Setting Up and Selling Gift Cards
How to configure gift cards in AskBiz POS — creating gift card products, selling them at the till, tracking balances, and accepting gift card payments from customers.
Key Takeaways
- Gift cards in AskBiz are sold as a product and redeemed as a payment method — the full lifecycle is tracked in the system.
- Unused gift card balances are a liability on your books — AskBiz helps you track outstanding balances.
- Gift cards are a powerful customer acquisition and retention tool; a customer who receives a gift card often spends more than the card value.
How gift cards work in AskBiz
Gift cards in AskBiz work in two stages: selling and redemption. Selling: a customer buys a gift card — you create a gift card product (e.g. '£25 Gift Card') and sell it at the till. The revenue is recorded but the liability is also tracked — you owe the recipient £25 of goods. Redemption: the recipient comes in and pays for goods using the gift card. The cashier selects 'Gift Card' as the payment method, enters the card number, and AskBiz deducts the amount from the card's balance. If the balance covers the full purchase, no further payment is needed. If not, the customer pays the remainder by another method.
Creating a gift card product
Go to Operations > Retail > Products > Add Product. Name it '£25 Gift Card' (or your denomination). Set the selling price to £25. Set the VAT rate — in the UK, gift cards are zero-rated for VAT purposes at the point of sale (VAT is charged when the card is redeemed and the goods are purchased, not when the card is sold). Tick the Gift Card option in the product type settings. When this product is sold at the till, AskBiz automatically generates a unique gift card code and links it to a £25 balance. You can offer multiple denominations: £10, £25, £50.
Free — no card needed
See this in action for your business
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Start for free →Issuing the gift card to the customer
After the gift card sale is completed at the till, AskBiz generates a receipt that includes the unique gift card code. Print this receipt for the customer — they use this code when they come to redeem. If you have physical gift card stock (pre-printed cards with unique codes), you can link a physical card's printed code to a balance in AskBiz by activating it at the till — the physical card is scanned, AskBiz assigns the balance to that code.
Accepting gift card payment
When a customer wants to pay with a gift card, the cashier adds items to the basket as normal. At payment, select Gift Card as the payment method. A prompt asks for the card code — the customer reads it from their receipt or the cashier scans the physical card's barcode. AskBiz looks up the code, confirms the remaining balance, and applies it to the transaction. If the card covers the full amount, the sale completes. If there's a remaining amount, the cashier selects an additional payment method for the difference.
Tracking outstanding balances
In POS Operations > Gift Cards, you can view all issued gift cards, their original value, amount redeemed to date, and remaining balance. Filter for partially redeemed cards to see your outstanding liability. For accounting purposes, gift card revenue is deferred until the card is redeemed — your accountant will likely want to see total outstanding gift card balances at period end. AskBiz's gift card balance report gives you exactly this number.