Selling and redeeming gift cards

Gift cards are a great way to bring in upfront revenue and put new customers in your chair. SalesThumb supports two ways to sell them — from your dashboard for in-person sales, and through a self-serve purchase page you can share with customers online — plus a built-in way to redeem them against a sale.

Selling a gift card from the dashboard

Selling gift cards is a Growth-plan feature (Growth and Pro). Go to Growth & Marketing → Promotions → Gift Cards and click New Gift Card. If your shop later moves to a lower plan, the cards you already sold keep working — you can still look them up, redeem them at checkout or on an invoice, and cancel them; only selling new cards stops.

1. Amount — pick a preset ($25, $50, $100, $250, $500) or type a custom amount ($5 minimum).
2. Purchaser name and Purchaser email — both are optional. You can create a card with neither filled in; if you do enter an email, it just needs to be a valid address (the Create button only blocks on a badly formatted email, never on the fields being empty).
3. Recipient name (optional) and Recipient email (optional) — who the card is for, if different from the purchaser.
4. Message (optional) — a short personal note.
5. Click Create.

The card activates immediately with the full balance. If you entered a recipient email (or a purchaser email with no recipient email), SalesThumb emails the code and PIN automatically — it should arrive within a minute. Creating the card here doesn't run a charge on its own, so collect payment from the customer the way you normally would (cash, card, etc.) as part of the sale.

Letting customers buy a gift card online

Your shop also has a self-serve gift card purchase page you can link from your website, socials, or a QR code at the counter. There, the customer picks an amount ($5 minimum, no expiration date), and Your name and Your email are required fields (recipient name/email are optional, same as the dashboard flow — leave them blank and the purchaser receives it themselves). After payment, they land on a confirmation screen that says "Check your email" — the code should arrive within a minute.

The purchase page, the confirmation screen and the gift card email all show the card's terms, filled in with your shop's name, address and contact info: "Issued by {your shop}, {address}. No expiration date and no fees. Not redeemable for cash except where required by law. If {your shop} closes, the remaining balance can be refunded on request. Treat this code like cash — it can't be replaced if someone else uses it. To check your balance, contact {your shop} at {phone/email}." Keep your shop's address, phone and email current in Settings → Shop so those terms are right.

If your shop closes

If you close your shop in SalesThumb, every card that still has a balance is put on a refund list, and each buyer with an email on file gets an email saying the shop has closed, what's left on their card, and how to ask for a refund. Nothing is refunded automatically. Each refund is handled by hand, and once it's paid the card's balance is set to $0.

Tracking your gift cards

The top of Promotions > Gift Cards shows four running numbers: Active (cards with a balance left), Sold (total value of every card ever created), Outstanding (total balance still redeemable across all cards), and Voided (balance that was left on cards when they were canceled — kept separate from Outstanding). Reports → Gift Card Liability shows the voided balance as its own line too.

Below that, each card in the list shows its code, a status badge, who it's for or from, and its remaining balance out of the original amount. You'll see three badges in practice: Active (balance remaining), Redeemed (balance has hit $0), and Canceled (voided by staff — see below). Cards sold through SalesThumb don't expire (see below).

Canceling a gift card

If a card was issued by mistake, or you discover one was purchased with a stolen card, click the Ban icon next to any Active card, pick a reason — Fraud or chargeback, Refunded, Issued in error, or Other (add a note if you like) — and click Cancel card. Canceling immediately blocks any further redemption of its remaining balance. It's a one-way, staff-only action that needs the "manage gift cards" permission (Owner/Admin by default), and a card someone paid for can only be canceled by the shop Owner. If the card still had a balance and has an email on file, the holder gets an email: "Your {shop} gift card ending {last 4} was canceled on {date}. Reason: {reason}. Questions? Contact {shop} at {phone/email}." Canceling doesn't erase the card or refund anything automatically — it just stops it from being spendable — and a canceled card no longer counts toward the Outstanding total at the top of the page; what was left on it shows under Voided instead. Only an Active card can be canceled; a Redeemed or already-Canceled one has nothing left to void.

Redeeming a gift card at Quick Sale

Gift cards are redeemed from the Quick Sale screen, right alongside the rest of a sale:

1. Build the sale as usual (add line items, tax applies per item as normal).
2. In the Gift card (optional) card, click Pay with gift card.
3. Enter the code and click Check balance. If the code doesn't check out, you'll see one of: "Gift card not found.", "This gift card isn't active.", "This gift card has expired.", or "This gift card has no balance left."
4. If it's usable, SalesThumb suggests an amount to apply (whichever is smaller — the card's balance or the sale total). Adjust it if needed, then click Apply.

In the Totals & payment section, you'll see the gift card listed as its own line (shown as a negative amount, e.g. "−$25.00") alongside Subtotal, Tax, and Tip. The Total row itself is Subtotal + Tax + Tip — it is not reduced by the gift card amount. The actual amount that will be charged to the customer's card, cash, or ACH shows separately, just below Total, as a "Charge via [payment method]" line — that's the number that reflects the gift card deduction. So if you're glancing at the receipt, check the "Charge via" line for what the customer actually owes, not the Total line above it.

Partial redemptions and multiple visits

Customers don't have to spend the whole balance in one visit. Apply only part of it to a sale, and the remainder carries over automatically — the card's status stays Active and shows the updated balance the next time it's looked up or listed. Once a redemption brings the balance to exactly $0, the card's badge flips to Redeemed.

Expiration

Gift cards sold through SalesThumb have no expiration date and no fees — there's no option to set one. (A few very old cards may carry an expiration date from before this; those are still checked at redemption, and trying to apply one past its date returns "This gift card has expired.")

Cashing out a small leftover balance

Gift cards aren't redeemable for cash in general, but some states (for example California, for balances under $10) require cashing out a small remaining balance on request — record it as a cash redemption.

Need help? Email info@roffik.com.