Gift certificates that track what your salon still owes

A gift card is money you still owe

When a client buys a $50 gift card, the cash is in your drawer that day, but the salon still owes $50 of tanning or lotion to whoever holds the card. A stack of paper cards cannot tell you how much of that is still out there, or what is left on the card someone just handed across the counter.

TanVision records each certificate as a balance the salon owes. Every issue, redemption and void is written to a ledger beside it, along with any amount a voided sale puts back, so the outstanding total is a figure you look up rather than estimate.

Selling a certificate

• Tick Gift card on the item in Inventory. Each one sold at the till then issues a certificate for its value.
• The code shows on the receipt at the moment of sale, with a prompt to write it on the card while the client is still at the counter.
• Codes are 16 characters in four groups of four, using only letters and numbers that are hard to misread: there is no O, 0, I or 1. The desk can type a code with or without the dashes, in upper or lower case.
• A gift card is never taxed when it is sold, never discounted by a promotion and earns no loyalty points. Tax and points belong to whatever it is later spent on.

Spending it, in whole or in part

At the till, the desk types the code and presses Check. TanVision shows the balance and how much of this ticket it will cover before any money moves.

• A $50 certificate against a $62 ticket covers $50, and the desk takes the other $12 in cash or on card.
• It never pays out change. A $50 certificate against a $12 ticket takes $12 and leaves $38 on the card.
• The receipt shows what the certificate covered, what was paid, and what is left on the card.
• A used-up or voided certificate is refused, with the reason on screen.

What a certificate covers is kept apart from the cash and card totals, so the drawer counts stay honest. The day sheet, the shift report and the tender breakdown take off what a certificate covered first: a $62 ticket paid with a $50 certificate and $12 in cash shows $12 in the drawer, not $62.

What you owe, in one place

The Gift certificates page is for owners and managers, and for any staff member you give that job to. It shows:

• Outstanding: the total still spendable on live certificates, and how many cards that is.
• Every certificate with its code, what it sold for, what is left, its state, the date it was issued, and whether it was sold at the till or added by hand.
• Used-up certificates, hidden until you ask for them.

The Gift certificates report covers any date range: what is still owed, what moved in the period, every card still carrying a balance, and every movement with the name of the person who made it. On the reports dashboard, gift card sales sit in their own slice of the revenue mix rather than inside retail.

TanVision does not put an expiry date on the certificates it issues. Whether an unspent balance can ever lapse is a legal question, so the software leaves it to you and your accountant.

Cards sold before you switched

If you have paper certificates in circulation, a manager can add each one by amount, from $1 to $1,000, with an optional note such as where and when it was sold. Nothing is charged and nothing goes in the drawer. TanVision records what you owe and gives a new code to write on the card, and the list marks it as added by hand so it is easy to tell apart from a certificate sold at the till. More on moving over is on the switching page.

Voids that keep the books straight

• Voiding a certificate zeroes its balance and marks it voided. The record stays, and the ledger keeps what was on it and who voided it.
• Voiding the sale that sold a certificate voids the certificate too, because it was never paid for. Any part already spent cannot be taken back from the client, so the card is zeroed and the void shows in the Gift certificates report with who did it.
• Voiding a sale that a certificate paid for puts that amount back on the certificate.
• Only managers can add a certificate by hand, void one or void a sale. Anyone at the desk can check a balance.

Tax on gift certificates

Selling a TanVision certificate charges no sales tax and no tanning excise. When the certificate pays for a package, that package's sales tax and excise are charged as normal, so the tax lands on what was actually bought.

Federal rules draw a line here worth knowing. Under 26 CFR 49.5000B-1, the excise is imposed when a payment for indoor tanning is made. A gift card or certificate that can be spent on other goods or services counts as a tanning payment only when it is redeemed for tanning, not when it is bought. The IRS indoor tanning tax FAQ says the same about a gift certificate sold for unspecified services. TanVision certificates hold a dollar balance that can be spent on anything you sell, so they are that kind. TanVision has no tanning-only certificate and charges no excise when any certificate is sold, so if you sell certificates that can only be used for tanning, check the treatment with your tax preparer and read the tanning excise tax guide.

Related features

Certificates are sold and spent on the same till as your retail and lotion stock, and their tax treatment follows the settings described in tax and excise. The liability shows up in reports, and certificate sales earn no points on loyalty wallet cards. To see the liability page with your own numbers, book a demo.