Gift cards

A gift card is money a client pays you now for a service they will get later. Until the card is spent, that money is not income yet — you still owe the service. Gift cards in the sidebar shows every card and, at the top, the Outstanding balance: the total still sitting on active cards.

Selling a card at the counter

Click Sell gift card, pick the client, enter the amount (and the recipient's name if it is a present), then say where the money went and how it was paid — the same questions as when you collect any payment. The dialog shows the new code with a Copy code button; give it to the client. The card works straight away.

A card sale is kept on its own invoice so it never counts as revenue in your reports. The revenue is counted when the card is spent on a service.

Selling cards online

Turn on Sell online on the Gift cards page to get a public link you can share. A visitor picks an amount, enters their name and email and pays by card on the next page. Once the payment completes, the full code is emailed to the buyer; the payment page shows only the last characters of the code and the balance, and says which address the code went to. If the buyer left no email, the page asks them to contact you for the code — you can see it under Gift cards. Online sales need card payments set up under Settings → Payments.

The same public page has a Check balance box, so clients can look up what is left on their card.

Taking a card as payment

On an invoice, click Collect payment and switch to the Gift card tab. Type the code (capitals, spaces and dashes don't matter), click Check balance, adjust the amount if the client wants to keep part of the balance, and click Redeem. The rest of the bill can be paid the usual way. A gift card payment does not add money to a wallet — that money arrived when the card was sold. Tips can't be paid with a gift card.

Mistakes and refunds

Voiding or refunding a gift card payment puts the value back on the card. Refunding the sale of a card takes the value off the card, and is refused once the client has already spent it.