How to create a voucher

A voucher is a code a contact redeems for something you decide: a free coffee, 20% off, a perk in your webshop. You don't create the codes one at a time. You create a promotion, which holds the rules every code follows, and the codes come out of it afterwards.

This article covers creating the promotion and setting it up. Getting codes to your contacts is a separate step, with several routes: see Gift cards vs vouchers, and every way to hand each of them out.

Creating the promotion

Go to Loyalty → Promotions & Vouchers and click New promotion.
In the Create promotion window, fill in Name and Description. Both are required, and both are shown to the contact who gets the voucher, along with the image you can add later. Write them for the contact, not for your team.
Pick a Type:
- Single use vouchers: each code can be redeemed once.
- Multi use vouchers: each code can be redeemed several times. You then also fill in Number of redemptions per voucher, which has to be between 2 and 50.
Click Create.

The type and the number of redemptions per voucher can't be changed after you click Create. Everything else on the promotion can be changed at any time, so get these two right first.

The promotion opens on Summary and is active straight away.

The promotion's pages

The pages in the sidebar are grouped by what they do.

Summary: the name, description and image contacts see (change them with Edit details), the voucher type, and the Danger zone.
Details: the promotion's own custom attributes and their values. Only shown when your account has promotion attributes outside an integration's group. See Details: the promotion's custom attributes below.
Redemptions: every redemption of this promotion.

Under Distribution:

Vouchers: every code of this promotion, with its status, contact and dates. Add vouchers generates a batch of codes that aren't linked to anyone yet, up to 5,000 at a time.
Issuances: hand the voucher to a group of contacts, once or on a schedule. See Issuing vouchers to a group of contacts, once or on a schedule.
Issued wallet passes: opens the Wallet Pass page. Click Edit design on the Voucher pass card to design the Apple and Google Wallet pass for this voucher. Below it are the passes issued so far.

Under Settings:

Validity: when a code works, and where.
Reminders: an email before the voucher expires.
Limits: how many codes there can be, and how often one contact can redeem.
Discount logic: how this voucher maps onto a discount in your POS. Only shown when you use an integration that needs it, or when you have promotion attributes in a group named after an integration.

Details: the promotion's custom attributes

The Details page lists your promotion attributes with their value for this promotion, one section per attribute group. To change a value, click Edit on its section, change it and click Save changes. Each section saves on its own.

You don't add attributes on this page. A promotion attribute is on every promotion from the moment you create it, so if it's listed here, it's already on this promotion. A dash means it has no value yet.

Manage attributes, at the top right, opens Settings → Attributes with Promotion selected. That's where you create promotion attributes, sort them into groups and set their options. See Custom attributes: what they are, how to create one and where to use them.

An attribute in a group named after an integration isn't on Details. It's on Discount logic, in a section for that integration. So if an attribute you created is missing from Details, check its group first.

Activating, deactivating and deleting

The Danger zone on Summary holds the actions that take the promotion in or out of use. Each one asks you to confirm first.

An active promotion shows Deactivate.
An inactive promotion shows Activate and Delete.

A promotion can't be deleted while it still has an active voucher that's linked to a contact. Vouchers that aren't linked to anyone, or that are inactive or already redeemed, don't stop you. If deleting is refused, deactivate the promotion instead.

Deleting a promotion deletes all of its vouchers too. That runs in the background, and once it's done their codes are free again, so you can import them into another promotion.

What deactivating does to the vouchers

Deactivating the promotion takes every voucher in it out of use at once, including the codes your contacts already have:

None of its codes can be redeemed: not at your POS, not in the business app and not from the dashboard.
Contacts no longer see its vouchers in the contacts portal.
You can't send its voucher to a contact, and its issuances skip every run until the promotion is active again.

Each voucher keeps its own status, so a code that was Active still shows Active on the Vouchers page. That's expected: the promotion blocks it, not the voucher. Codes still expire on their own dates while the promotion is inactive.

Activating the promotion again brings every voucher back into use that hasn't expired, been redeemed or been deactivated on its own. You don't have to activate them one by one.

To take a single code out of use, deactivate that voucher instead: see Managing a single voucher: its status, tabs and actions.

Validity

Three sections, each with its own Edit button.

Activation and expiration

Activation decides when a code starts working:

Activate immediately: as soon as the code is created. This is the default.
Use a fixed activation date: one date and time, the same for every code.
Use a dynamic activation delay: a duration counted from the moment the code is created, so each code starts on its own clock.

Expiration:

Never expires: the default.
Static expiration date: one date and time, the same for every code. Good for a seasonal campaign that ends on a known day.
Dynamic expiration date: a duration counted from the moment the code activates, so every contact gets the same window, whenever they received their code.

Changing either one only affects codes created from then on. Codes that already exist keep the dates they were given.

With a static expiration date that has already passed, you can't add vouchers to the promotion any more. Set a new date first.

Timeslots

Restricts redemption to specific days and hours, such as a Monday-only offer or lunchtimes.

Always active between validity time: the default. A code can be redeemed at any time between its activation and expiration.
Active on specific time slots: pick the days and, per day, the hours in which the code can be redeemed.

Locations

Which of your business profiles accept the voucher. All business profiles by default. Switch to Selected business profiles and pick the ones you want. This controls where a code can be redeemed. It doesn't hide the voucher anywhere.

Limits

Two limits that work independently, both Unlimited to start with.

Number of vouchers: how many codes this promotion can have in total. Switch to Limited number of vouchers and set the number. The number of vouchers has to stay below this limit, so set it a little higher than you need. For example, set 101 if you want 100 codes: a batch that would bring the total exactly to the limit is refused.
Number of redemptions: how many times one contact can redeem this promotion, counted across all the codes they have. Switch to Limited redemptions and set the number. A redemption that was reversed doesn't count.

The second limit is not the voucher type, and it's the one people mix up. A single use code stays single use however high you set it: this limit counts redemptions per contact, not per code. If you want one code to work more than once, that's Multi use vouchers, chosen when you create the promotion.

Reminders

This page sends contacts an email a set number of days before their voucher expires, at a time you pick. It needs an expiration date: for a voucher that never expires, there's nothing to remind anyone about. See Remind contacts before their voucher expires.

Handing the voucher out

Creating the promotion doesn't give anybody anything. Once it's set up, pick a route:

Generate codes in bulk with Add vouchers on the Vouchers page, for printed codes or codes you hand out yourself.
An issuance, for a contact list, a tier or a selection of contacts, once or on a schedule.
Attach it to an email, so every recipient of a campaign or automated email gets their own code.
An automation, so the voucher reacts to something the contact did.

On a single code's page, Link to a contact assigns that code to one contact. It doesn't send them anything. To get a voucher to one contact by email, see How to send a voucher to one contact.

All routes are listed, with when to use which, in Gift cards vs vouchers, and every way to hand each of them out.