Are Gift Card Sales transferred when loaded or when used?

[TreeWorldSpa]

I was told by a customer representative via chat that Gift Card sales are transferred when the Gift Card is used, not when they are loaded. However, that conflicts with report that I read on FAQ section of Square.

Also, the amount shown in Sales does not match the amount that is transferred to my bank account. The customer rep. say it was because of the Gift Cards that I sold before haven't been fully used yet? When I asked about the conflicting report that Square FAQ says the money is transferred when the initial loading/sales of the Gift Card, the customer rep. never responded back

[Donnie-M · Accepted solution]

@TreeWorldSpa You get paid for the gift card when it is sold.  At that point for accounting purposes a gift card is a liability for your business:  You owe the person XXX.XX$ amount of product/services.  It shows up on your sales report as gift cards sold and on your transfer report under gross sales.

When a gift card is redeemed it is reported as a tender like credit cards.  There are no swipe fees or transaction fees but it is down below credit cards.  When you look at the actual transfer report there is no money transferred as it is considered "Other Tender (excluded)".  I have a screen shot from a transfer report and if you add up the total collected it shows the full amount of the gift card along with the credit card transactions for the day, but under the fees and amount transferred the amount is excluded.  It is there for reporting purposes so I think the rep may have just not done a good job explaining how it looks on the reports.  There will not be any funds transferred to you on your daily report when a gift card is redeemed, but it will be reported as you have to have offsetting entries for accounting purposes.

You can get this report under the square dashboard under transfers and the view past transfers so you can really see why their is a difference.  But to reiterate, Gift Card Sales are reported under "Gross Sales" and the money collected will be in the transfer the day it is sold.  Gift Card Redemptions are reported under the total collected to offset the gross sale of the food that day, but no money is transferred.

Hope this clears things up a little bit for you,

Donnie-M

[VanKalkerFarms]

@Donnie-M explained it so well and I agree that you do get your money right away. 

I'll add that you need to be aware of your local state laws on gift card sales and what rights the customer has to the money of theirs that you have and you owe them for using the gift card.

Here is a view of a day only a $60 e-gift card was sold. as you can see you have 1 transaction but no gross sales and a deposit of the amount of the gift card after fees.

https://squareup.com/dashboard/square-card/activity/transfers

[Chefsnacks]

Does anyone know if you receive a pay out when an e-gift card is purchased or only when it is redeemed? We don’t have an online store so I’m using the gift cards solely for tracking purposes and adjusting it manually on my end. 

[Gold]

HI, hopefully this Square Support page will help.

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6000-square-egift-cards

[_Violet]

Hi @Chefsnacks - I see this is your first post in the Seller Community so I'd like to officially welcome you! 🎉👏

I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have discussed Gift Card Reporting as well. We merge duplicate conversations together to keep like comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

Please see the reply from one of our Super Sellers, @Donnie-M, which has been marked as the Best Answer to this question ✅

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.