Gift cards — help

Gift cards are stored value: a unique code with a balance behind it. The balance lives on the server and every movement — issuing, spending, adjusting — is recorded, so what a card is worth is never in doubt. Customers can spend a card in one go or a little at a time: pay £20 of a £35 bill with the card and the remaining £15 by card or cash, and the £30 left on a £50 card stays on the same code for next time.

Four ways a card gets issued

Issue at the till or here — the footer row on the Gift cards page: enter an amount (and an optional note), press Issue, then Print ↗ for a physical slip. Sell it over the counter and take the money as a normal payment.
The customer buys online — your ordering site has a gift card page (…/your-store/gift-cards): they pick a value, add the recipient's name and email and a personal message, and pay through PayPal. The card is emailed to the recipient (with a QR code and a printable view) and a receipt goes to the buyer — nothing is issued until the payment is confirmed.
Send a purchase link — the button at the top of this page. Enter an amount and the customer's name and email, and they get an email linking to that same purchase page with everything prefilled. Handy for phone enquiries ("can I buy a £50 voucher for my mum?"). No card exists until they pay.
Cards bought online are marked with who they were from and to in the Note column.

Purchases & email tracking

Below the card list, two tables track the online side:

Purchases — every gift card bought online, newest first: who bought it, who it's for, the amount, and its status — Payment pending (they've started but not paid), Paid (the card was issued — its code shows here), or Failed (the payment didn't go through, so no card exists).
Emails & delivery — every gift-card email we've sent: the purchase link CTAs, plus the recipient's card and the buyer's receipt after a purchase. Each row shows a delivery status:
- Queued — waiting to be sent.
- Sent — handed to the email provider.
- Delivered — the provider confirmed it reached the inbox.
- Bounced — the address rejected it (wrong or dead mailbox).
- Spam-flagged — the recipient marked it as spam.
- Failed — sending kept erroring and gave up.
Hover a row's date to see its timeline (queued → sent → delivered/bounced). If a send failed or bounced, Resend re-queues it. For a purchase-link email you can also Copy link to grab the payment URL and send it another way (a text, WhatsApp).

Delivered and bounced only appear once your email provider's delivery notifications are connected; until then a sent email rests at Sent. If no email address ever receives anything, check that an email provider is configured for your account.

Redeeming

At the till, staff enter the code (or scan the card's QR with a reader that types it) and the balance comes off the bill — partial redemption is automatic, and anything left stays on the code. If the card doesn't cover the whole bill, the rest is paid by any other method.

The ledger

Click any row to see the card's full history: when it was issued, every redemption with its date and order, and any adjustments. Remaining is always the live balance; the page header shows your total outstanding liability across all active cards.

Balance checks

Customers can check a card's balance any time at …/your-store/gift-cards/balance — the emailed card links there, and its QR code opens it too. They just enter the code; no account needed.

Voiding

Void · PIN cancels a card and writes off whatever's left (manager PIN required). The write-off is recorded in the ledger — history is never deleted.

Good to know

Cards are valid at any of your stores — they belong to your organisation, not one till.
Codes avoid look-alike characters (no 0/O or 1/I) and are grouped XXXX-XXXX-XXXX for easy reading over the phone.
Cards currently don't expire unless you set an expiry when issuing. An expired card shows as Expired and can't be redeemed.
Redeeming a gift card at online checkout is a planned follow-up — today codes are redeemed at the till.