A gift card is a flexible payment tool that allows customers to purchase credit for themselves or as a gift for others. For your business, gift cards are a fantastic way to boost upfront cash flow and increase customer loyalty. In this guide, you will find everything you need to know to manage your gift cards effectively: from creating and selling them, to redeeming them, importing old ones, and keeping track of the accounting.
How do I create and sell a new gift card?
In Salonized, you can easily create and sell a gift card through your register. To do so:
Click on the cart icon on the left sidebar.
Navigate to the Checkout tab.
Select ‘Gift Card’ from the left menu.
Enter a custom number or click on the ‘Generate’ button to create a random one.
Assign the amount
Set an expiration date:
Note: By law, gift cards must be valid for a minimum of two years. Salonized sets this as the default, but you have full control over the specific timeframe.
Assign the sale to a specific staff member and link it to the correct customer.
Click on ‘Continue’.
Select the payment method and finalise the sale.
(Optional) To help your customers book online, simply email them their unique gift card number. This gives them a code they can easily enter when they are ready to pay for their next visit.
Remember: Once a card is sold, the amount and number are locked and cannot be edited. Gift cards can be shared and used across multi-location accounts.
Note on VAT: In Salonized, a gift card is treated as a voucher rather than an immediate sale. As you don’t know if a customer will spend the credit on a treatment (e.g., 21% VAT) or a product (e.g., 9% VAT), no VAT is applied at the time of purchase. Instead, the correct tax is automatically calculated and added only when the gift card is used to pay for a specific service or item. More information about this can be found on the Tax Authority (Belastingdienst) website.
How do I import gift cards from a previous system?
If you have physical or digital cards that were sold before you joined Salonized, you can bring them into the system so they are recognised at checkout. To do it, follow these steps:
Go to the Register and select the Gift Cards tab.
Click 'Import Gift Card'.
Enter the existing details (number, amount and expiration date).
Save your changes.
Note: These will not appear as ‘Sales’ in your current reports, as the system assumes that the money was collected in the past.
How do I accept a gift card for payment?
When a customer is ready to pay, you can apply one or multiple gift cards to their total.
Ring up the products or services in the Checkout.
Select 'Gift Card' as the payment method.
Enter the gift card number and select the matching card.
If a customer presents an expired card, look for the notification that appears when you enter the number in the register.
Decide whether to accept the card (the system does not allow the use of an expired gift card online, but you can still process it manually in the Register).
Click 'Submit' to apply the balance.
If a balance remains, the system will automatically update the card to ‘Active’ with the new total; if the amount is fully spent, the gift card status will be updated to ‘Empty’.
How do I track and filter my gift cards?
Once sold, all cards are stored in a central dashboard where you can monitor their status. To check them:
Go to the Register
Select Gift Cards.
Use the Status dropdown menu to filter your list.
These are all the possible statuses of your gift cards:
Active: The card is within its validity period and has a remaining balance.
Empty: The balance has been fully redeemed, and the card is no longer valid.
Expired: The card has reached its expiration date. Note: While blocked online, you can still accept these manually in the register.
Pending: The card is linked to an invoice that has not been paid yet.
Credited: The original purchase invoice linked to the gift card was cancelled or refunded.
How do I handle gift card accounting?
Accounting for gift cards is unique, so here are a few tips to make sure your accounting operations go smoothly:
Use the 'Totals Report' to see two distinct figures: the total amount of gift cards you've sold and the total amount returned to you as payment.
For your tax return, add your Total Revenue (incl. VAT) and your Sold Gift Cards together to find your total income.
Check that the data on the left side of your report (Funds Received) matches the data on the right (Services Provided).
For any issues, please contact our support team. We will be happy to help you.
If you want to know more about the gift card system, take a look at these articles: