A gift certificate or gift card is a voucher that a customer gives to someone as a present. You can configure it to be for a service or a dollar amount and choose from a variety of pre-made templates and designs when creating and selling them to your customers.
Once a gift certificate is created and sold to a recipient, it can then be redeemed on the Checkout screen.
Related Articles:
- Sell and Redeem Gift Certificates - Vagaro Pro app
- Sell and Redeem Gift Cards - Vagaro Pro app
- Sell and Redeem Gift Cards - Web Version
- Gift Certificate State Regulations
In this article, we will go over:
Selling a Gift Certificate
- Go to Checkout and select a customer.
- Select Gift from the option icons along the bottom of the checkout screen.
The Add Gift Certificate screen displays.
- Enter a Gift Certificate number or use Auto Generate.
- Fill in the other gift certificate fields:
- Service/Class: tie this gift certificate to a specific service or class. (Optional)
- Amount: If you don't tie the certificate to a service/class, enter the value.
- Expire on: Select an expiration date using the calendar pop-up, or leave set at Never.
Check your state’s regulations for gift cards and certificates for information and expiration. - Sender's Name: Will be filled with the selected customer.
- Recipient's Name: Start typing the name of a current customer, and it will fill in. Click New to create a new profile if the person does not have a customer profile.
Note: A customer must have a profile when a gift card is created and issued. The profile must include at least a first and last name.Note: If you do not know the recipient's contact information, create a customer profile of "Gift Certificate" to use. A customer only needs to provide a gift card or certificate number at checkout to redeem it. - Message: The buyer can provide a message to the recipient.
- Select Print Gift Certificate to print a paper copy.
- Select Send email to: [recipient's name] to email the certificate to the recipient.
If you select Send email to, confirm your choice in the pop-up screen:
- Select a template type.
You can choose from pre-configured template designs and images, or use your own Business Created designs.
- Click Next to preview the certificate.
- On the preview screen, click Close to cancel, Back to make changes, or Add Gift Certificate to complete.
- Complete the transaction by entering the payment and clicking Checkout.
Redeeming a Gift Certificate
- To redeem a gift certificate, go to Checkout and select a customer.
- Add a service, product, package, or membership.
- Click Add next to Gift Certificate in the payments area.
- If the certificate doesn't automatically show in the list, enter the Gift Certificate number in the Search field, and click Search.
When the card is found, you’ll see the card number, the recipient’s name, the current balance on the card, and the sale amount pre-filled under How much to use? You can change how much to use if wanted.
Note: If a customer has multiple gift cards or certificates, you’ll see them all listed here. Use the checkboxes to select which one to use. - Click Redeem GC.
- If there is any remaining payment due, enter it and then click Checkout.
Comments
16 comments
I would like to see an option of NOT having to enter the names of the person purchasing the Gift Card and the name of the receipient. Often people just stop by very quickly to pick up a gift card for the spouse or a collegue. Entering all the info is time consuming. Having the certificate # would be enough.
This way the Gift Card could be passed to another person if the receipient chooses not to use the card.
Also the Service Provider name could be/should be OPTIONAL. This way client doesn't feel obligated to choose a certain service provider (employee) and the service provider (employee) doesn't get paid the comission until they actually PERFORM the service. Also the client should have an option of (if only amount was entered) to spend the money on retail instead of service.
We should be able to enter a Gift Card as a form of payment while checking out and not a type of service
PS. I wanted to specify. There is a difference between Gift Certificates and Gift Cards.
Gift Certificate is usually issued for a certain service (like a "Manicure") by a certain person for a certain person. All that information has to appear on the certificate. The client then pays for the Manicure and the tax (for example $35 plus $4.55 = 39.55). The receipient can only choose the service mentioned on the Gift Certificate.
Gift Cards are now more and more popular. A person buys a card worth an amount (like $40). Usually the names are not collected. The Card can be given to anyone and is treated like cash. The person can choose to spend the money however they please. Tax is not collected on Gift Cards and the gift card is applied to the transaction as a form of payment.
I think we should have 2 options here. Gift Card and Gift Certificate. Again, when choosing Gift Card option we should not have to fill out all the clients info,
I also find it suprising that there is an option of emailing the certificate to the receipient right away. People usually get them as gifts and emailing it would spoil the suprise.
I noticed that the system asks me to pick a picture from the gallery even though I didn't choose to print a Gift Certificate. Why is that? Then it shows me a filled out certificate I don't even need ;)
I agree, I think it would be good if we could sell "gift cards" with no specified recipient (so that they could be given to anyone).
All gift certificates must be attached to a customer profile. You can name the customer "Promotional Gift Certificate" or put it as "________ _______" and let the person write in the name. But it does have to be a customer profile in the system. Then if Sarah Smith comes in to use it, you can type in the gift certificate number to apply it to her checkout.
I print my own gift certificates at a local printers. I do not use those provided by Vagaro.
As mentioned by others, I just want to track them by number. Especially as my salon frequently donates gift certificates for fundraising and etc and we have no way of knowing who is winning the gift cert and don't have that information available until it is redeemed.
We need a way to track Gift Certs by Number, and also to track the balance of any given gift certificate, if any is remaining.
Thanks.
I also think it would be great to have the option to pre print gift certificates! I have a fundraiser I would like to donate too. Was hoping it was possible! Maybe in the next update;)
Makena - That option already exists to pre-print gift certificates. All you do it go into "Reports" --- "Gift Certificates" --- "Management" and click on "New Gift Certificate". You can create as many donated gift certificates as you need for your funraiser.
We issue lot of gift cards to our customers and often times they don't know who they want to give it to. Is it possible to issue a gift card without adding the 'to' information. Also when the recipient (who is not registered in the system yet) comes back to redeem the gift card, how can I pull up the same gift certificate no under recipient check out screen since it was purchased by some one else?
Kjain - You are basically giving the best answer your first question with your second question. The reason we required the TO field is specially for tracking that gift certificate when the person comes in to redeem it. Now you could create a generic customer with a first and last name as "_________ ________" so people can write it in later, but if you do a lot of these and a person comes in and claims they received a gift certificate but they lost the gift certificate and don't know the number, you could easily have multiple "_______ ________" gift certificates and it would all be a guess on your part.
So if Jake Smith want to buy a gift certificate for $50 and has no idea who they want to get it for, I would create the gift certificate To and From Jake Smith so you can at least track it. The other option is to purchase plastic gift cards which have no name printed on them and it completely tracked by the number on the card itself.
I would like the ability to sell our packages as a gift certificate. I would also like to see the ability to use both the service or the dollar amount, so if a client comes in and wants to change or increase the service they are receiving.
Hello,
Having the gift certificate locked to a service is proving to be challenging. It would be great if you could also use the dollar amount. If a guest receives a GC with a service attached and gratuity is included then I am unable to redeem it for the gratuity OR if a guest decides they would prefer X and Y treatment over Z treatment that was purchased we have to refund the GC and resell it for just the amount instead of a service. Seems like a lot of unnecessary steps
Jennifer - That's the default in Vagaro, all gift certificates are setup to be dollar amount only, then you can choose to override that option and add service. Vagaro does not recommend adding a service to a gift certificate for the reasons you mentioned. But we added the option because some businesses wished to use that option.
My client likes to buy his wife a GC for her birthday every year. /he would like it to go to his email so that he can print it at home. How can I send the gift certificate to the purchaser's email, rather than the recipient?
I bought my own gift certificates not realizing they were provided. How do I use them?
The issue I keep running into is when clients want to leave the remaining balance as a tip for the girls or if there's a remaining balance for the gift card, it doesn't let me roll it over and select the gift certificate later on. It matches the price for whatever I selected for a service and doesn't leave any change. There's no place where I can separate the gift certificate for services either. (I.e. John Doe buys a $400 gift certificate for Jane Smith. Jane Smith uses it for a $200 service, but as soon as I select that gift certificate it automatically matches the service and changes the whole gift certificate. If Jane wants to book another $200 service, there isn't a gift certificate on her file to apply it to.) We've been keeping track on paper and just cashing out the gift certificate when it's finally reached it's limit.
I don't know if we have something set up incorrectly, or if this is an issue other people run into as well. Any ideas?
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