Gift cards - issuing, paying with them and what happens on a refund

Before the holidays gift cards sell by the dozen, and then for six months clients come in with a slip of paper while the administrator searches the notebook to see whether this number was already used. In BeeSection a gift card lives in the system with a code, a balance and a history.

Gift cards are available on the Start plan and above.

Issuing

A card is issued by an employee. At issue you set:

• the face value, the amount that can be spent;
• the sale price, equal to the face value by default but possibly lower: a 1000 ₴ card for 900 ₴ in December is an ordinary promotion;
• the validity period;
• the client, optionally. A card without a client is a bearer card;
• the code. If you do not enter your own, the system generates ten uppercase characters, unique within your company.

The sale is posted to the register right away at the sale price. Face value and price are different things, and reports keep them apart.

Buying a card online from the booking page is not possible yet: issuing goes through an employee.

Paying with a card

When a client comes with a card, its code is entered in the visit, and the system deducts the needed amount: no more than the card balance and no more than what is owed for the visit. A 1000 ₴ card at a 650 ₴ visit gives 650, and 350 stay on the card.

Tips cannot be paid with a card: the card covers services and products, tips are separate.

When the balance reaches zero, the card gets the status "redeemed". An expired card cannot be accepted.

The code is entered at payment exactly as printed, in capital letters. That is something administrators should keep in mind.

Refunds

If a visit paid with a card is cancelled, the amount returns to the card by itself, and a redeemed card becomes active again. A second cancellation does not double the amount: every refund is tied to a specific redemption.

History

Every card has a log: issue, redemption, top-up, refund, with amounts and dates. A card can be found by its code, and that is where the conversation with a client holding a slip of paper starts: "what is the code" instead of "let me look in the notebook".