Tracking Redeemed Gift Cards

Yes, you can @despitia11.

I can provide information so you can track redeemed gift cards in QuickBooks. 

Since you’ve already set the account and item in the program, you can compare them by subtracting the payments you’ve received. You can get an idea of your total gift vouchers redeemed for the period of the sales report.

Gift vouchers will only be included in sales figures until they have been redeemed and transferred into the revenue. When creating Sales Receipt in QuickBooks, you’ll want to make sure the amount is set to negative. This way, the balance on your liability account will automatically decrease. 

If you have other queries besides tracking the redeemed gift cards, please let me know. I'm always here anytime to be your guide. Have a good day. 

So, I would use the same gift certificate item on my sales receipt and record a negative value when some one redeems a certain amount? What about when I sell a gift card and some one else redeems their gift card, would I have two lines for the gift card certificates one in positive for the sale and one for negative? But, if  that is the case then the total will not be zero?

Your confusion ends here, @despitia11.

Allow me to provide additional information about tracking redeemed gift cards and help you from there.

As my colleague mentioned, entering a negative amount for a redeemed gift card will reduce the liability account balance. When the gift cards are purchased, you can credit them to the liability account (Gift card certificate) instead of crediting revenue. It is a liability because you owe the customer the value of the gift card. And when the gift card is redeemed, you can set up the Gift Cards as a payment method. This way, it'll credit to sales and debit to Gift Cards to reduce the liability

As always, feel free to visit our QuickBooks Community help website if you need tips and related articles in the future.

You can always get back to here in the Community if you have any other questions. I'll be more than happy to assists you. Wishing you all the best.

You haven't addressed what happens with customers?

John Smith buys a GC for $500 for his girfriend Sandy Summers.

Sandy Summers comes in to redeem the gift card.  

I realize the GC liability account will increase upon sale, then decrease upon redemption by the amount of the gift card, but won't it still show that John Smiht has a $500 gift card account and Sandy has a -$500 account.

In other words, what is the process for transferring gift cards between the purchaser and redeemer?  Whose name should go in the Sales REceipt line for each transaction? 

What if it is a multiple gift card sale?  For example, we sell 10 Gift Cards to a charity, then 10 different customers redeem the gift cards.  Should that be 10 different customers, or one?  This gets complicated by the fact that we need to track commissions by sales reps (and gift cards lower their gross sales) and the fact that customers redeeming may also purchase other items.   Do we need to transfer the gift cards to these customers?  When?

Thanks,

Doug

You haven't addressed what happens with customers?

John Smith buys a GC for $500 for his girfriend Sandy Summers.

Sandy Summers comes in to redeem the gift card.

I realize the GC liability account will increase upon sale, then decrease upon redemption by the amount of the gift card, but won't it still show that John Smiht has a $500 gift card account and Sandy has a -$500 account.

In other words, what is the process for transferring gift cards between the purchaser and redeemer? Whose name should go in the Sales REceipt line for each transaction?

What if it is a multiple gift card sale? For example, we sell 10 Gift Cards to a charity, then 10 different customers redeem the gift cards. Should that be 10 different customers, or one? This gets complicated by the fact that we need to track commissions by sales reps (and gift cards lower their gross sales) and the fact that customers redeeming may also purchase other items. Do we need to transfer the gift cards to these customers? When?

Thanks,

Doug

Hi there, @doug_martin.

I'd like to shed some light regarding your concern with recording Gift Cards in QuickBooks Desktop.

When it's time to redeem the Gift Cards, you can add the redeemers as a sub-customer of the charity where GC's are sold. This way, you can accurately track the transaction made.

That said, its set up would be the charity will be the parent customer then add the 10 customers that will redeem the cards as a sub-customer.

To do that:

1. In the Customer center, highlight the name of the Parent Customer (name of the customer).
2. Click Add New Customer.
3. Select Add Job.
4. Type in the sub-customer's information.
5. Select on OK.

Repeat the same process if you 'll need to add more sub-customers. Once you can create a sales receipt you'll be able select which sub-customer will it be sent.

On the other hand, when it comes to the distribution of the sales commission, you can record it under the sales rep who sells the GC's to the charity.

You may want to check the links below. Each of them provides information about handling your sales, customers, and reports:

• Sales and customers. 
• Create and manage reports. 

Please don't hesitate to go back here if you have additional concerns or need further help with this matter. The Community team is always here to help. Take care always.

Thanks, few follow up questions:

1) If I add a customer as a subcustomer (under charity for example) - what happens when they purchase something else during the gift card redemption?   Do they have to then become a separate regular customer as well as a sub customer of the charity?   This gets confusing during a single transation. 

Example, Charity XYZ purchases from our company a $500 gift card.  That gift card is given to John Smith who comes into to redeem his gift card.  I would set John smith up as a subcustomer of Charity XYZ.

John Smith then comes in to purchase a $2000 suit usiing the $500 gift card.  Who is the customer  Charity XYZ:John Smith or John Smith, or both?   He is partially using the gift card he bought from the charity but also purchasing additional things.  How do you set up gift card transferring in this case?

2) Sales commissions

As to sales commissions, sales reps don't get paid commissions on gift card sales but they get paid on the redemption of those gift cards.   So Rep AB sells a gift card and it shows up in their "Sales by Rep" report.  I don't want to see that gift card there as a sale b/c I don't want to use it to calculate commissions.  On the other hand, if a gift card customer comes in and buys a $2000 suit but uses a $500 gift card it will lower the sale amount for Rep AB and they will only be getting paid commissoins on the $1500 sale, not the full $2000.  What is the work around to avoid these situations and have the reporting be correct for commissions?    Gift card shouldn't really ever be a sale or show up as a line item in an invoice.  Instead, it's really a "method of payment" like a credit card and when that method of payment is used it should lower the Other Current Liability gift card acount, but not affect the base dollar value of the sale.  

Let me know how to deal with this in Quickbooks Enterprise.