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25.2. Processing Payments for Gift Certificates
To process a payment for the gift certificate you created, click the invoice number displayed on the "View Gift Certificate" page or on the "Browse Gift Certificates" page next to the gift certificate you wish to process a payment for.
This will take you to the invoice for the gift certificate.
Notice, that the gift certificate number and expiration date, if applicable, of the gift certificate is clearly displayed on the invoice. When you email the invoice to the customer, they will have a copy of the gift certificate number. You should make sure your customer knows that they will need this number to redeem the gift certificate if making a purchase online or over the phone. If they loose the number, the customer will have to contact your office so that you can look up their gift certificate information and give them the number again. To use any gift certificate as payment on an invoice, whether paying online or via the backend the gift certificate number must be entered.
Processing a payment for a gift certificate invoice is the same as processing a payment for any other invoice. To process the payment, you will click the green "+ Payment" button in the "Transactions" section of the invoice.
If the customer pays using a "Manual Transaction" meaning the payment was either cash, check, or a credit card payment processed through an external terminal (not processed through Arctic), the amount of the gift certificate will be immediately available for its available balance if you system is configured not to batch manual transactions.
When the customer pays using a credit card or e-check that is processed through Arctic using your payment gateway, the amount of the gift certificate will not be available in the available balance until these transactions are "Settled".
When a credit card payment or e-check payment is processed through Arctic initially the transaction will have an "Unsettled" status as shown here:
A credit card or e-check payment receives a "Settled" status once it has been recorded in a deposit. If your system is configured to do automatic batching, the credit card transaction will be settled the next day when your batch information is retrieved from your payment gateway. At this time the amount of the gift certificate will be available for the gift certificate's available balance.
If you manually record deposits for manual transactions or credit card transactions, you will first have to record the payments into a deposit before the gift certificate will have an available balance that the guest can use. You can read more about the difference between settled and not settled transactions or how to batch transactions in the Invoice Transactions chapter of the support documentation.
Once the transaction used to pay for the gift certificate is settled, the amount of the gift certificate will be put into the available balance and your customer will be able to use their gift certificate. It is good to let the customer know that it can take 24-36 hours before their gift certificate will be able to be used from the date it was purchaed if they are paying with a credit card or e-check and you are using automatic batching.
In the next section we will discuss how your customer can redeem their gift certificate.