Gift Certificates are typically paper and homemade in your shop. The Gift Certificate balance is stored in Ascend and directly attached to a customer's account. So the sale must be associated with the person receiving (that will be redeeming it) the Gift Certificate, and not the person buying it.

Selling a Gift Certificate is done through payments, no actual product is added to the transaction.

This article walks through selling and redeeming a Gift Certificate when the customer is unknown. We recommend making some kind of marking (e.g.: a Star or Checkmark) or note on the Gift Certificate so staff knows when redeeming the Gift Certificate for an Unknown Customer they know they are searching for the Gift Certificate Number as the customer.

Sell a Gift Certificate - Customer Unknown

If you have a customer purchasing multiple Gift Certificates or is not sure of who the Gift Certificate will be going to, you can use the Gift Certificate Number as the customer.

1. Create a new sale.
2. Create a new customer.
   1. First Name: Gift Certificate
   2. Lase Name: The Gift Certificate Number

3. Take their payment for the Gift Certificate (for example, $50 in cash).

4. The sale balance now shows in parentheses, indicating a negative value (where the shop owes them).
5. Select Gift Cert from payment types toolbar.

6. The Amount will automatically in fill in with the negative amount in the balance field.
7. If your Gift Certificates have numbers, you can enter that number into the Payment comments.
8. Click Save.

The Gift Certificate Balance shows their current balance (which this new payment will be added to).

If you open the customer record (for the customer receiving the gift certificate), you'll see their Gift Certificate balance has been updated and can be used to help pay for store purchases.

Redeem a Gift Certificate - Customer Unknown

1. Create the transaction under the Gift Certificate Number Customer redeeming the Gift Certificate.
   1. Search for the customer by First Name Gift Certificate or Last Name the Gift Certificate Number.

2. In the transaction screen click on the name in the Customer Panel. 

3. Enter in the Customer's information.
   1. Note: It is possible this customer is already in your database and you will create a duplicate that will need to be merged on the backend of Ascend. If you need to walk through merging customer's after the transaction is complete, please contact Ascend Support.

4. Add the item(s) to the transaction.
5. From the Payment toolbar, click the Gift Cert button.

6. The Amount field automatically populates with the amount due on the transaction. If the amount the customer wishes to use is different, enter that amount instead.
   1. Note: Not sure how much the customer has available? The customer’s available balance displays below the Comments field. An available balance displays in parentheses.
7. Enter the Gift Certificate Number into the Payment comments field.

8. Click the Save button.
9. If the the transaction balance is less than the customer's Gift Certificate balance, it will be deducted from their Gift Certificate balance. If it is less, the remaining balance owed by the customer will display.
10. Add any additional payments.

Gift Certificate balances do not transfer between locations. Balance tracking is location/database specific.