Gift Cards
Creating gift card products, tracking redemption and balances
Gift cards allow your customers to purchase credit that can be redeemed against future invoices. You create gift card products with fixed or custom amounts, and customers purchase them through your portal or directly through your team. Each gift card receives a unique code that tracks its balance from purchase through redemption.
Gift card products
A gift card product defines the options available for purchase. You can create multiple products with different denominations, images, and terms.
Creating a product
Navigate to Settings > Gift Cards and click New Product. Configure the following:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The product name displayed to customers (e.g., "Gift Voucher"). |
| Description | An optional description of the gift card. |
| Image | An optional image displayed on the purchase page and gift card. |
| Fixed Amounts | Preset denominations customers can choose from (e.g., $25, $50, $100). |
| Custom Min/Max | Optional range for custom amounts. Customers can enter any value within this range. |
| Validity Days | How long the gift card is valid from the date of purchase. Defaults to 365 days. |
| Terms | Optional terms and conditions displayed during purchase. |
| Position | Controls the display order when multiple products exist. |
Every product must have either fixed amounts or a custom amount range (or both). This ensures customers always have a clear way to select a value.
Managing products
You can reorder products by updating their position. To stop selling a product without deleting it, set it to inactive. A product with existing sales cannot be deleted -- deactivate it instead.
Purchasing gift cards
How it works
When a customer purchases a gift card, the system:
- Validates the selected amount against the product's fixed amounts or custom range.
- Generates a unique code in the format
GC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX(using unambiguous characters to avoid confusion between similar letters and numbers). - Calculates the expiry date based on the product's validity period.
- Creates the gift card record with the full initial balance.
Purchase details
Each gift card records:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Code | The unique redemption code. |
| Initial Value | The amount paid at purchase. |
| Balance | The current remaining balance. |
| Currency | The currency of the gift card (inherited from your account settings). |
| Purchaser | The email and optional name of the buyer. |
| Recipient | The email, optional name, and optional personal message. |
| Delivery Method | How the gift card is delivered: Email, SMS, or Print. |
| Expires At | The date the gift card expires. |
Delivery and viewing
After purchase, the gift card is delivered to the recipient via the selected method. When the recipient opens the gift card (via a unique link), ServiceCortex records the delivery and view timestamps for tracking purposes.
Redemption
Applying a gift card to an invoice
To redeem a gift card, enter the code and the amount to apply. The system validates:
- The gift card exists and is active.
- It has not expired.
- The redemption amount does not exceed the remaining balance.
- The gift card belongs to the same account.
Each redemption creates a detailed record including the amount, the invoice or payment it was applied to, and the balance before and after.
Partial redemptions
Gift cards support partial redemption. If a $100 gift card is used to pay $60 of an invoice, the remaining $40 stays on the card for future use. When the balance reaches zero, the card status automatically changes to Redeemed.
Gift card statuses
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Active | The gift card has a positive balance and has not expired. |
| Redeemed | The full balance has been used. |
| Expired | The gift card passed its expiry date with remaining balance. |
| Cancelled | The gift card was manually voided by an administrator. |
A scheduled job runs daily to check for expired gift cards and update their status automatically.
Statistics
The gift cards dashboard provides an overview of your gift card programme:
- Total sold -- the sum of all initial values across all gift cards.
- Total redeemed -- the sum of all redemption amounts.
- Outstanding balance -- the total remaining balance across active gift cards.
- Counts -- breakdown by status (active, redeemed, expired, cancelled).
Searching and filtering
You can search gift cards by code, purchaser email, or recipient email. Filter by status or product to narrow down the list.
What's Next
- Set up billing to accept payments that can use gift card credit.
- Configure your organisation to set the default currency for gift cards.