thread Re: How do I record a donated $50 paper gift certificate? in Payments Troubleshooting

How do I record a donated $50 paper gift certificate?

Wind_Dancer — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 18:47:13 GMT

My small farm business has donated a $50 gift certificate for a silent auction. The customer came to the farmers market to purchase $5 worth of product using the certificate. How do I keep a record of what she has spent on the gift certificate tab and record the gift certiicate?

Re: How do I record a donated $50 paper gift certificate?

TheRealChipA — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 20:37:06 GMT

Hi there @Wind_Dancer. I do a few of these, too. First, I created an item in my catalog called “Gift Certificate.” It has a blank price so that I have to key in the value when I donate it. I have a 100% discount code that I use for donations like these.

When the gift certificate is used, we just make an entry (written) on the back of it, showing the date/time and amount of the purchase. Also, we write down the balance remaining.

We’ve done this for over a decade now and it works perfectly.

Re: How do I record a donated $50 paper gift certificate?

VanKalkerFarms — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 20:54:42 GMT

does the sale when redeeming go through square? if so as cash since the gift certificate was sold for $0?

Re: How do I record a donated $50 paper gift certificate?

TheRealChipA — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 21:16:19 GMT

It works fine. It shows the GC amount “sold” as whatever amount I enter. The discount doesn’t matter, any more than it would if we were doing a buy a $50 e-gift card and get an additional $10 on us promotion. The same is true when we discount items. We still sell them for the full amount. The discount only affects how much money we received for it, that’s all. We also donate e-gift cards this way and it works beautifully.