Gift Cards (usually purchased as gifts) and Account Payments (usually purchased to pay off a negative account balance) are set up nearly the same.

1. Log in as the Owner
2. Follow this menu path: Toolbox => Setup => Pricing => Gift Cards & Account Payments
3. Click Add New in the upper right corner

 

• We recommend calling gift cards "Gift Cards" and account payment "Account Payment" or "Credit."
• Unit Price: How much real money they must pay to buy it.
• Credit Amt: How much account credit is given to the recipient
• Editable: Do you want to be able to tweak the price when this is being sold on the Retail Screen? Then check the box.
• Type This drop down box sets the credit as a Prepaid Gift Card (credit is attached to the card ID), Assignable Gift Card (credit is attached to a client), or an Account Payment.
• Discontinued? This deactivates the gift card or account payment.
• Sell Online? Only check this if you want the Assignable Gift Card to be sold online. You must have a Merchant Account with MINDBODY for this to work . Prepaid Gift Cards cannot be sold online. More about selling them online below....
• Members only? just lets clients marked as Members buy the gift card.
• Click Add New.

Someone came into your business and they want to buy a gift card. If you created Assignable Gift Cards in your system using the steps above, here is how you sell them.

1. Using the Retail tab, look up the client who is buying the gift card
2. In the Add Item box on the Retail screen, click on the Credits/Gift Cards button on the far right.
3. In the Item drop down box, choose the Gift Card
4. Choose the Type of Recipient
   • Existing Client - They are buying it for someone that is already saved inside your system.
   • New Client - They are buying it for someone that is not in your system yet, but the buyer knows the recipient's name. You will quickly add them to the system here.
   • Undesignated - They are buying it for someone whose name they do not know. This is typically used when a business is donating a gift card to a charity event, white elephant gift exchanges, etc.... More on that below.
5. Enter the unique gift card number. This is typically a unique ID, barcode, or magnetic strip on the physical card. You can use a swiper or barcode reader at this point.
6. Price: The amount of real money they are giving you.
7. Credit: The amount of account credit this gift card will be worth (usually the same as the price).
8. Click "Add Item"
9. Choose the Payment Method below (are they giving you cash, check, etc... to buy the gift card?)
10. Save the sale.

 

Click here to learn about the Gift Card Report

 

The person who received the gift card is now coming into your business to use it.

1. Click on the Retail tab
2. Look up the client who is holding the gift card
3. Once they are looked up, if they have a positive account balance (you'll see it under their name on the left hand side), then you can bet that the buyer of the gift card choose "New Client" or "Existing Client" when it was sold. Credit was automatically transferred to the recipient's account inside your system. If there is no positive account balance beneath the client's name, then the gift card was probably purchased for an "Undesignated" client or purchased online.
   • Undesignatedd note: If there is not an account balance for the client after you looked them up, then the gift card was probably sold to an "Undesignated" person. Either that, or the gift card was purchased online. This means that the credit is being tracked by the unique number on the card. You should enter the card number into the "Assign Gift Card" field below the client's name. Enter the number from the card the person is holding and click "Assign." It will add credit to his or her account.
4. Once the item is added to the ticket, you will choose Account as the payment method.
5. Save the sale.

 

What if they're total price is more than is allotted on the card?

Click on the "Split Sale" link above the payment methods. You can choose "Account" for Payment Method 1 to use up the gift card balance. Then click on whatever Payment Method 2 the customer wants to use (i.e. cash, check, credit card.)

To see who has purchased your gift cards, follow this menu: Reports => Clients & Accounts =>  Gift Cards

Click here to learn more about the Gift Cards report

Most gift cards really just add credit to another client's account in the system. This doesn't work so well when you want to donate a gift card to a charity event where you don't know who the recipient will be. So you must sell the gift card to an Undesignated client. This will tie the credit to the unique number on the gift card - not a client's account.

 

To create a gift card for a donation, first create a unique gift card item.

1. Select Toolbox => Setup => Pricing => Gift Cards & Account Payments.
2. Click Add New.
3. Type a unique name for the gift card in the Description field. Typing the service name in the Description field doesn't control it's use, but it makes it easier to recognize when assigning the gift certificate later on.
4. 
5. Make sure that the Unit Price and Credit Amount are the same.
6. Set it as an Assignable Gift Card
7. Do not check Editable.
8. Do not check Sell Online.
9. Select Add New

 

Tax Deduction

To track the charitable donation on your Sales reports, you should create a new Payment Method called "Donations" or "Charitable Donations" (instead of using cash, check, etc... ) You can create a new payment method by following this menu path: Toolbox => Setup => Options => Payment Methods

 

Putting Credit On a Plastic or Paper Card for a Donation

You sell it by using the steps above in the "Selling a gift card at your business" link. Your recipient will be "Undesignated." 

 

Assigning the Charitable Gift

1. Whoever receives the charitable gift card will eventually come into your business and hand you the gift card.
2. Once you look up (or Quick Add) the client's name on the Retail screen, you will see a field called "Assign Gift Card" to the right of the clients name. Enter the gift card number there.
3. Click the "Assign" button.
4. After you have redeemed the gift card for the lucky winner of the gift card, they will have a positive account balance.
5. Whatever they buy should be added to the ticket.
6. You will then choose "Account" as the payment method.

Assignable Gift cards sold online are tracked by a gift card number that our system automatically generates. The recipient would need to bring you a copy of the gift card (which is e-mailed to them or printed by the purchaser). On the copy there will be a gift card serial number. You may follow the steps above for "Redeeming a Gift Card" to redeem gift cards sold online. You will always need to enter the Gift Card number into the Assign Gift Card field on the Retail screen for the recipient of an online gift card.

 

Click here to learn about changing the look of your online gift cards.

You have the same flexibility with these cards as you have with the Assignable Gift Cards. Anything (plastic cards with barcodes, cards with magnetic stripes, numbers on paper certificates, etc...) with a unique number will work. You could even use the ID tags that your clients use to sign in. The sky is the limit. You can use third party cards or buy them from us by clicking here.

1. Enable them as a payment method by following this menu path: Toolbox => Setup => Options => Payment Methods

2. Tick the Active box next to: Prepaid Gift Card

3. Click the Update button

4. Create a new Prepaid Gift Card, just like you do with Assignable Gift Cards, by following this menu path: "Toolbox => Setup => Pricing => Gift Cards & Account Payments"

1. Click on the Retail tab

2. In the Add Item section, click on the Credits/Gift Cards button

3. Look up the prepaid gift card that you created in the step above

4. Sell the prepaid card like you would any other item

You can sell your prepaid gift cards online. And if you happen to be a cross-regional business, this will allow your clients to buy a gift card from one location and redeem it at another.

Yes, here's how:

1. Click on the Retail tab in the upper right corner

2. Look up the client who wants to add credit to the Prepaid Gift Card

3. Click on the Credits/Gift Cards link in the Add Item section

4. Look up the type of prepaid gift card

5. Enter the gift card ID for the card that you want to add funds to

6. Current balance of the card will be displayed

7. Enter the credit amount that the client wants to add to his or her card

8. Add the item to the ticket

9. Check him or her out

(Yes, here's how:

1. Click on the Retail tab in the upper right corner

2. Look up the client

3. Click on the Credits/Gift Cards link in the Add Item section

4. Look up the type of prepaid gift card

5. Enter the gift card ID in question

6. Click outside of the gift card ID field

7. Current balance of the card will be displayed

If they lose the card, they lose the money. You should not refund them for a lost card. If you do, the refund will be for the full amount of the lost card. If they have used the card to make purchases -- or worse, if they gave the card to someone else to make purchases -- it will be very difficult to track.

• At the retail point of sale, you can only add one Prepaid Gift Card to the ticket at a time.
• To follow best business practices, all returned or found Prepaid Gift Cards should be voided or destroyed.
• If you are one of our large, cross-regional clients and your corporate office has requested cross-regional sharing of gift cards, these new Prepaid Gift Cards can be sold at one location and used to purchase products at a related location.
• The Prepaid Gift Cards can never have a negative balance. This means, if the card has been used to purchase anything, the actual sale of the card cannot be voided until all purchases made by the card are voided.
• You can make refunds to a Prepaid Gift Card.
• You have the option of adding barcodes to the identification of gift cards. For example you can just scan a gift card barcode and your system will look up the gift card that you're trying to sell.
• Prepaid gift cards can be set up within contracts -- and more importantly, you can make the prepaid gift cards AutoPay inside the contract. Click here to learn more about setting up Prepaid Gift Cards in AutoPays.

Click here to learn about the Gift Card Report.

• The system will always zero out the current balance on that gift card.
• You can then void the return sale of the card and the previous balance will be restored to the gift card.
• If voiding the sale of a prepaid gift card would result in either a positive balance -- or balance of zero -- on the card; then you can void the original sale of the gift card. This is especially useful when you want to reuse prepaid gift cards with a zero balance or just a few pennies left from the last prepaid gift card user.

You can allow clients to buy stuff "on Account." Just like a Saloon from the Old West, clients run up a tab with your business until they pay off their debt. Here's how:

1. Go to the Retail screen
2. Look up the client who wants to buy something on account credit.
3. Add an item to the ticket
4. For the payment method below click on "Account."
5. Save the sale

When a client gives you cash, check, or credit card payment to pay off their account balance, this is how you record it in the system. This won' work if you haven't set up a credit, which is explained at the very top of this screen. Here's how clients pay off their debt:

1. Go to the Retail screen
2. Look up the client who wants to pay off some of all of his or her debt.
3. In the Add Item box, click on the Credits/Gift Cards button.
4. Look up a credit (you should have already set one up.)
5. Edit the credit to tell the system how much of their debt they are paying off.
6. Add the item to the ticket.
7. For the payment method below, click on Cash, Check, or whatever they are using to pay off their account balance. Do not choose "Account." 
8. Save the sale

See instructions above for "How Clients pay off account debt"

You can run this report:

Reports => Clients & Accounts => Account Balances

Read more about this on the Account Balances report article