Gift card
A gift card (gift voucher) is a voucher of a set value, identified by a code, that its holder can later use to pay at the issuing company.
Updated:
What does Gift card mean?
Someone buys a gift card and usually gives it to someone else; its value stays with the company until it is redeemed. It can be spent at once or in parts, and it may have an expiry date.
For the books, a gift card is a means of payment, not a discount: the purchase price is not lowered by it, part of it is simply paid from the card. Whether VAT is due when it is sold or when it is redeemed depends on whether it is a single-purpose or a multi-purpose voucher; that is worth deciding with your accountant.
Why does it matter to a small business?
For a small shop or service a gift card brings a new customer: whoever receives it is often visiting for the first time. The risk is in the records: a code must not be spent twice, a cancelled order's value has to go back onto the card, and you always need to know how much unredeemed value is still out there.
What does it look like in practice?
Details
Suppose a massage studio's online shop lets a buyer purchase a gift card for a friend, choose its value and add a message. Once paid, the card's code is emailed to the recipient, who later redeems it online or at the till.
How does HelloCRM handle it?
Details
In HelloCRM a gift card's balance and the ledger that explains it are kept apart, and two simultaneous payments cannot spend one card twice. Your own shop sells gift cards: the buyer picks the value, it is emailed to the recipient once paid, and it is redeemable online and at the till. On a cancelled order the part paid by card goes back once, and only an administrator sees a code in full.
Module: Webshops (paid module, price coming soon).
A CRM for small businesses in Hungary
HelloCRM is an online CRM made in Hungary for small and mid-sized businesses there, in Hungarian and English: the core CRM is free for good, with no time limit and no card, and it can be tried without signing up in a demo company full of example data.
Questions
What is Gift card, in one sentence?
A gift card (gift voucher) is a voucher of a set value, identified by a code, that its holder can later use to pay at the issuing company.