Gift cards
Sold to one person. Spent by another.
A gift card is the only thing you sell that has two customers: the one who pays and the one who turns up. You set the amounts. They write the message. The balance follows the code until it runs out.
Gift card
Harbour Lights Sessions
$100
Balance remaining
Code
KM4T-9PQX-H2RB
Valid until Mar 14, 2027
Twelve characters, printed in three groups of four. No I, O, 0 or 1 in the alphabet, so nobody mistypes it.
The handoff
Two people, one code.
The buyer never uses what they paid for, so the form asks for both of them by name. Everything after that follows the code.
The buyer pays
Dana, who is not coming
- Picks one of your amounts on the gift card page.
- Leaves their own name and email, so the receipt has somewhere to go.
- Names the recipient, and can write a personal message of up to 500 characters.
- Pays with whichever method you chose.
The recipient spends
Alex, who is
- Gets an email holding the card, the code and the message.
- Opens a page showing the balance, the original value and any expiry date.
- Enters the code at checkout for any event on the schedule.
- Comes back with the same code until the balance is gone.
Three emails leave
The recipient gets the card. The buyer gets a receipt, with the code on it as a backup. You get a sale notification, if you have new-sale emails switched on.
Or the same person twice
Send to myself makes the buyer the recipient, which is how a regular tops up their own credit rather than buying a present.
Nothing to print or post
The code is the card. There is no plastic to order, no stock to hold, and nothing to reprint when somebody loses it.
The register
A balance, not a coupon.
Every code carries its own running total. Spend less than it holds and the rest waits for next time. Spend more and it pays what it can. Cancel the order and the money goes back on.
One card, four entries
KM4T-9PQX-H2RB| Entry | What happened | Amount | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issued | Payment confirmed, card emailed to Alex | +$100 | $100 |
| Redeemed | 2 tickets, Friday Jazz Session | -$40 | $60 |
| Redeemed | 3 tickets, Sunday Matinee | -$60 | $0 |
| Returned | Sunday Matinee order cancelled | +$60 | $60 |
| Balance | Active, and spendable at the next event | of $100 | $60 |
That third entry is an $81 order the card could not cover on its own. It paid its last $60 and the customer paid the remaining $21. When the order was cancelled, the $60 went back on to the card rather than evaporating.
Open a card, see its whole story
The Gift cards tab on your Sales page lists every card you have sold. Open one and you get the buyer, the recipient, the message they wrote, and every order the card was spent on.
What you still owe, in one figure
The tab header totals the outstanding balance across every active card, per currency. That is money already collected and not yet delivered, which is worth knowing before you read the month's takings.
Seven states, and no others
- Pending payment
- Bought, not paid for yet. A cash card sits here until you mark it paid.
- Active
- Paid for, in date, with balance left. This is the only state that can be spent.
- Used up
- The balance reached zero, so there is nothing left to spend. The card stays open, because a cancelled order puts its money back on.
- Expired
- Past its validity date. Set no validity period and a card never lands here.
- Cancelled
- Stopped by you, or abandoned at the payment step. It cannot be spent again.
- Refunded
- Stopped by you after the money came in. Past redemptions are kept.
- Payment review
- What arrived did not match the face value, so it waits for you to check the charge.
Mark paid
Activate a cash card once the money is in your hand. That is the moment the recipient is emailed the code.
Resend email
Send the card to the recipient again when it is lost in a mailbox somewhere.
Cancel
Stop a card being redeemed, whether it was ever paid for or not. Once cancelled it cannot be spent again.
Refund
Stop a paid card. Past redemptions stay as they are, and you move the money in your own payment provider.
At checkout
The code goes in last.
A gift card is a payment instrument, not a discount, so it is applied after everything else has been worked out: the volume discount, then the promo code, then the card against whatever is left.
Order summary
Sunday Matinee- 3 tickets, Sunday Matinee
- $90
- Promo code SPRING10
- -$9
- Gift card KM4T-9PQX-H2RB
- -$60
Left to pay
$21
Card balance after this order: $0
Costs less than the card
The difference stays on the code, and the same code works again at the next event.
Costs more than the card
The card covers what it can and the rest is a normal payment, so nobody has to buy a second gift card to make up the gap. If what is left would fall under the card processor's minimum charge, that sliver stays on the card instead of becoming a payment it would refuse.
Covers the whole order
Checkout finishes with nothing left to pay, and the ticket is issued the same way it would be on any other sale.
A code that will not work stops the order
An expired, empty or cancelled card is not quietly ignored and the buyer charged full price. Checkout says what is wrong and waits.
Same schedule, same currency
A card is valid at events on the schedule that sold it, priced in the card's currency. The checkout names both currencies when they do not match.
What you set
Four decisions, then it sells itself.
Everything lives in the Gift Cards section of your schedule's Edit page.
01
Amounts
The denominations buyers can pick, up to twelve of them. There is no free-entry box: an amount that is not on your list is refused.
02
Currency
One currency per schedule. A card can only be spent at events priced in it, and the checkout says so plainly if they do not match.
03
Valid for
A number of days, or empty for no expiry at all. The clock starts when the payment clears, so a card waiting on cash does not quietly burn its validity.
04
How they pay
Stripe, Invoice Ninja, a payment link, or cash. Cash cards stay pending until you mark them paid, and only then is the recipient emailed.
What the buyer chooses from
Your list, up to twelve amountsWhatever a buyer sends back, it is checked against this list before a card is created. There is no box to type an amount into, so nobody can invent a denomination you never offered.
A button on your schedule page
Once gift cards are on, a Gift Cards button appears alongside the other actions at the top of your public schedule page.
A line by the ticket selector
On event pages a small link sits next to the tickets, for the person who came to buy and leaves buying a present instead.
A link you can post anywhere
The settings page gives you the purchase link to copy. Put it in a newsletter, a bio, or a pinned post in December.
The money is collected on your own payment account and Event Schedule takes no cut of it. Redemption is treated differently from selling: a card that has already been bought stays spendable even if you switch selling off, because a sold card is an outstanding liability rather than a feature. On the hosted service the card is delivered from your schedule's own email settings, so those have to be filled in before the purchase page will open for anybody.
Free The schedule itself, its public page and its link cost nothing.
Questions
Asked before the first one sells.
What can a gift card be spent on?
A gift card can be redeemed toward tickets for any event on the schedule that sold it, including events you add later. It works when the event is priced in the same currency as the card.
How does the recipient receive the gift card?
The recipient is emailed the gift card with its code and the buyer's personal message, and the buyer gets a receipt carrying the same code as a backup. At checkout the recipient enters the code and the balance is deducted from their order right away.
What if the order costs more or less than the balance?
If the order costs less, the remainder stays on the card for next time. If it costs more, the card covers what it can and the customer pays the difference with any normal payment method. If they later cancel that order, the amount the card paid goes back on to it.
Which plan includes gift cards?
Selling gift cards is a Pro feature, at $5 a month. Redeeming a card that has already been bought always works, even if you later turn selling off, because a sold card is an outstanding liability rather than a feature.
Do gift cards expire?
Only if you choose. Set a validity period and a card expires that many days after its payment is confirmed, or leave it empty and it never expires. Buyers see the expiry rule on the purchase page before they pay.
Free to start
Let somebody buy the night for somebody else.
Set your amounts, share the link, and let the balance follow the code. None of what you collect comes to us.
No credit card required