You can sell and redeem gift cards using your Zettle point-of-sale app; You can also track all the gift cards you sell in the gift card register in the app or online at my.zettle.com.
How do I get started with gift cards?
Before you can sell any gift cards, you need to set up our gift cards feature. You can do this in your point-of-sale app or online at my.zettle.com.
In the Zettle app
- In the navigation, go to Gift cards
- Tap Continue to start
- Select how you would like to sell gift cards – gift cards sent via email, handmade physical cards, or pre-made physical cards that are scannable
- Decide whether you want to generate random card codes or create your own custom codes
- Set the expiry date and confirm the terms
- Tap See how it works to learn more about gift cards or Skip
Online at my.zettle.com
- Log in to my.zettle.com and go to Products > Gift cards
- Click Set up gift cards
- Select how you would like to sell gift cards – gift cards sent via email, handmade physical cards, or pre-made physical cards that are scannable
- Decide whether you want to generate random card codes or create your own custom codes
- Set the expiry date and confirm the terms
- Tap See how it works to learn more about gift cards or Skip
Gift card types
You can present gift cards to your customers in various ways – as a branded pre-made gift card, attached in greeting cards, printed on a business card, or emailed to them. Whatever you choose, remember that the code you have on the physical card must match the code you enter in your Zettle app. You can order plastic gift cards through a Zettle partner here.
Once you’re set, you can sell and redeem gift cards on all devices connected to your account. You’ll see Gift cards added to your product library and as a payment method for customers to redeem and make a purchase.
Adding codes
You need to assign a unique identifying code to each gift card for tracking and redeeming. There are three options for doing this, scan a barcode from a printed card, generate a random code and write it on the card or enter a custom code. For physical cards with a scannable code, you’ll set the barcode when ordering them.
If you want to create custom codes, make sure they’re a minimum of 6 letters or numbers – for example, Summer01 or Birthday124. We recommend you use 8 alphanumeric characters so you don’t have to reuse the codes if you sell a lot of gift cards.
How do I sell gift cards?
Once you’ve set up the gift card feature, you’ll find Gift cards in your product library. Tap it to add it to your cart.
For physical gift cards with a scannable code, scan the card and the code will be added automatically.
In the Zettle app
- Tap Gift cards in your product library
- Enter the value you want to load onto the card. The value must be at least £1 and not higher than £1,000.
- Complete the steps to add it to your cart. You can update your preferences in Settings.
- Let your customer know the expiry date
- Process the payment
Note:
- Gift cards can’t be combined with other products in the same purchase
- Gift cards can only be sold through the Go app and can’t be sold online
A customer can purchase a gift card with the following payment methods:
- Card payment
- Cash
- Payment links (only on iOS)
How to sell gift cards remotely using payment links (only on iOS)
If your customer isn’t physically with you, you can send them a link to pay. Activate the Payment link feature in your app settings and send the link to your customer. Once your customer has paid via the link, their gift card will be emailed to them. They can then forward it to the gift card recipient. Learn more about payment links
Note: gift cards cannot be purchased with PayPal QRC
Expiry dates
You can change the expiry date at my.zettle.com under Account & settings > Gift card settings. When you sell a gift card, the expiry date is calculated from the date of purchase and will be valid for a maximum of 3 years.
When a gift card is sold via a payment link, the expiry date is calculated from the date the customer completes the payment.
Remember to let your customer know the expiry date when they buy the gift card.
If you want to honour a gift card that has passed the expiry date, you can do it at your own discretion by offering the customer a discount on their purchase without processing the gift card. As soon as a gift card is expired, the sale changes from outstanding debt to revenue in the reports.
How do I redeem a gift card?
To redeem a gift card
- Add the products to the cart as usual
- Tap All payment methods
- You’ll see all your activated payment methods*. Tap Gift card. If your customer wants to split the payment using a gift card and cash or card, you must enter the gift card as the first payment method
- Enter or scan the code. The card’s expiry date and the remaining balance will be checked.
- Let your customer about their remaining balance after the transaction
- Complete the payment or continue with another payment method if the gift card balance does not cover the sale amount. You can use multiple gift cards in the same transaction.
*If gift cards are not shown as a payment method, check that gift cards is activated as a payment method in your app. Go to Settings > Gift cards under payment settings and toggle on.
Check a gift card balance
In the Zettle app
- Go to Gift cards from the main menu
- Click the magnifying glass and enter the gift card code in the search field
- View the balance, check the expiration date and the event history
Online at my.zettle.com
- Log in to my.zettle.com
- Go to Products > Gift cards
- Enter the gift card code in the search field
- View the balance and check the expiry date
- You can click the row to view more details
Tracking gift cards
In the Zettle app
In the gift card section, you can view the balance, status and any transactions made with the gift card. You can also send the gift card by email if necessary.
Online at my.zettle.com
- After selling a gift card, it immediately appears in the gift card register (Products > Gift cards)
- At the top, you’ll see a summary of active gift cards (cards that have been sold and have a remaining balance) and the collective value of these cards (outstanding debt)
- For each card, you can view the balance, status, and any transactions made with the gift card
The different statuses are:
- Unredeemed – a gift card that hasn’t been used
- Redeemed – a gift card that has been used and has a balance of zero
- Partially redeemed – a gift card that has been used and has a remaining balance
- Expired – a gift card that has passed its expiry date and may or may not have a remaining balance. Check this by clicking the row.
- Returned – a gift card that was returned by a customer. Redeemed, partially redeemed, and expired gift cards can’t be returned.
Bookkeeping gift cards
Reports
Expired gift cards are not included in the Zettle sales report, since they are not part of a regular sale, and thus no product or service has been purchased with the card.
Only once an end customer uses a gift card to purchase a product or service, a sale will be reflected in the sales report. If you have expired gift cards, please speak to your accountant how to report them.
Online at my.zettle.com
Under the reports section, click Sales report to see the value of gift cards that are:
- sold
- redeemed
- returned
- expired
Note: If there are no sales or changes to your gift cards in the time period selected, there will be no information available.
In-app reports
The reports section will show the number of redeemed cards and the total value.
Accounting integrations
Make sure to record gift cards in your accounting service according to the regulations of your local tax authority. As a general rule, the sale of gift cards should be accounted as liability, while the value of expired gift cards and the redemption of gift cards should be accounted as revenue.
Tax and gift cards
Gift cards are VAT exclusive for multi-purpose vouchers, meaning VAT will only be applied on products purchased with a gift card not on the sale of a gift card. Please find more information below on the difference between multi-purpose vouchers and single-purpose vouchers.
Single purpose voucher versus multi-purpose vouchers
Zettle’s gift card service only supports multi-purpose vouchers. We do not recommend this service if you are offering single purpose vouchers.
What is a single-purpose voucher?
If all the products or services you sell have a single VAT rate, then VAT is due at the time the gift card is sold. Zettle doesn’t support single-purpose vouchers.
What is a multi-purpose voucher?
If you sell products or services with different VAT rates, then VAT is due when the gift card is redeemed for a specific product or service.
Importing and exporting gift cards
We currently don’t support the importing and exporting of gift card codes. If you’re migrating from an existing POS system to Zettle Go, any existing gift cards with redeemable balances can’t be transferred to Zettle Go at this time.
Giving discounts to the sale of gift cards
We currently don’t support giving discounts to the sale of gift cards.
Generating barcodes for ordering
To order gift cards from a print vendor, generate barcodes at my.zettle.com and download a .csv file to send to the vendor.