What Is a Gift Voucher? How to Sell Gift Cards in Your Business

1What Is a Gift Voucher?

A gift voucher is a document sold for a set amount that entitles the holder to shop for that amount. The buyer usually gives it to someone else as a present, and the recipient uses it to shop in your business.

A gift card does the same job in card form. The difference is in how they are used:

• A gift voucher is usually single-use: the whole amount is spent in one purchase.
• A gift card has a balance: what's left stays on the card and can be spent on the next visit, and the card can be topped up.

Names vary from business to business. What matters is deciding up front whether the cards you sell are single-use or carry a balance, and telling customers clearly.

2What Do Gift Cards Bring a Business?

• The money comes in first. The card's value enters the till the day it's sold; the goods are handed over later.
• New customers walk in. The person who receives the card as a present often gets to know your business for the first time.
• An easy present for special days. For holidays, birthdays and the New Year, it suits anyone who wants to give a present without knowing the size, colour or taste.
• Bulk sales to companies. You sell cards in bulk to companies that want to give them to their staff or customers.

3How Do You Prepare Gift Cards?

• Choose the type. Decide whether you'll sell single-use vouchers or cards with a balance.
• Set the amounts. Fixed amounts (for example ₺250, ₺500, ₺1,000) make choosing and selling easier; you can still load another amount for a customer who asks.
• Print the cards. Each card needs its own code and a barcode for that code; no code should appear on two cards.
• Decide on an expiry date. If the card expires, print the date on it.
• Write down the rules. Put rules such as whether the remaining amount can be exchanged for cash and what happens to a lost card on the back of the card or its sleeve.

4Selling Gift Cards and Taking Payment With Them at the Till

When a card is sold, its code is scanned, the type is chosen and the amount is loaded; the customer pays that amount in cash or by card. When someone pays with a gift card, its code is scanned and the amount comes off the balance. If the balance doesn't cover it, the rest is taken by another payment type.

Cash paid for a gift card goes into the day's till and is added to the expected cash at the count. Purchases paid with a gift card come off its balance, so they bring no cash into the till.

5Why Track the Unspent Balance?

Amounts sold but not yet spent are what the business owes card holders: whoever holds the card can come in any day and shop for that amount. That's why a card sale isn't added to the sales total; the sale is recorded when someone shops with the card.

Tracking the open balance regularly shows you the purchases still to come. You also need to see cards that have expired, been lost or unexpectedly gone negative.

6Gift Cards in PratikKasa

In PratikKasa, gift cards run as a program you turn on and name as you like, such as Gift Card or Gift Voucher. When selling a card, you scan its code, choose its type and load the amount: a Balance card is spent in parts, a Voucher is used up in one go. You can add a customer and an expiry date to the card if you want.

At payment, you choose Gift Card, scan the card and tap «Pay with This Card». «Check Balance» shows the remaining amount and the latest activity. You can top up an existing card and deactivate a lost one. If a sale paid with a gift card is refunded, the amount goes back onto the card.

The Liability Report shows the total sold but not yet spent, with separate lines for the amount spent this month, cards with a negative balance and cards that are inactive or expired.

The drawings in this post are based on the screens of PratikKasa 2.1.0.