Record gift certificates purchased from vendors

Learn how to record and track gift certificates you purchase from vendors in QuickBooks Online.

If you purchase or receive gift certificates from your vendors, you can create a cash account to record them. And when you’re ready to use them, you can track the balance and redeem them in QuickBooks Online.

Record a purchased gift certificate

Here’s how to create a cash account that you’ll use to record and track the balance of your gift certificates.

1. Select + New.
2. Choose Check or Expense depending on how you paid for the certificate.
3. From the Payee ▼ dropdown, select the vendor you got the certificate from.
4. From the Bank account (check) or Payment account (expense) ▼ dropdown, select the account used to purchase the gift certificate (checking, credit card, petty cash, etc.).
5. In the Category details section, select the Category ▼ dropdown to select the gift certificate account for this vendor. If you don’t have an account for the vendor yet, here's how to add one:
   1. Select Add New.
   2. Set the Account Type to Bank and detail type to Cash on hand.
   3. Give the account a name specific to the vendor and its status as a gift certificate account. Example: Joe's Hardware - Gift Card.
   4. Ignore the ▼ dropdown field that says When do you want to start tracking your finances from this account in QuickBooks?
   5. Select Save and Close.
6. Enter the amount of the gift certificate
7. Select Save.

Note: This records the certificate with its initial value as the balance of the cash account. You can check the account balance in the Chart of Accounts or the Balance Sheet at any time to see the certificate's current balance.

Use a gift certificate

Now that the gift certificate is entered in QuickBooks, you can use it to buy products or services from the same vendor you got it from.

1. Select + New.
2. Select Expense.
3. From the Payee ▼ dropdown, select the vendor you got the certificate from.
4. From the Payment account ▼ dropdown, choose the gift certificate account for the vendor. You can see the current account balance on the right of the Payment account field.
5. Record the remaining details of the purchase, then select Save.

After using the gift certificate, you can keep the account for future certificates from the same vendor, or you can deactivate it.

Note: If the account has a non-zero balance when you deactivate it, QuickBooks creates an adjusting entry to zero out the account.