Getting Started with Gift Cards

Overview

MicroBiz Cloud comes with 'built in' Gift Cards. You can use this features with printed gift cards or even gift certificates. Since the application is cloud-based, gift cards are instantly updated whenever they are sold or used so all your stores have current information about the balance. Unlike gift card programs run by credit card companies, there are no fees or charges for using gift cards with MicroBiz Cloud. Just sell them and let your customers use them - it's all part of the software. You can check the card balance from the Front Register any time - no charge. s

Ordering Gift Cards

You do not need to use any special gift cards with MicroBiz. You can purchase the cards anywhere you like, and you can get paper, recycled card stock, plastic or recycled plastic cards with simple printed numbers, barcodes or magnetic stripes. It doesn't matter. Just tell your gift card vendor the number range that they should produce so that the ID numbers on the Gift Cards match the ones you set up in MicroBiz as 'Active Gift Cards'.

Numbering & Barcodes

Gift Cards need to have a unique number for each one sold so that we can track the value and the remaining balance as the card gets used for purchases. Gift Card numbers can be up to 16 digits. We wouldn't advise you to start selling gift cards with the number '1' as people would probably look at you funny if you sold them a Gift Card Numbered '1'. You can safely avoid odd looks starting at around 8 digits 10000000 and go as high as 2147483647. We suggest these numbers appear on the card - front or back doesn't matter - in both human readable and barcode (scan-able) form.

When encoding your barcode the preferred format is Code 128. Code 39 will also work if your printer can't handle Code128.

Magnetic Stripes & Swipes

If you wish you can encode the Gift Card number on a plastic card with a magnetic stripe. A couple important points:

You will need a Magstripe reader to read these values. One built into a keyboard might be handy. It cannot be the mag-stripe reader you use with MicroBiz Cloud integrated credit card. The integrated card reader that you purchased from our payment partner encrypts everything it reads, so the Gift Card number would come out all garbled. This is part of the security that keeps you form being the target of a credit card breach. We cannot decrypt the read - only the credit card gateway can. This help keeps you safe as a merchant and reduces the amount of work you have do to comply with mandatory credit card company security standards.
We recommend printing a human readable number on the card - so you can use the card if the mag-stripe gets erased.
As a result, we think scanned bar codes are easier and do not recommend mag stripes on gift cards.

Setting Up Gift Card Ranges

The first step in setting up gift cards is entering a Gift Card Range. A Gift Card Range is the beginning and ending number for a sequentially numbered group of gift cards. To do this, go to Transactions >> Gift Cards and press the 'Add Gift Cards' button.

Gift Card Type

There are two types of Gift Card Types - Any Amount or Fixed Amount:

Fixed Amount Gift Cards - Use this when you plan on printing $50 or $100 right on the card. Set the fixed amount like $50 on the card and define the range and make it active. That's it - any time you sell one of these cards the system will display a $50 value for the card. But you will have to print and define multiple ranges so you can $25,$50 and $100 gift cards to sell.
Variable Amount Cards - When you sell one of these cards the clerk is prompted to enter the value of the card. This lets the customer select any value like $65, $175 and so on. Note there are rules in the Admin Settings to let you restrict the gift card range minimum and maximum card value. These are defaulted to minimum $10 maximum $1000. If you want to change these settings go to Admin Settings >> General Settings >> Gift Card.

Gift Card Range

This is the range of sequentially numbered cards that will be activated. For example, if you asked your gift card vendor to produce 100 gift cards numbered from 20001100 to 20001199, you would enter the starting and ending card numbers. The system will automatically generate a card count of the range.

In the future, you will be able to create your MicroBiz Gift cards with or without pins. For the time being, we allow you to import your pin numbers in preparation of the support of pin numbers in MicroBiz.

Maximum and Minimum Gift Card Amounts

You can set a minimum and maximum for the allowable gift card amounts. To do this, go to Settings >> Advanced Settings >> Register Settings and enter the desired values.

Escheat & Expiration Rules

Expiration Rules of Gift Cards are now uncommon and some US states prohibit them. However, there is an default expiration term and Gift Card Ranges can be set to expire. Be sure to research whether your State allows the expiration of gift cards before using this setting.

Escheat is a legal term used when your state is going to claim ownership of all or part of the remaining value of any Gift Cards they deem 'abandoned property'. If you live in such a state you can set the expiration to the Escheat Term and the Escheat Rate to the percentage the state will require you to pay them. Please be sure to research whether your store is subject to escheatment laws.

Pin or No Pin? (Coming Soon)

Pins help prevent fraud - so are strongly recommended if you are selling with gift cards online on your website. That way, if someone with a gift card numbered 40012 won't 'try and see' if gift card 40011 or 40013 are valid and have any value. When pins are used, the user needs to know both the gift card number and the random pin associated with it. In the example above, gift card 40012 might have pin 4871 while gift card 40013 might have pin 0406.

Pins are never required in store.
When selling a gift card with a pin in store, the pin is displayed and printed on the receipt - you may want to point it out to your customer.
The card cannot be used until the order paying for the gift card is paid and shipped.