How to create gift card programs

A gift card program holds your gift cards and the rules they follow: how much a card can hold, when it expires, where it's accepted and whether its transactions are settled. Most accounts need one program, but you can run several, for example one per brand.

Creating a program

1. Go to Store → Giftcards.
2. On the program card at the top of the sidebar, click the switch icon. A menu opens with your programs under Selected program.
3. Click Create new program.
4. Enter a Program name and click Create.

The page reloads and the program exists. To work on it, select it in the same menu.

New giftcard, on the Cards page, doesn't create a program. It creates a single gift card inside the selected program.

Which program you're working in

Everything under Store → Giftcards belongs to the program shown on the card at the top of the sidebar. When you open the page, that's the program you last selected, or the first one if you haven't picked one yet. Switch programs with the same menu you create them from.

The program settings

Open Settings in the sidebar. The page is split into sections. Most of them show their current values and have an Edit … button: click it, make your change and click Save changes.

• General (Edit details). The program's Image and Name, plus Minimum purchase amount and Maximum amount, both in your currency. The section also shows the read-only Giftcard Program ID and Internal value (UUID). An integration or our support team may ask for them.
• Expiration settings (Edit expiration). Choose Never expires or Expires after a set number of days, up to 10,000 days.
• Settling (Edit settling). Choose Don’t settle transactions or Settle transactions, with a Frequency of Annually, Quarterly or Monthly.
• Pending transactions (Edit notifications). Choose Send email notifications to receive an email when a gift card transaction needs review.
• Danger zone. Deletes the program (see below).

The amounts buyers can pick when they buy a gift card online, and whether they can enter their own amount, aren't in Settings. They're under Online sales → Configuration in the sidebar. See Selling gift cards online.

Minimum purchase amount and maximum amount

Minimum purchase amount only applies when someone buys a gift card online, through your contacts portal or your widget. Cards you create in the dashboard, at the till or with an import don't check it.

Maximum amount caps the balance a card can reach. Every top-up is checked against it, and top-ups that are still pending count too. A top-up that would take the card's balance over the maximum is refused, and so is an online purchase above it. Set it to 0 for no maximum. That only works while the minimum is 0 too, because the maximum can't be lower than the minimum.

Expiry

There's no end date for the program as a whole. Each card has its own expiry date, and every time money goes onto a card, its date is set again to that moment plus the number of days you chose. Changing this setting doesn't affect existing cards until their next top-up. When a gift card expires, and what sets its expiry date explains the details.

Settling

With Settle transactions on, Settlements appears in the sidebar, with a report for each period of the frequency you picked. Gift card settlements explains how it works.

Where the cards are accepted

Open Groups in the sidebar and click Edit groups. Under Linked groups, pick the groups of business profiles where this program's cards can be used, then click Save changes.

A new program is linked to the ALL group automatically, which holds every business profile. To limit the cards to some of your locations, remove ALL and pick the groups you want instead.

Deleting a program

Under Danger zone, click Delete and confirm. This only works while the program has no gift cards. As soon as it has any, the delete is refused, so it's mainly for removing a program you created by mistake.

When something doesn't work

• A top-up is refused. It would take the card over the program's Maximum amount. Raise the maximum or top up a smaller amount.
• A top-up is refused on a card that's been loaded before. The card isn't Reusable, so it takes one load only.
• An online purchase is refused. The amount is below the Minimum purchase amount or above the Maximum amount.
• A card isn't accepted at a location. That business profile isn't in any of the program's Linked groups.
• You can't delete a program. It still has gift cards.