Gift Cards User Manual

CONTENTS

Introduction

Access

Setup

Linking a Gift Card Product to the Gift Card List Menu

Manual Creation

Importing Gift Cards

Selling and Issuing Gift Cards through the Till

Applying a Discount to a Gift Card through the Till

Redeeming Gift Cards through the Till

Refunding a Gift Card on the Till

Checking the details of your Gift Cards

Re-issuing Gift Cards to Customers

The Gift Card Report

The Gift Card Adjustments Report

Gift Card Activity

Introduction

The Gift Card module allows retailers to create specific Gift Card products which can then be easily associated to a large number of unique barcodes printed on physical Gift Cards. These Gift Cards can be sold to a customer for a specific value or issued as part of a return transaction at the till.  

Gift Cards can also be redeemed in various stages, so a customer can spend some of their Gift Card balance on one transaction and spend the rest of their balance on subsequent transactions. Gift Cards can also be used as a part tender payment if required. 

Cybertill Gift Cards have been designed to be anonymous unlike Customer account credit, so when a customer purchases a Gift Card their details won’t be captured at the till unless you have specifically set up your Cybertill system to capture all customer sales. 

Gift Cards also have the ability to apply an expiry date so if your customer doesn’t redeem their Gift Card within a stated period of time then Cybertill won’t allow the Gift Cards to be redeemed after a specified duration. This expiry can be managed though in exceptional circumstances where you may allow your customer to redeem an expired Gift Card as a gesture of goodwill. 

Access

Once you have purchased the Gift Card module and Cybertill have switched on the feature@gift_card Licence, a section within the Admin menu named Gift Card will become visible. 

Within the Product page (found within Admin > Products & Categories), a new option can be found under the Product Type dropdown labelled ‘Gift Card’. 

Within Admin > Default Settings, a new Gift Card heading will also appear. 

Within Admin > Default Settings > Till, you will also find more fields related to Gift Cards. 

Setup

In order to setup Gift Cards on your Cybertill system, you will need to have user access to the Admin menu. ▪ Select the Admin menu  

You will need to decide where you would like your Gift Card product, or products, to reside by either choosing a Category or creating a new Category. In the example below, we have decided to create a specific Category called ‘Gift Cards’. 

• Click into your Category/ Sub-Category. 
• Select the Add a new product into this category link located at the bottom left of the screen.  

The screen will refresh, and you can begin to create your first Gift Card product. In the example below, we have opted to name our Gift Card product ‘Gift Card’ although you can provide any product name at this stage in the same way as when you are creating any new products on your Cybertill system.  

Please note: the product name is what will be appear on your customer’s receipt when they purchase a Gift Card or when you issue a Gift Card as part of a return transaction. 

It is important to notice at this stage that we have also selected ‘Gift Card’ as the Product Type using the dropdown menu. 

This is the additional product type you now have available after purchasing the Gift Card module and it is crucial you select this Product Type when creating Gift Card products or the Gift Card menu will not recognise the products later when we are assigning barcodes to it. 

• Ensure your VAT Code is set as ‘Zero’ rate. 

Note: this is because VAT will be charged on the transaction that is used when paying with the Gift Card. If you set a VAT rate of anything other than ‘Zero here’, then VAT will be charged twice.  

• Scroll down your Gift Card product and you will also notice a field called ‘Always collect customer details’ which can be ticked if you want to capture the details of customers who have purchased your Gift Cards.  

Please be aware that the till operator won’t be able to bypass this option when selling or issuing a Gift Card if this setting is ticked.  

 

You will also notice an additional option labelled Gift Card Expiry Time (days)*. This is a mandatory field and is where you can state how long this particular Gift Card will be valid for once it has been sold or issued at the till. 

Please note: this is a ‘number of days’ field so for instance if you set the field as 30 days then sold the Gift Card on 1st April, it would be valid until 30th April but would have expired on the 1st May. 

• Select the Save button and the screen will refresh. 
• Next, select the Add New Product Option located at the bottom of the screen. 

The screen will again refresh and generate a ‘Ref’ and a ‘Barcode’ just like any other item you might be creating. 

Note: the barcode generated here isn’t the unique barcode that will appear printed on your physical Gift Cards and is just a standard product barcode which will always be generated as part of a new Product Option creation. There are various methods for calling up your Gift Card product at the till. 

Some retailers will print the product barcode and add it to a laminated ‘cheat sheet’ so their till operator can scan the barcode when selling or issuing a Gift Card.  

Alternatively, you may wish to enter the Ref into the ‘Stock no’ title field on the Till, or you might prefer to associate your Gift Card product to a Hotshot menu, so your till operator can select it from a button on the till. 

• Select the Save button located at the bottom left of the screen and you have now created your first Gift Card product. 

Linking a Gift Card Product to the Gift Card List Menu

Once you have created your Gift Card Product as documented in the previous section you will then need to set up all the barcodes for your physical Gift Cards and associate them to your Gift Card Product. You can also specify an ‘Issue’ price at this stage if you wish to sell Gift Cards at a specific value or alternatively you can sell them with a value prompt at the till. Cybertill will capture this value regardless so you can track the status and value of all your Gift Cards. 

• Navigate to the Admin menu and scroll down until you find the Gift Card section. 

• Select Gift Card List 

If you are yet to create any Gift Cards in this menu, you will receive the following screen: 

There are 2 different ways to set up your Gift Cards in this menu.  

• Manual Creation 
• Importing Gift Cards 

Manual Creation

To follow the manual creation process,  

• select New at the bottom of the screen. 

You will notice that the Card Number and Item Ref fields are marked with an asterisk * which denotes a mandatory field. The Card Pin and the Note field may be left blank at this stage. 

• enter the barcode number from your physical Gift Card. 

This barcode will need to be unique for all the physical Gift Cards you will be passing on to your customers. Cybertill recommend using unique 16-digit barcodes like this example where we are going to enter barcode ‘4563673423893974’. 

Please be aware that if you have a scanner connected to the computer you are working then you can scan the barcode if the cursor is in the ‘Card Number’ field instead of typing in the number. 

The next field is the Card Pin. 

Please note: if you decide to enter a number here then whenever you issue a Gift Card the till will display the PIN number. The PIN is only needed when the card is redeemed, or a balance enquiry is done on it. The PIN isn’t a mandatory field, but if included acts as an additional check when redeeming a Gift Card that the operator will need to enter from the customer.  

If the retailer uses cards with a PIN they should check the Gift Card scratch off panel is intact when they sell a Gift Card and only sell cards that have the scratch off intact. The member of staff should not remove the scratch panel at time of sale and ideally the ultimate recipient of the card will see the scratch off panel is intact as it tells them the card hasn’t been used. The customer does not need to take a note of the PIN. The main reason for a PIN is that it means a retailer can offer their customers the ability to allow redemption online. 

It is important that the retailer sets up their Gift cards in advance matching the correct PIN to card number either manually or by the import process.  

The next field is Item Ref*. This is where you will link the physical Gift Card to your Gift Card product which has already been set up in the previous section of this manual. 

If you know the item reference of the Gift Card product then you can simply type it in the blank field. However, you also have the standard product search menu which will allow you search for a specific Gift Card product and link it in this field. In the example below, we have searched for the SBK001 item reference. 

Finally, you can use the Note field to type in free text for any details of this type of Gift Card. This note will not appear on the customer’s receipt and is more for reference. 

Once you have completed the above fields, 

• select the Save button located to the bottom left of the screen. 

The screen should now refresh and display your Gift Card and a couple of additional menus. 

• Status – A dropdown menu which has a default value of ‘Created’. This field will change throughout the life of the Gift Card which has been issued to your customer.  
• Issue Value – this field plays a very important role in how the Gift Card is issued at the till. If you enter a value in this field, then this is the value that will appear on the till once the ‘SBK001’ and 4563673423893974 barcode have been entered by the till operator. So, if you decide to issue £10.00 Gift Cards then you will need to enter 10.00 in the ‘Issue Value’ field. If however, you just want Gift Cards where the operator will enter a value at the till for each customer (like an open priced product) then leave the ‘Issue Value’ field blank. 
• Current Balance – this field will be automatically updated once this Gift Card has been issued at the till. The Status field will also change at this point to show as ‘Issued’. If we sold this Gift Card for £10.00 then the ‘Balance’ would also display as £10.00. However, if your customer then decides to redeem £5.00 of their Gift Card then the ‘Balance’ will display as £5.00. This is a real time calculation. 
• Expiry Date – the date entered into this field will be the date that this particular card will expire by. It is worth noting that this Expiry Date will override the ‘Gift Card Expiry Time (days)’ field in your Gift Card product (SBK001) if this has been set. 

For example, you may have a Gift Card product set up with a ‘Gift Card Expiry Time (days)’ set as 30. You have then set up an Expiry Date in the Gift Card List menu above as 15th April 2020. If you issue this Gift Card on 1st April 2019 then it will expire on the 15th April and not be valid until the 31st April when 30 days have passed. 

Importing Gift Cards

The second way to set up a Gift Card from the Gift Card menu is via the Import Gift Cards option. 

The Gift Card module has a function where you can import a spreadsheet containing all your Gift Card barcodes and link them to an existing Gift Card product. This is useful tool if you have a large quantity of physical Gift Cards which you may allocate to a number of your different shops. This functionality also allows you to bulk import the barcodes instead of manually entering them for each Gift Card. 

First of all, 

• create a specific spreadsheet using Excel workbook which will contain 3 column headers called Item Ref, Card Number and Pin. 

The example spreadsheet below contains 10 unique barcodes under the ‘Card Number’ column to be linked to the ‘A4211’ Gift Card product under the ‘Item Ref’ column which has already been set up on our Cybertill system.  

In the example below, we have opted not to use a PIN for this Gift Card although there is a header where unique PIN’s could be entered which also applies to the manual process detailed earlier in this guide. 

This spread sheet must be saved as a CSV file in order for Cybertill to read the contents when you import it later. In the example below, we have named the spreadsheet ‘Gift Card’ but you can call it whatever name you please as long as it is saved as ‘CSV’ (Comma delimited). 

• Select the Import Gift Cards option from the bottom of the Gift Card List menu. 

The screen will refresh and display a ‘Browse’ option. 

• Navigate to the directory and folder where you have saved your spread sheet.  
• Select your spread sheet for import.  

There are also some text fields to the right of the ‘Browse’ option which reiterate that the Item Ref column is mandatory along with the Card Number (Barcode). 

Once selected your spread sheet should display next to the ‘Browse’ button like below.  

At this stage, 

• select the Import button located at the bottom left of the screen and the spread sheet should be imported into your Cybertill system. 

 

To check this has been successful, 

• select the Back to list option located at the bottom left of the screen. 

You should now be able to view all the Gift Card barcodes that you have imported. In the example screenshot below we can view all barcodes linked to our Gift Card product A4211. 

Located at the bottom of the screen is a Bulk Options section which can be used to search and add further specific details to the Gift Card barcodes you have imported.  

This is a good way of applying an Issue Value to all your Gift Cards listed at once instead of editing each of them individually.  

To use this tool, 

• click the Select All option located to the top left of the list of Gift Cards or alternatively tick the box of specific Gift Cards from the list.  

Once all the Gift Cards have been selected then you can enter a single value in the Issue Value field in Bulk Options section. In the example below, we have entered 10.00 because we want to sell or issue these Gift Cards at a set value of £10.00 and avoid the till operator having to enter a value at a prompt. 

• Select the Bulk Update option from the Batch Actions menu located at the bottom left of the screen and then finally select the go button. 

 

The screen should refresh and display the ‘Issue Value’ as 10.00 for all the Gift Cards you selected on the previous screen. 

Selling and Issuing Gift Cards through the Till

To sell or issue Gift Cards through the Till, the Till operator must have access to the various Gift Card product details that you have set up on your Cybertill system. As previously mentioned in this guide these products can be added to the Till basket either by scanning the Product Barcode, entering the Item Reference or Product Name in the Stock No/Title field on the Till, or even by associating your Gift Card products to a Hotshot menu. 

To sell or issue a Gift Card you will need to sign on to the Till and select the relevant Gift Card product. In the example below, we have selected the SBK001 product by typing its code into the Stock No/Title field. For continuity we have used SBK001 as an example throughout this manual. 

Once you have selected the Gift Card Product a prompt will appear on screen asking for a Card Number. 

Next, 

• take a physical Gift Card and scan or type in the barcode which is on the card.  

It is assumed that this ‘Card Number’ will have already been imported to be linked to a ‘Gift Card’ product as documented earlier in this manual. 

• Select SUBMIT if you are manually entering the number at this stage. 

The screen should refresh and dependant on whether the Gift Card has an Issue Value added to it the Till operator will see a price entry screen. 

The examples below show a Gift Card with and without an Issue Value: 

When you have completed in the relevant field (if applicable), 

• select the SUBMIT button to continue with the transaction.  

Again, the screen will refresh, and the Gift Card will appear in the basket on the till to be tendered accordingly. 

The customer will be provided with a receipt which will detail their purchase including the Gift Card reference and name, last 4 digits of the card number and the ‘Issue Value’. If you have included an ‘Expiry Date’ then this will also print on the receipt for reference. 

If you have opted to add a PIN to each of your Gift Cards, then the Pin will be displayed on the prompt after the ‘Card Number’ has been entered. In the example below, we have chosen to sell a Gift Card product that has a PIN associated to it. 

It is very important to note that this Pin doesn’t print anywhere on the customer’s receipt for security reasons and will need to be given to the customer by the till operator at the transaction stage because the PIN will be required when the customer attempts to redeem the Gift Card at a later stage. 

A Gift Card can be issued as a credit if a customer is perhaps returning goods and doesn’t wish to have an exchange. This option allows the retailer to keep their custom by issuing a Gift Card as opposed to giving the customer their money back or refunding to a credit or debit card.  

To do this at the till,  

• follow the standard returns process until you get to the Tender screen.  

At this point, 

• select the Gift Card product the same as in the previous screens when you sell a Gift Card.  

You will again be prompted to enter a ‘Card Number’ either by manually typing in the number or scanning a barcode. 

• Enter in the Card Number and click OK. 

• Select the SUBMIT button if you are entering the ‘Card Number’ manually. 
• Dependant on whether the Gift Card has been set up with an Issue Value or not select the SUBMIT button to add the Gift Card with its value to the basket. 

This process is very similar to performing an exchange with the exception that the exchange product is a Gift Card and not another ‘Stock item’ product. 

Your customer can then take a Gift Card which should be to the same value as the products they have returned. 

This Gift Card can then be accepted as Tender at a later stage in any of your shops. 

The Gift Card information will appear on the Return Receipt. 

Applying a Discount to a Gift Card through the Till

You can apply a discount to a Gift Card in the same way you apply discounts to all other ‘Stock Item’ Products if you have set the Gift Card product to allow discount. Please refer to the ‘Discount User Manual’ for more information. 

In the example below, we have selected a Gift Card which has already had an ‘Issue Value’ set as £10.00 but we have then applied a 50% discount to it.  

When we tender the transaction, the customer will only be asked to pay £5.00 for their £10.00 Gift Card and when they come to redeem it a later stage it will have a balance of £10.00 even though they only paid £5.00. 

Redeeming Gift Cards through the Till

When a customer or Gift Card recipient returns to one of your shops to redeem their Gift Card you will need to use the ‘Gift Card’ tender to verify that the Gift Card is genuine and that it has a balance still available and that it hasn’t expired. 

• Sign onto the Till and add the Products to the basket as normal and then select the Go to tender button. 

• Select the GIFT CARD Payment Method. 

• Enter in your Card Number of that Gift Card the customer is paying with and click OK. 

If the Gift Card was sold with a PIN associated, then the customer will also need to advise of the PIN at the next prompt. If there wasn’t a PIN associated, then the ‘Card Number’ prompt will disappear once the ‘Card Number’ has been checked as valid. 

In the example below, we have entered a ‘Card Number’ which was sold with an ‘Issue Value’ of £10.00. Notice how the till is automatically adding the value of the goods at £5.50 into the ‘Amount paid by this method’ field.  

• Select the OK button at the bottom of the till screen and the transaction should then complete.  

If we look at the receipt printed below you should notice that the last 4 digits of the ‘Card Number’ have been captured as well as the value that has been redeemed against the Gift Card of £5.50 and also the ‘Remaining Balance’ of £4.50 which the customer can redeem on a subsequent transaction in any of your shops. 

Refunding a Gift Card on the Till

You can refund a Gift Card through the Till providing the Default Setting has been set up to allow this in the Back Office (as detailed in the Setup section of this document). 

If you are refunding the issued Gift Card,  

• enter the transaction reference as per the standard Refund process and the basket will display as a minus value against the Gift Card that was in the sale transaction. 

• Select the Go to tender button and the till will display the original tender used to purchase the Gift Card. 
• Select the correct Tender and the till will complete the refund transaction like any other product. Please note that the till won’t prompt for the Gift Card number in this type of transaction as it has been captured in the original transaction reference.  

If you check your Gift Card List menu in the Back Office, you will notice the status of the Gift Card will have changed from ‘Issued’ to ‘Refunded’. 

Checking the details of your Gift Cards

You can monitor the details of all your Gift Cards using the Gift Card List section (found within the Admin menu). In the example below, we can see a status column which displays the status of each Gift Card. 

A Gift Card can have the following status within your Cybertill system: - 

• Created - The Gift Card hasn’t yet been issued to any customer through the till. 
• Issued - The Gift Card has been created and then issued to a customer through the till. 
• Fully Redeemed – The Gift Card has been created, then issued through the till and then subsequently ‘fully’ redeemed through the till. Please note if a Gift Card has been partially redeemed then its status will show as ‘Issued’ until the remaining balance has been redeemed. 
• Expired – The Gift Card has been created with an expiry date which has subsequently elapsed. 
• Refunded – The Gift Card issue transaction has been refunded at the till providing there was a current balance left on the Gift Card. 

You can also use the Filtered results option located at the top of the screen to define your search for various Gift Card status. In the example below, we can see the various filter options available within the Gift Card list menu. 

• In the ‘Filter Dialog’ box you can search for a specific ‘Card number’ Gift Card or search using the Gift Card ‘Item Reference’ using the standard product search filter. 
• Alternatively, you can enter a date range of when the Gift Card was created.  
• There is a status filter as described above to help you specific only certain Gift Cards with a specific status.  
• There is also a date range which can be entered for the ‘Issue Date’ of specific Gift Cards. 
• The ‘Issue Location’ dropdown menu can be used to select specific shops and then identify only Gift Cards issued from certain shops within your business. 
• The ‘Issue Value’ fields can be used to enter ‘From’ and ‘To’ values to check what volume of Gift Cards have been issued with a specific value. 
• The ‘Redeemed Value’ fields can be used to enter ‘From’ and ‘To’ values to check what volume of Gift Cards have been redeemed with a specific redeemed value. 
• The ‘Current Balance’ fields can be used to enter ‘From’ and ‘To’ values to check what volume of Gift Cards have a ‘Current Balance’ within specific current balance values. 
• You can also enter ‘To’ and ‘From’ Expiry Dates if you have chosen to use ‘Expiry Dates’ in your Gift Cards. 
• Finally, you can enter ‘To’ and ‘From’ Expiry Dates which will show you which Gift Cards Expired within a specific date range. 

Re-issuing Gift Cards to Customers

You can reissue Gift Cards providing they have been fully redeemed. To do this, 

• head back to the Gift Card List menu. 
• Use the filtered results option to search for a specific card number then you can select the ‘Edit’ link to the right of the Gift Card details.   
• Use the Status dropdown menu to select ‘Created’, then select Save at the bottom left of the screen. 

You can also add an Issue Value in this edit screen. You will then be able to issue the same Gift Card number to a different customer if desired. 

The Gift Card Report

The Gift Card Report has been designed to report all Gift Card details in real time and the results can be exported to a CSV field if required.  

From within Admin > Gift Card, ▪ click on Gift Card Report. 

 You will notice a filter options menu similar to the screenshot below: 

▪ Use this filter screen to filter the report by the following criteria: - 

Card Status, Card number, Created from and to dates, Issued from and to dates, Due To Expire dates, Issuing Location dropdown menu, Product List search and Currency dropdown menu. 

Once you have selected your filter criteria then you need to select the ‘Generate’ button located at the bottom left of the screen. 

The screen will refresh and display you report filter results like the example below: 

The Gift Card Adjustments Report

The Gift Card Adjustments Report allows you to filter your Gift Cards by status and by Change date in order to monitor all adjustments such as changes in balance, expiry dates and status. 

From within Admin > Gift Card, 

• click on Gift Card Adjustments Report. 

• Select the Generate button located at the bottom left of the screen to run the report once you have specified your filters. 

  This report can also be exported to CSV if required.

Gift Card Activity

The Gift Card Activity menu allows you to view specific Gift Card activity: - 

• The filters below show that you can search for the Gift Card activity of a specific Gift Card number. This might prove useful if you have a customer query on their Gift Card which you can search for and view all activity for that specific card. 
• You can also add a ‘from’ and ‘to’ Date range to view all activity in a specific date range which might be useful to compare to a particular time of the year such as Christmas or Easter. 
• There is a ‘Due To Expire’ filter which will allow you view your Gift Card activity specific to a particular expiry date range which may provide information on how many Gifts Cards are redeemed close to their expiry date. 
• The ‘Location’ dropdown menu allows you to view Gift Card activity in specific shops if you have more than one shop in your business. 
• The ‘User’ filter can be used to view all Gift Card activity done by a specific user of your Cybertill system whether on the till or in the Back Office menu.