Gift Cards

Working with Gift Cards

In this step you will learn how to add Gift Cards into the system, how to use them as a means of payment, how to sell them on your website, and even how to add Gift Cards you sold prior to using our system.

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Gift Cards in the Rain Retail System

You can get to this part of the system when you first log in by clicking Products in the blue Admin Toolbar, then clicking Gift Cards, to see your active list of cards, make new ones, and configure how they work from the web. You can access point of sale Gift Card functionality to sell and use Gift Cards from your Register by clicking on the Cash Register Icon on the left side of the blue Admin Toolbar, or by clicking on POS > Register.

Gift Card Settings for POS

There are two places where you can configure your Gift Cards, and in this segment, we'll look at the area for Gift Cards in the point of sale. To get to your settings, go to the far right side of your blue Admin Toolbar and click on the gear-shaped button, then go to Settings. Click on the POS Settings tab, and it will open with the General tab highlighted.

On the left side of the screen, find the setting Gift Cards Eligible for Transaction Discounts. Do you want customers to have the option of discounting the purchase price of a Gift Card? Most clients of ours do not enable this option, since you are essentially giving away money, but others like to have that option. Check the box if you want your gift cards to have the option of being sold at a discount. NOTE: If this box is checked, and a Global Discount is applied to a transaction in which a Gift Card is being purchased, that Gift Card will also have that discount applied.

Working with Gift Cards in the Register

You can sell Gift Cards in your Register, and the customer can check out anonymously if they want since the Gift Card is not tied to a Customer Account. To sell a Gift Card, in the upper center of the screen, find the Gift Card button and click on it.

The New Gift Card panel will open on the right, and the system will automatically add a new Gift Card Code you can use if you like. That code will also be highlighted for you, so if you use your own pre-made cards, you can scan in your code for the card right away. We recommend adding a Title that relates to whomever the card is for, a good example would be Happy Birthday Granna Sykes! Note that the Title does print out on the receipt, but not on the Gift Card printout itself. It's useful to have a unique Title just in case the number gets lost and you need an alternate way to look up the Gift Card. The date the Gift Card Expires is set in the Web Settings area (see below) as is the Code Prefix (OD24, in the example below). You can set whatever Amount is needed. Please note that if you want a more decorative version of the Gift Card that the system prints, click the Print button on the New Gift Card panel. A very simple version will print with the transaction receipt in any case. Click to Save the Gift Card and you'll see it added to the Register as a line item.

Once it is in the Register as a line item, other items can be added for purchase as needed, and the transaction can be completed in the normal way. After the transaction is finalized, the Gift Card will be active in the system and whoever holds the card can use it like a cash card for purchases in the store. Please note that you can Suspend a transaction for a Gift Card and it will resume just fine, with all of your settings in place and the card ready to be purchased.

Why don't I see Gift Cards in my Customer Accounts?

Because Gift Cards are meant to be given away, they are not tied to the Account of the Customer that purchased them. If you need to look up the transaction in which a Gift Card was sold, you can look at the Gift Cards Purchased report, or you can look at the History of the Customer that purchased the Gift Card.

Using a Gift Card as a POS Payment Method

When completing a transaction in your point of sale, your customers are able to use any Active Gift Card in the system as a means of payment. To use a Gift Card, click on the Other Payment Methods button (the four purple squares) and then click on Gift Card in the panel that pops up.

Once you have selected Gift Card as the payment method, the Gift Card Payment panel will open, and you can either scan in the Gift Card Code or enter it by hand. When the system has a match, it will show the results in a drop list, along with the amounts currently on any matching cards. You must click on the card in the drop list to load the card for use as a payment method. Once you do so, the system will let you use up to the card's full current balance toward the purchase. Click Save to complete the application of the Gift Card as a payment method. NOTE: If you have a Customer loaded and if they have Reward Coupons available for use, this panel will tell you how many are available. If you click the Apply Coupons button, you will lose whatever Gift Card info you have loaded, and you'll have to re-enter the information.

Once the Gift Card payment is in the Register as a payment method, you can remove it if needed by clicking the Delete button, or you can continue and complete the transaction in the normal way.

Gift Card Settings for Website

The Rain system allows you to sell Gift Cards through your website that can be used in your store or through the website Shopping Cart. You can configure how the Gift Card module works by going to Products > Gift Cards and clicking on Settings in the upper right.

In your Gift Card Settings, you can set the default Title that your Gift Cards will start with, both for website sales and for point of sale purchases. If you want, you can also have a Code Prefix that will appear in front of all system-generated Gift Card Codes. Set whatever you like for when each of your cards Expires (Never, 3 Months, 6 Months, or 12 Months). And last, set the different Web Amounts for cards that you sell through the website Gift Cards module.

Managing Your Gift Cards

The Gift Cards module allows you to work with all Active Gift Cards in your system. To get to the module, in your blue Admin Toolbar click on Products > Gift Cards. Here are the different functions for working with your Gift Cards:

1. Add New Gift Card - Click this button if you need to bypass your Register and just create a Gift Card for whatever amount is needed. This is useful for promotions or for compensation as trade for services rendered. When you click this button the Add Gift Card panel will open, and a new and unique Gift Card Code will be in place for you. You will need to enter a Title and a Beginning Balance for the Gift Card, as in the example. Click Add Gift Card to create the card in the system. It will be active and available for use immediately.
2. Settings - Configure the way your Gift Cards will work for online purchasing as well as card prefixes and default Titles. For a full description, look at the section above titled Gift Card Settings for Website.
3. Search - You can Search for any active Gift Card in the system here by either scanning in the Gift Card Code or by typing in keywords from the Title.
4. Filters - You can set the module to display Gift Cards that are Inactive (this means they have a $0 balance) and you can view cards that have Expired. The Search will also be able to find these cards if their filter boxes are checked.
5. Gift Cards - Each Active Gift Card in your system will be listed here, with the most recently created at the top. You can see the Date the card was added to the system, the Gift Card Code, its Title, the Status of the Gift Card (Active or Inactive), the Beginning Balance it started with, and its Current Balance. There is also a Delete button on the far right side of the line. You can click on any of the links in the line item to open the Edit Gift Card panel. The Title, ID (Gift Card Code), and Current Balance can all be edited from this area. Be sure to click Save to finalize any changes needed to the card.
   

Adding the Gift Card Module to Your Website

If you would like to sell Gift Cards on your website, the first thing you will want to do is read the section above titled Gift Card Settings for Website to configure how the module will work. Once your settings are in place, you'll want to add the module to your Website so your site visitors can purchase Gift Cards for use in your store or through your web Shopping Cart. Here is how to add the module:

1. Go to the Edit view of your website by clicking on the Laptop icon in the upper left of the blue Admin Toolbar. From there, go to the page where you want to place the Gift Card module.
   
2. Mouse-over the triangle in the upper left corner of the web page window. You will see a blue Plus button in the triangle, and a menu will pop up allowing you to add content. You will almost certainly want to add this module to your main area using Add Body Content.
   
3. In the list of Modules that comes up, scroll down the list and click the Add button for the Gift Card module.
   
4. Your module will appear at the bottom of the page, and you can use the Up and Down Arrow buttons on the Module Toolbar to move it vertically up the page to wherever you want it. Your visitors will now be able to add Gift Cards to their Shopping Carts, if your web processing is active.

Gift Card Reports

The Rain system currently offers two reports for helping you find the data you need about your Gift Cards. You can view the Gift Cards Purchased and the Gift Cards Outstanding reports by clicking on either under the main Reports menu in the blue Admin Toolbar.

Gift Cards Purchased Report

This report is most useful if you need to see data about Gift Cards that were purchased during whatever time frame you specify. You'll start with a view of the current month's sales of Gift Cards, but you can apply whatever range you want by clicking in the Date field. The report gives you the Number of Gift Cards sold, the Average Original Amount per card, and your Total Original Amount sold for the period you're viewing. You can Search for a card you might want to look up in the upper right, and you can either Print or Export the current view of the report as needed. The exported file will be in CSV (comma separated values) format and will open in Excel. Each of the columns for the line items can be clicked to Sort the report by that column, if you like.

Gift Cards Outstanding Report

The Gift Cards you sell represent outstanding debt for your accounting books, so it's a good idea from month to month to look up that debt to see where you stand using the Gift Cards Outstanding report. It will always give you the total Number of Gift Cards, Average Amount per card, and the Total Dollar Amount you have outstanding. Like the previous report, you can Search for a specific card or person, and you can Print or Export the results as needed. The column headers in this report can also be clicked to Sort the results by that column.