Gift vouchers

Business → Gift vouchers. Somebody buys a voucher as a present, and the person they give it to has credit with you.

Vouchers are the most-asked-for thing photographers do not have in November, and the easiest money a studio takes: paid for now, worked for later.

Selling from your website

Your voucher page is your booking page's web address followed by /vouchers. The Gift vouchers screen shows the exact address — put it on your website and in your Instagram bio through December.

On that page a buyer chooses How much (or types an amount), adds **Who it is for, Their email and A note on it if they like, then Your name** and Your email, and presses Pay for the voucher. They pay by card, and the voucher is marked paid and sent automatically.

For this to work:

• your payment account must be connected (Settings → Settings → Payments); and
• Gift vouchers can be bought from your site must be ticked under Settings → Settings → What your clients can do. Untick it and the page cannot be reached.

Selling one yourself

For somebody who pays you in person or by bank transfer, under Sell one:

1. Type the Amount — at least $10, and no more than $10,000. Anything with more

than two decimal places is refused rather than rounded.

1. Choose what it is Good for: Sessions and prints, Sessions only or

Prints only.

1. Leave Send on blank to send it straight away once paid, or choose a date — which

is how a Christmas present bought in October arrives in December.

1. Fill in Who is buying and their email, and Who it is for and their email.

Leave the recipient's email blank and it goes to the buyer to print — plenty of people put a voucher inside a card.

1. Add A note on it if you like — up to 500 characters.
2. Press Create the voucher.
3. The voucher now waits in the Waiting for payment panel. When the money has

arrived, press Mark paid beside it there. It is then sent straight away (or on the Send on date, if you chose one).

Somebody who started buying a voucher on your website and did not finish paying shows under Waiting for payment too. Leave those alone.

A voucher cannot be used until it is marked paid. One that works before it is paid for is a free session for anyone who finds the code.

The code

Each voucher has a code like HKDR-3WQT-MCFY. It leaves out characters people mix up — no O or 0, no I or 1, no S or 5 — because somebody is going to read it down the phone. Spaces, lower case and missing dashes are all tidied when it is typed back in.

Three years

Every voucher lasts three years. Australian Consumer Law requires at least that on a gift card, and forbids most fees after purchase, so the rule is built in rather than left for you to find out about later.

Spending a voucher

A voucher is a balance, not a discount. Somebody with a $500 voucher who spends $380 has $120 left for another time.

Clients spend a voucher themselves:

• When they book. The booking page has a Gift voucher code (optional) box. The voucher pays towards what is due at the time of booking, and anything left over stays on the voucher.
• When they order from a gallery. The basket has the same box. The voucher pays towards that order.

A voucher only works where it is Good for: a Sessions only voucher is refused in the gallery shop, and a Prints only one on the booking page.

On invoices. When you raise an invoice from a booking that a voucher helped pay for, the voucher's share already counts as paid, so the client is not asked for it twice. On your invoice screen it is listed under Payments as Gift voucher; on the client's copy it is included in what has been Paid.

The Left column on the Gift vouchers screen shows each voucher's balance.

Fixing a voucher

Press Fix beside a voucher to correct Who it is for, Their email or **The note on it, then press Save**. If you correct the email on a voucher that has already gone to the wrong address, it is sent again — the point of fixing the address is that the present arrives.

The amount cannot be changed. It is money somebody has paid. If it is wrong, sell a new one, so there is a record of both rather than a number that quietly became a different number.

Vouchers are never deleted.

Keeping track

Out there lists every voucher still to be used, with its code, who it is for, what is Left of what it was worth, and when it runs out. Ones not yet delivered are labelled not sent. Vouchers not yet paid for are not here; they are under Waiting for payment.

Above the list, the total still to be used is added up for you. That is money you owe work for, not takings — your BAS counts it when the voucher is spent, not when it was bought — and it is worth knowing before you spend the December takings.

A voucher is kept separately from galleries, so it is unaffected when a gallery comes down. Somebody given one at Christmas may book in July.

Store credit

Store credit is a voucher you give rather than sell: for a refund, a thank-you to a loyal client, or to put something right.

1. Open the client (Clients, then their name).
2. In Store credit, enter the amount under Give credit, choose Why and

what they can Spend on, and add A note to them if you like.

1. Leave Email them their code ticked to send it now, then press Give credit.

The client gets their own code. They spend it like a gift voucher, at checkout in any gallery or when they book, and what they do not spend stays on it for three years. The panel shows what each credit has left. Store credit is marked as such on the Gift vouchers screen.