Sell a gift card
Someone wants to buy credit for someone else — the amount, the recipient, and how the card gets to them.
2 min readUpdated August 22, 2026Front desk · Managers
It's December and somebody wants to buy their sister a haircut. Gift cards are the least complicated thing in the software and the easiest to record sloppily, which is why the sloppy version comes back in March as an argument.
Go to Marketing → Gift cards and press Issue gift card.
- 1
Enter the card number. If you sell plastic, use the number printed on the card so the thing in their hand and the thing in the software match. If you don't, any number they can quote works.
- 2
Set the Value — what the card is worth when spent.
- 3
Set the Sale price if it differs. Normally it doesn't. It differs when you're running a promotion, and keeping the two apart is what stops your revenue reports believing you sold $250 of services.
- 4
Add the recipient. First name, Last name, Email and Phone are all optional, and all of them are how the card gets found later.
- 5
Add a gift message if the buyer wants one, set an expiry if you use them (Canadian salons won't see that field — provincial law prohibits gift-card expiry, so cards there simply don't have one), and issue it.
Take the money
Issuing a card records that it exists. It doesn't collect anything.
If somebody is paying you for it, put the gift card on a sale and take payment the normal way. Otherwise the cash is in the drawer and your books think you gave away credit.
Getting it to them
Fill in whatever contact detail the buyer has. It isn't bureaucracy — it's how you find the card in six months when the recipient turns up knowing only their own name.
Every card carries a balance link. Copy link gives you a URL you can text or email to the recipient, and it shows them what's left without them ringing you to ask. Sending it at the point of sale is thirty seconds that saves a phone call in February.
A batch at once
For a corporate order or a pop-up, bulk issue creates a run of cards in one go rather than one at a time. Same fields, same result — a set of numbers with balances, ready to hand out.
Common questions
Do I need a physical card?
No. A gift card here is a number and a balance. If you sell plastic, the number on the card is the number you enter — the plastic is packaging.
Can the value differ from what they paid?
Yes. Value is what the card is worth and Sale price is what the buyer handed over. They're the same unless you're running a promotion.
Does the recipient need to be a client?
No. You can record a name, email and phone without creating a record — useful when the buyer knows one of the three and not much else.
Can I issue a batch of them?
Yes — bulk issue creates several cards in one go, which is what you want for a corporate order or a market stall.
How does the recipient find out what's left?
Every card has a balance link you can copy and send. They check it themselves without ringing the salon.
Related articles
- Redeem a gift cardGift cards · Checking a balance before you spend it, paying part of a bill with it, and what to do when the card is in a drawer at home.
- Balances, expiry and unspent creditGift cards · Finding a card, what the outstanding balances mean for your books, and what happens to money nobody ever spends.
- Sell gift cards from your websiteGift cards · Switching the online store on, what the buyer fills in, and why the card they buy at midnight is the same card you sell at the desk.
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Book a 20-minute walkthrough and we’ll answer it on a screen share — or start free and try it on your own salon’s data.