, and assign them at the time they are purchased.

Gift Certificates on the other hand, are treated as ad-hoc discounts to register line items. For example, during check out, a customer can present a coupon or redeem house credit, by using the gift certificate system.

Creating Gift Cards and Templates

Gift Cards are created and managed from the Gift Cards module from the main menu bar:



Gift Cards are organized as either Live Cards or Template Cards.

Live cards are pre-loaded with inventory or services and are assigned a serial number at the time you create them. This process is most often used when you are creating a series of cards with the same items, and want to sell them pre-loaded at your front desk or in promotional campaigns.

Template Cards are used to create a template of inventory or service items, that will be assigned to a new gift card at the time of purchase. The advantage of using templates instead of live cards, is that you can create as many templates as you need, and assign them at the time of purchase with any blank card. For example, if your selling tanning gift cards that contain 5 tanning sessions, you would create a template and place 5 individual tanning items from your inventory onto the card. If you keep a batch of blank cards at the register, during check out, you can preload the new card using the template. You can also use the template to pre-load a serial of cards at any time.

This will prompt you for the type of card you will be creating. For our first example, we are creating a card template, so select New Card Template.

The first step we need to take, is to name the template. Use a descriptive name for the template, something that will make sense during checkout. For our example, we are making a Tanning card package, so we will call the template, "Tanning Package, Buy 1, Get 1 Free"..

Batch: For this example, we are not creating a Batch, so leave that field blank.

Sale Price: This is the sale price for the gift card, during check out. For example, we are making a tanning card package where you buy 5 sessions, and get 1 free. If the tanning sessions are $5, then we want to make the card's sale price, $25.

Expires: You can set an expiration date for this type of card, if you want to limit your liability period. In our example, these cards do not expire, so we will leave the "No Expiration Date" checked.

Redeemed/Voided/Marked for Delete: These fields only apply to existing cards, so you do not need to set these for the template.

Post Discounts To: This pull down allows you to assign a credit inventory item for reporting purposes. For cards that provide a discounted item, such as the "1 Free" item on the card, the reports will accumulate the discounts under this item.

Items On This Card: This section allows you to assign inventory or services to the card. To assign an item, select the item in the list, and click Add. This will move the item over to the card. To specify an amount, in our case 5 tanning sessions, enter 6 in the Qty field under the list box.

A quick note about Quantity. Items are redeemed from the card individually, but you can assign them to the template in groups. This is move for visual appear, to make the template clearer at cash out. For our example, we are adding 6 tanning sessions as 1 line item, rather than adding 6 individual tanning session items. If we wanted to add additional promotional items, such as free sun screen, the display is more simplified having the tanning sessions in a single line item, followed by the additional sun screen item.

You can also remove items from the left, by selecting the item, and clicking Remove.

Cost: As you add items to the card, the total cost of the card will appear in this field. This is the cost for the items, not the sales price. In our case, this is the cost for 6 tanning session, $30, but we are selling the card for $25, a $5 discount.

Once you have setup the card template, select OK to save it.

Your template should now appear on the right hand side under Program Templates, on the main screen.
 

You can edit the template at any time, by selecting the template and click Edit. You will see the same screen to load and remove items. Note, after you create a card, if you alter the template, it will apply only to new cards. If you need to update existing cards, you will have to edit them individually, or delete the batch and recreate the cards.
 

Next, we need to create live cards. For this example, we are going to create 5 pre-loaded cards. If you are buying the pre-printed cards with serial numbers, select 5 sequential cards and make note of the starting card number.

To create the batch of 5 cards, select New Card from the left hand side. You will see the same dialog as before, but we are going to create live cards from the template we created earlier.

Select Tanning Package from the template list, enter the starting barcode number, select the Create Batch check box and enter 5, to create 5 sequential cards.

Once you have the information entered, click Use the Template Below. This will create 5 sequential cards, in our example starting at 100. Once the process is complete, you will see a dialog saying the cards have been completed.
 

After you create the cards, you will be back on the main screen, and you should see the 5 sequential cards. You can edit these cards individually by double clicking the card, or selecting it, and clicking Edit.

A couple of notes about creating batches. If you have a series of cards, and for example, one or two are damaged, you can delete individual cards from the series, using this screen. You can also delete an entire batch, using the Batches tab.

Selling Gift Cards

Now that we have live cards or templates, lets walk through the process of selling a card. Before you can see card history, on the History tab, you have to sell a card.

A quick note about cards and history. When you sell a gift card, the system tracks who sold the card, and who the card was sold to. When the card is used, you will see the customer the card is sold to. This allows you to track sales from the gift card, and who is using the card. If you want to verify the card is not stolen, or need to look up a card, you have the customer information attached to the card.

Also, if you want a customer to be able to redeem items without actually carrying the card, you can look up cards by customer as well. This is a good feature for tanning cards, for example, when a customer comes in the shop, and didn't bring the card.

Ok, to start the process, create a sales ticket of any kind from the Register. Counter ticket is the best way to start off.. The Cash Out screen has a Gift Card button, show in yellow on the right. Click this button and you will see a Gift Card dialog.
Note: When you select the Gift Card button, and you have not assigned a customer to the ticket yet, the system will prompt you if you want to select a customer at this point. If you are selling a gift certificate, you do not have to assign a customer.
When you are selling cards, you have 2 choices for creating the card: Pre-Loaded Cards: If you are using pre-loaded gift cards, just enter the card serial number, or use the scanner to scan the card number. If the card is found, it will automatically be selected, and you will see the Purchase Gift Card summary screen. Templates: If you are using a blank card, or even a paper card or certificate, select New Gift Card from the dialog. You will be prompted to select the next available serial number, or click No if you already have it printed on the card.
Select one of your preload card templates, and enter the serial number if you did not select to choose the next available. If you have a bar code scanner, or mag swipe, you can scan or swipe the card to enter the number. Note: if you are using a barcode scanner to enter the number, make sure the cursor is located in the Bar Code field before scanning. The system will track the use of the cards, so if by accident, this is not a new card, the system will tell you. After the system looks up the card, you will see a Purchase Gift Card dialog.
You will now be taken to the cash out screen, and the sales price for the card is show on the line item. Gift cards are not tax by the way. You can add additional items to the purchase if need by, and then cash out the customer. Note: You should assign a customer to the gift card sale, if you want to track who the card is sold to. It is not required, but it will help you look up gift cards for customers, when they don't bring the card or loose it.

Now we have sold a card, you can now go to the History tab under the Gift Card Module, and see the history for the card. Look up card 100, and you will see that it is sold to this customer.

Redeeming Gift Cards

Ok, now we have sold the card to a customer, and as expected, they will come in to use the card.

You can redeem gift cards 2 ways. If you already have items on the ticket, and the customer presents you with the card, the system will match any items on the ticket, with un-redeemed items on the card. Alternatively, you can look up the card, and select un-redeemed items and add them to the card.

If you are entering products first, follow these steps:

The Cash Out process for using a card is very simple. Start a new ticket for a customer and enter the inventory or services they are using. You can enter additional products and services, and the gift card process will match up the items on the card with the items on the ticket.

In our example, we will go ahead and add a tanning session item to the list, and you will see the item appear as usual, with a sales price. Once you have the items on the ticket, select the Gift Card button to start the process. Now, enter the gift card number and select Lookup.
Note: If you assign a customer to the ticket, or start with a customer ticket, the system will automatically look up any un-redeemed gift cards for the customer, and give you a list to select from. This is very useful if a customer forgets or looses the gift card. Select the gift card as show in the example show on the right.
If you have not selected a customer yet, or the gift card was not assigned to a customer at time of purchase, you will see the Gift Card lookup dialog appear. You can enter the card number, or use a scanner, and click Find. This will look up the card in the system. Note: you can also look up the card for the customer as well, in case you cancelled the look up before.
Once you have located the gift card, the system will show you the remaining un-redeemed items available on the card. You can choose to add a single item to the ticket, by clicking the button shown in yellow on your right. This will add the item to the ticket, and discount the item 100%. Alternatively, if you have already added the items to the ticket, you can select the button show in Blue and the system will automatically apply all items that match on the card.

Once you have applied all the items you want to redeem, you will see each line item listed with a price of $0 and a note that it has been discounted 100%.

A quick note about products and services. If you are selling a product, that requires tax, set the inventory items as taxable. Gift cards do not cover tax, so you will see the tax that needs to be paid on the ticket. If you do not want to collect tax from the customer, set the inventory item as non taxable. If you don't collect tax, the ticket should balance out to $0 and you can cash out.

Note: If you cancel or void the ticket, the items will not be removed from the gift card.

Note: You will be prompted to select the next available serial number. If you already have pre-printed cards, select No, and you can enter your own number. If you are using paper certificates, and want to generate a new number, select Yes, and the next available serial number will be selected.

Note: You can also track who sold the gift certificate by selecting the employee in the Sold By pull down.

Note: the certificate will not be active until the ticket is tendered or cashed out.

Note: If you select a customer for the ticket, you can also look up any gift cards or certificates sold to this customer. However, gift certificates are usually given to people, so you will not have them associated with a customer yet. Once you redeem any value from the card, you can assign a customer record to the card, so in the event the customer looses the card, you can look up unredeemed cards when they come back.

After you scan the card, the system will tell you what type of card it is, and for gift certificates, the Gift Certificate section will now be enabled, and will show you the remaining balance on the card, as well as the current amount due on the ticket.

Select the amount you want to redeem from the card, and click Redeem Gift Cert to apply this value to the ticket.

Now you can tender the ticket.