Tip! You can also run Daily Deals in Vagaro for Free. Click here to learn more.
Follow the steps below to track third-party (Groupon, Living Social, PayPal, etc.) promotions on Vagaro:
Create A Gift Certificate for the Total Amount of the Promotion
- Go to Reports > Gift Certificates.
- Click + New Gift Certificate.
- Give the Gift Certificate a name/number to match the promo you’re tracking: Groupon Massage, for example.
- Put the amount, ex $5,000 in the Amount field.
If you earned $5,000 via Groupon, set the value of the certificate to $5,000 to match the exact value earned in your promotion.
Since you are entering it in the Reports screen, it will not show you received money for the Gift Certificate in your Reports. - Add an expiration date or leave it as never expiring.
Note: If you are running a non-expiring promotion, consider increasing the amount of the Gift Certificate periodically, maybe based on how much you’ve made from the promo. - You must enter a Sender and Recipient.
We suggest making up a “Groupon” customer or using your business name for both. You will be the only one who sees these names. - No message is needed. Uncheck Print Gift Certificate and Send email to.
- Select a Template type and design.
We suggest creating a plain “Business Created” template type and image for this type of use. - Click Next.
You’ll see a warning screen because you didn’t check print or email options and then a preview of the GC displays. - Click Add Gift Certificate.
Create a Custom Service for the Promo
- Go to Settings > Service / Class Menu.
- Select +Add, then Service, and select Custom Service.
- Put something like Groupon Massage in Service Name, and in the Description field, tell people to enter the voucher number or promo code in the comments field.
- Select Service Only for Show Online.
- When you select employees, make the price of the service match what you will receive from the promo. Make the price of this service match the amount you receive from the promotion. So if you receive 50% of the price the customer pays for the coupon, enter that
Use the Promo GC at Checkout
- Once a customer has completed their service, click on the appointment, and select Checkout.
- Click Gift Certificate and search for the appropriate promo.
- Enter the amount you’ll get from the promo in How much to use?
- Click Redeem GC and then Checkout.
Note: If the person is a No Show or Cancels, you can still charge them the full amount of the service because you have their voucher number in the comments field, and they forfeit that Promotion which is normally allowed under their terms and conditions when you set up the promotion.
Note about Payroll for your employees - Now, when you run payroll, it doesn't show the service provider did it for free; rather, it shows the dollar amount charged and bases their payroll on that number.
View Promo Gift Certificate Use
- Go to Reports > Gift Certificates.
- Select the promo gift certificate and then select History from the Action menu.
Comments
17 comments
To clarify...are we typing in "march groupon" in the search fied that says gift certificate no?
Yes, if that is the name of the Gift Certificate you created. It is all based on the name you decide to call it.
when I do this and it asks for the person buying and who it is for I am concerned as to when we do a large number of groupons then what should we put in those fields...does it matter? IT wouldnt let me leave the to form blank
i understand making the gift certificate and also creating the service for the amount they paid, that way the taxes will come out correctly. The part that confuses me is for example, the customer has paid $30 to living social for a service. I get approximately 50% of that. I am also responsible for the taxes on that sale. Living social sends me a check of the 50% that i earned I then create a gift certificate from that amount. Now when the customer is checking out, the taxes will be correct but the gift cert will only cover half of the original $30. They will pay for the taxes owed but how do i take care of the remaining balance without screwing up my income reports? Thank you for your time!
Laura - The laws keep changing on this subject and are completely different depending on which state you are in. I'm attaching a PDF to this post that you can look at as a guide on when you should charge tax and how much. The general rule for most states is:
"In general, states treat a retailer’s discount, such as one where a retailer creates its own coupon, as a ‘‘cash discount allowed and taken.’’ Because the retailer incurs an economic loss, a majority of the states allow the ‘‘cash discount allowed and taken’’ to be excluded from sale price. Thus, where a retailer’s discount has been offered and applied, sales tax is due on the sale price after discount."
But in states like New York, California, Massachusetts and a few others they are more specific on what you pay taxes on. You need to be careful on how you word the Groupon. For example in New York if you state that a specific service X is normally $35 and you get it for $15, you pay tax on the $15 Groupon of which you only received $7.50. But if you make it more general like you get $35 worth of services for $15, then you pay taxes on the full $35 face value, of which you only received $7.50. It looks like every state is doing it differently.
For now I would create a product in your inventory called "Groupon Tax" for charging your customers the additional fee. This line item can be quickly seen in the General Report and added to the normal sales tax collected for non-Groupon promotions. Vagaro will look into this and see what we can do to make it easier for you in the future so it will work for all of the different tax situations in different states.
I am totally lost still. It seems like the advice is outdated or incomplete. First of, When I go to do step 1 it is asking for sender name and receiver name of which you never explained what to do. Secondly even when I created a client called Groupon (to be the sender) then I was left with receiver dilemma. I created both sender and receiver as Groupon. Please help.
What do you do when you sell a package. I ran groupon deal one in October for 1 massage at 35.00 or 2 massages at 59.00. Do I create two new services under groupon for each option? And when it is a package do I create a package under packages? This whole thing is stressing me out.
Carolina - You will decide on the Sender and Receiver's name for example "March Groupon" can be used for both since you are the only person who will see this name. For the second part of your question, hopefully Groupon separates out how much money came from the 1 Massage and the 2 Massage packages. If so you can create two gift certificates called "March Group - 1 Massage" and "March Group - 2 Massages" so you will know which package they purchased when they come in. For the 1 Massage you can simply apply the main gift certificate "March Group - 1 Massage" at the checkout screen for $35 to pay for it. But for the second item which includes 2 massages, I would create a package first for the 2 Massages under the customer's name, use the "March Group - 2 Massages" as the payment method and then go back to the checkout screen to apply it against the service the customer just had with you.
This still doesn't make sense to me...how do you connect the client to the gift certificate when they book in their own name?
You don't connect the gift certificate when someone books. You apply the gift certificate you created at the Checkout screen. Here are the steps;
Click on the appointment and choose "Service Complete (Checkout)"
In the payment section click on "Gift Certificate" and enter in the gift certificate number you created for the Groupon
It will automatically the apply the service(s) on the screen. Adjust accordingly if the person had additional services or is buying products no covered by the gift certificate.
Click on "CheckOut".
Soooo, I am glad that this is hear because going forward, I can cover the rest of my LIving Social and Lifebooker clients. My dilemma is this... For many clients I was just entering the price they paid for the service to get their coupon. Then I realized that I should enter what I actually get. Now I have two different sets of people for the same coupon, I have already created the services on my checkout/menu and so they are checked out correctly and placed under the correct general tag. The amount paid/ what I get is the incorrect part. Is there a way to go back and adjust everything so that it is correct? I know that I can make it correct going forward.
Kim - It would really depend on what time frame we are talking about. If you want to change things you entered in the last month or if you are talking about months of data. It's normally better to just do it right going forward, but if you want to change some past information give us a call at (800) 919-0157 x2 so we can look into the details with you.
Kerry, this is what I do. Please let me know if this is correct. I create a service called "Groupon Facial". For the amount of service I put what I make not what was paid for it. If the customer paid $30 for it I put $15. Because I make 50%. So when I check them out I'm trying to get the most accurate numbers for my books. This still won't be 100% accurate because Groupon takes cc %. But it is the most accurate I can think of. What do you think? Right now I'm on the Groupon website as an ongoing client. So I don't have an end time when the deal is up. So I can't create a Gift Certicate. each month I get different numbers of people buying the deal. Thoughts. Jill :D
Jill- I do the same by adding a groupon service but the way you can fix the accounting is change the price to what the salon is paid which is 48% of the deal price and do not allow the system to show the price on line. You can also change the price to the full amount of the deal but change the product charge to the 52% of the deal to off set if you prefer. I find that the price refelecting what we are paid from groupon helps as well as add a gc for Groupons and pay out of that.
Jill - Yes you are doing it correctly or you can try what Nikole suggests. Since you have an on going promotion what I would suggest is increasing the "Groupon Facial" amount say once every week or 2 weeks by the delta. So if on the 1st you have made $5,000 and on the 15th it was at $8,000, then I would increase the value of the gift certificate on Vagaro by $3,000. That way you can keep the information up to date.
ok. so i just spoke with groupon yesterday and they said you absoloutely cannot redeem the voucher even if the code is given if services are not rendered. also, in the terms it states that you cannot charge the customer a cancellation fee greater than the amount that they paid for the service. not the full service amount.
Nikole, Jill, Kerry - thanks all. I am starting to wrap my head around this. I will try and create a service for Groupon Facial and keep it internal so that regular clients won't see the promo when they book.
Otherwise, I'm still confused with the create a Gift certificate option. I will create as gifting from myself or the business. But then it looks like it needs to be assigned or gifted to someone. Do we create a dummy account for that too? And is all of this internal?
thanks!
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