A gift card is money in advance: someone pays you today, and whoever holds the card spends it on visits later. BeNotely keeps the record - every card's code, balance and history - so a card sold in December still works perfectly in June.
Sell one in person
A gift card sells through the checkout like anything else, so the sale, the money and the receipt all record themselves.
- Open Services & products, then Gift cards, and choose Sell a gift card - or add Gift card to any bill from the checkout's Add item menu, even alongside a haircut.
- Set the amount, who it's for if they know, and when it expires. Australian law says a gift card must last at least three years, so the choices are three years, five, or never.
- Take the payment as usual. If you added the recipient's email, the card arrives styled in your brand the moment the sale completes - otherwise hand over the code.
The sale shows on your Payments page like any other, and the buyer can get a receipt. One rule: a gift card can't pay for another gift card - the new card's payment arrives in money.
Give one without payment
Sometimes a card is a gift from the business - a make-good after a visit that went wrong, a raffle prize, a thank-you to a partner. Issue without payment creates the card with no sale behind it. When it's spent, that visit is a sale like any other, so the Sales report counts the card as given free on the day you issue it, and your net sales stay accurate. These show in your reports as given, separate from sold.
For a make-good to one customer you already know, customer credit is simpler: no code, no expiry, held on their profile by name and offered on their next bill by itself. A gift card is for value that can be handed to someone else.
Buying a card for yourself? You get one email, with the card and your receipt in it.
Sell online
Turn on Sell gift cards online at the top of the Gift cards tab and customers can buy for themselves at your own gift card page - it's linked from your booking page, and the money goes straight to your account like any card payment. Cards bought online send themselves: the recipient gets the card with the gift message, the buyer gets a copy and a record of the purchase - and a gift can be scheduled to arrive on the day itself, like a birthday. They appear in your list like any other card, marked as bought online - the sale itself shows on your Payments page (click it for the full detail), and you get a notification the moment one sells (yours to turn off in your notification settings, like any other). The buyer joins your customer book automatically, so the sale sits on a real customer record.
Run a promotion to discount your gift cards for a while - pick a percent (10% off means a $100 card costs $90) and, if you like, a last day. Buyers pay less but still get the full amount to spend, and your booking page advertises the deal while it's on. The buyer's record shows what they paid - the recipient of a gift only ever sees the full card.
In the app
In the BeNotely app, open More, then Services & products, then Gift cards. Search by name, email or any part of the code, narrow the list with Filter, and tap a card to see it, email it or copy its code. + asks whether to Sell a gift card (New sale opens with the card on the bill: fill in its amount and who it's for) or Issue without payment. Sell online, the first row, turns online selling and its promotion on or off.
Take one as payment
The Gift card line appears in your checkout once you've issued your first card. When someone pays with one, it's one line: type the code next to Gift card, hit Apply, and the card pays as much of the bill as it has. If the card is bigger than the bill, the rest stays on it for next time - the checkout says so. If the bill is bigger, the remainder is paid as usual and you record how.
A card that can't be used says why in plain words: it was cancelled, it's expired, or there's nothing left on it.
A gift card can also pay a deposit when you make a booking in your calendar: choose Take payment now, pick Gift card and type the code. The value comes off the card as the booking's deposit; if the customer cancels inside the free window it goes back onto the card.
Gift cards at online checkout
If you take deposits, customers can pay them with a gift card when they book. A "Have a gift card?" line at the payment step takes the code, and the card covers the deposit first: a card bigger than the deposit means no card charge at all, and a smaller one shrinks what their bank card pays. Whatever's left on the gift card stays there for the visit itself - the checkout shows the covered deposit as already paid, and offers the rest of their card with one click, so nobody has to read the code out again.
If they cancel inside your free window, the money goes back onto the gift card automatically - the same promise as any deposit. A late cancel or missed visit keeps it, exactly like a card deposit.
The report
Reports, Gift cards tells the money story: what sold in a period (online and in person), what was spent at visits, and what's still sitting on live cards right now - that last figure is the commitment you're carrying, the one your accountant will ask about. When selling online is on, your website links to your gift card shop automatically - in the menu and footer - and drops the link the moment you turn selling off.
Good to know
- Gift cards don't change prices - they're a way of paying, so your receipts and GST stay exactly as normal. In the Sales report, gift-card payments show as their own payment method.
- Undoing a checkout puts the money back on the card. Balances never quietly lose track.
- Filter beside the search shows cards by status (Active, Fully used, Expired, Cancelled) or how they came (Sold online, Sold in person, Issued without payment).
- Cancel card from its row menu if it was issued by mistake. Only do this for mistakes: a cancelled card stops working immediately.
- Refunds move the money and the card together. A card bought online refunds from its row on the Payments page - the money goes back and the card is cancelled, in one step. A card sold in person is undone by undoing its sale. Either way this only works while the card is untouched: once any amount has been spent, the sale stands.
- Cards keep working whatever happens to your plan - a sold card is a promise to your customer, and it's always honoured.
FAQs
Can a customer check their balance?
They can check it themselves: every gift card email carries a check your balance link that opens the card's own page - balance, expiry and recent activity, in your branding, no account needed. Customers with a BeNotely account also see all their cards under My gift cards. And you can always answer too: type the caller's name, email, or any part of the code into the dashboard search bar and the balance shows right in the results.
What about GST when I sell a card?
None at the sale - a gift card is a face-value voucher, so GST happens when the card is spent, on whatever it pays for. That's why the sale of the card itself doesn't appear in your GST figures, but the visits it pays for do.