Sell gift cards

Gift cards are included on every plan, including Starter. Clients buy them on your booking site, the money goes to your payment processor like any other card payment, and Lumidara keeps track of each card's balance. Lumidara takes no fee.

Turn gift cards on

1. Connect a payment processor under Settings > Payments, if you have not already.
2. In the Gift cards card on the same page, turn on the switch.
3. Open Gift cards in your dashboard menu (or Amounts and cards sold on that card). Under Amounts clients can buy, choose the amounts to offer (up to six), and whether clients can enter their own amount between a lowest and highest value. Click Save amounts.

A Gift cards link then appears on your booking site, and in your dashboard menu.

How clients buy one

On your booking site's Gift cards page, a client picks an amount and chooses Someone else or Me.

• Someone else: they add the person's name, email, and an optional message, then pay. The recipient gets an email with the card's code and an Add it to my account button. The buyer gets a receipt with the same code, in case the email goes astray.
• Me: the card goes straight onto the buyer's own account.

Clients who are not signed in verify their phone number first, and new clients create an account in the same step. You get an email each time a card is sold.

How the recipient adds it

The button in the gift card email opens your booking site. The recipient signs in with their phone number, or creates an account with you if they are new, and the card is added. They can also type the code on the Gift cards page of your booking site.

A card can be added to one account only. Until it is added, anyone with the code or the email can add it, so it works like cash.

If loyalty and referrals are on, a new client who joins by adding a gift card counts as a referral by the person who bought it, under your usual referral rules.

How clients spend it

When a client with a balance pays online, Use my gift card balance is ticked on the payment page. It works on deposits, paying in full when booking, balances after a visit, and tips.

• If the balance covers everything, it is paid right away, with no checkout.
• If it covers part, the client pays the rest by card. The gift card share is only taken once the card payment goes through, so a client who leaves checkout halfway spends nothing.

Take a gift card payment at the counter

When you Complete an appointment, or use Collect payment afterwards, choose Gift card. It appears when the client has a balance. Enter any tip as you would for cash. The balance pays the rest of the service first, then the tip. If the balance does not cover it all, the remainder stays due, and you can take it by cash or card.

The Gift cards page

Gift cards in your dashboard lists every card you have sold, with who bought it, who holds it, and what is left. The totals at the top show:

• Outstanding balance: money clients can still spend with you. This is what you owe in services.
• Sold and Redeemed: what has been bought, and what has been spent on visits.
• Not yet added: cards nobody has added to an account yet.

Click a card to see its history and to:

• Adjust balance: add to it as a goodwill gesture, or take money off it. If you hand a client cash for their balance, take that amount off here so the card matches.
• Void card: remove what is left so the card stops working. Payments already made with it are not affected.
• Refund purchase: refund the buyer through your processor and void the card. This is only offered while none of the card has been spent and nobody else has added it.

Refunds

Refunding a payment that was made with a gift card puts the money back on the card, not on a credit card. This includes Cancel with refund. If you refund a gift card purchase from your Stripe or Square dashboard, whatever is left on the card is voided.

Revenue

Gift cards count as money collected when they are sold. When a client later spends one, the visit shows as paid, but it is not counted as new revenue, so the same money is never counted twice. On your schedule, gift card payments show as their own amount next to what was collected that day.

Rules that come with gift cards

Cards sold through Lumidara never expire and have no fees. You are the issuer, so you are responsible for honoring balances. Some states and provinces require you to give cash back for small remaining balances when a client asks; use Adjust balance to record it. Check your local rules on unclaimed property and taxes, or ask your accountant.

Turning gift cards off stops new sales only. Clients who already have a balance can still see it and spend it.