Gift Cards

Gift cards and store credit are prepaid balances that customers spend like cash. Use them for gifts, goodwill gestures, rewards, and refunds.

There are two kinds:

Gift card: anyone with the code can spend it. Linking it to a customer is optional.
Store credit: belongs to one contact. Each contact has a single store-credit balance, and issuing more tops it up.

Open Commerce → Gift Cards. Gift cards are part of Client Loyalty, and you need the gift_cards.view permission.

Selling a gift card for money isn’t supported yet. Cards issued here are free value, such as gifts, goodwill, and rewards.

Issue a gift card or store credit

Click Issue gift card.
Choose the Type: Gift card or Store credit.
Enter the Amount and Currency.
Choose the Customer. It is optional for gift cards and required for store credit.
For a gift card, optionally enter your own Code (at least 8 letters or numbers). Leave it empty to generate one.
Optionally set Expires on. Leave it empty if it never expires.
For a gift card, optionally add the Recipient name, Recipient email, and a Message.
Choose the Reason (Gift or goodwill, or Reward), add an internal note, and click Issue (or Add store credit).

No payment is taken. You can also add store credit from a contact’s Loyalty tab.

Store credit is also created when:

a credit note is refunded with the Store credit payment method;
a loyalty program pays cashback, which lands in the customer’s store credit.

Spend a gift card or store credit

Customers can spend a balance in three places:

Where	How
Appointment Checkout and the Point of Sale	In the Gift card or store credit panel, enter the code and click Check, then Apply. Use store credit appears when the sale’s customer has credit.
Invoices	In Record payment, choose Gift card and enter the Gift card code, or choose Store credit when the invoice has a customer.

The amount applied is capped at what is still due. Spending a gift card always needs its code, and the card must be in the same currency as the sale. Store credit can only be used by its own customer.

Returns and voids at the point of sale put the money back onto the original card. On payment records, the method shows as Gift card •••• 1234 or Store credit.

The gift cards list

The list shows the Code, Type, Customer, Balance (remaining of issued), Status, Expires, and Issued date. Filter by type and status, and search by code, customer, or recipient.

Status	Meaning
Active	Has a balance and can be spent
Used up	The balance has been spent
Expired	Passed its expiry date. Any remaining balance is removed by a daily job.
Cancelled	Cancelled by staff. It can’t be used again.

Only people with gift_cards.manage see full codes. Everyone else sees the last four characters (for example •••• 6789) and can only search by those, or by the exact code.

Gift card details

Click a card to open its details: the code (with Copy code for managers), balance, customer, recipient, expiry, source, and message.

The History list shows every movement: Issued, Spent, Returned, Adjusted, Expired, and Cancelled, each with the date, the related invoice, and the balance after.

With gift_cards.manage, you can also:

Adjust balance: add value with a positive amount or remove it with a negative one. A reason is required.
Cancel card: removes the remaining balance. The card can’t be used again.

Accounting

When Accounting is enabled, unspent balances are a liability, not income:

Issuing or adding value posts to Gift Card and Store Credit Promotions (expense) and Gift Cards and Store Credit (liability).
Spending a balance relieves the liability instead of landing in cash.
Value removed by expiry, cancellation, or a negative adjustment posts to Gift Card Breakage (income).

You can choose a different liability account in Posting defaults.

Permissions

Permission	Allows
`gift_cards.view`	See gift cards and look up a card’s balance
`gift_cards.manage`	Issue, adjust, and cancel cards, and see full codes

Cashiers and staff who take payments (pos.sell, invoices.create, invoices.update, or appointments.update) can also look up a card or a customer’s store credit when taking a payment.