Using Gift Cards

It is very easy to start using gift cards in OrderTrac. It does not take any fancy equipment or gift cards to do so. The only requirement for your gift card is that it have a unique ID. You can order a batch of gift cards from any company, just search “custom gift cards” online and you will have many options to pick from.

Ordering gift cards

You can order gift cards with your logo on them or just plain gift cards. You can choose for the cards to have a barcode, magnetic strip, or just the id printed on the back. All of these will work with OrderTrac. The barcode or magnetic strip just makes typing the gift card ID into a text field easier. The easiest option to use is the barcode since you may already have a barcode scanner for labels or UPC items in OrderTrac. You will need a magnetic strip reader if you want to use a magnetic strip gift card.

When you order your gift cards, you will have the option to specify a gift card id range. If you order 100 gift cards, you can tell them to give the cards and id for 1-100 or 10001 to 10100, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that does matter, is when you order another batch of gift cards, you MUST not order a batch with an ID that overlaps any previous batches. Each gift card ID should have an ID that no other gift card you have ordered has.

Using gift cards in OrderTrac

To use your gift cards, the first step will be to sell a gift card to a customer. You can add a gift card as a UPC item to sell through the POS or just add a gift card as an ‘Other Charge’ item on an invoice. For example, just add an item called ‘$50 gift card’ and the price is $50. However, do not forget to “load” the gift card, which is really just assigning it a value. A prompt to load the gift card should automatically prompt when you add an item to an invoice that includes the text ‘Gift Card’ to help you remember. Alternatively, to load a gift card, select ‘Gift Cards’ on the top menu bar.. On the dialog that shows, enter (or scan) the barcode ID and then enter the value you want to assign to the card. In our example, you would enter $50. 

 

To check the balance of a gift card at any time, just open the gift card management screen by clicking ‘Gift Cards’ from the top menu bar, and enter or scan the gift card ID into the search box and click ‘Search’. You will be able to see the current balance as well as the history of the card such as when the card was issued and any time the card was redeemed.

To redeem a gift card on an invoice, just enter a payment like you normally would, but select ‘Gift Card’ as the Tender. The Redeem Gift Card dialog will show as pictured below. Enter or scan the gift card ID and click ‘Continue’. This will show the available balance of the gift card. Enter the amount of the gift card you want to apply and select ‘OK’. This will update the available balance of the gift card and apply the payment to the invoice.  

That is all there is to gift cards! It is an easy way to provide more value to your customers.