Physical gift cards (batches, printing and activation)

Mint batches of blank physical cards, print the QR sticker sheets, keep the code sheet safe, and activate cards at the venue when they sell.

Physical gift cards let you sell something a customer can hold — cards on the bar, in a rack by the door, or slipped into a Christmas display. ResoFlow generates the codes; you print them onto your card stock.

Minting a batch

On the Gift Cards page → Selling & settings → Physical gift cards (owner or admin only):

• Mint a batch — choose a quantity (up to 100 per batch — mint more batches for bigger runs) and an optional label ("Christmas 2026 rack").
• Confirm with your password (physical stock is deliberately more protected than an in-person sale — there's no PIN shortcut here).
• Download the QR sticker sheet (A4 PDF, 12 stickers per page, with cut lines — each sticker carries your venue name, the QR and the code) and the CSV of codes.

⚠️ The download is one-time and the sheet is sensitive. Codes are stored securely (hashed) the moment the batch is minted — ResoFlow cannot show them again, and anyone holding the sheet holds spendable codes once the cards are activated. Print it, stick the stickers, then treat leftovers like cash: don't leave the CSV in a shared drive or the sheet lying around front-of-house. Every batch export is recorded in your activity log.

Blank until activated

A freshly minted card is worth £0 and can't be spent. When a customer buys one:

• Staff use Activate a card on the Gift Cards page, or scan it in the Scanner's Gift Cards mode — the Scanner recognises an unactivated card and offers the activation flow.
• Enter the amount the customer is paying and how they paid (cash / card at the venue / complimentary) — like an in-person sale, activation needs the issue gift cards permission and is recorded in the activity log, with no password prompt.
• Or choose Payment link — offered in both places, the Gift Cards page dialog and the Scanner's activation panel: click Create payment link and the customer pays by card on their own phone (QR code or copied link). The card only goes live the moment the payment lands — it stays blank until then, and an unpaid link simply expires after 72 hours. Creating a new link for the same card replaces any earlier unpaid one, so two links can never both charge for one card. Buyer details (and email) stay optional — the customer is holding the card itself.
• The card becomes live at that value, and its expiry starts from activation (your configured expiry period — so a card that sat in the rack for six months still gives the customer the full period).

If the customer gives an email address at activation, they get the receipt and gift email as usual — but an email-less cash sale is completely fine; the card itself (and the balance-check page) is the customer's record.

Everyday handling

• A physical card is redeemed exactly like a digital one — scan the QR or type the code; partial balances stay on the card.
• A damaged or unsold card can be voided by a manager (see Refunds, voids and corrections).
• Unactivated cards don't count as sales anywhere — your figures only move when a card is activated.

Related: How do I sell gift cards? · Redeeming gift cards at the venue · How do I set up gift cards?