Redeeming gift cards at the venue

Take gift card payments with the Scanner or the Gift Cards page — one-tap full balance or a part-payment, with the remainder staying on the card.

Redemption is deliberately fast: no PIN, no approval — any staff member with the redeem gift cards permission (on by default for every role) takes the payment in a tap or two. Redemption always works, on any plan — a venue that downgrades can still honour every card it sold.

From the Scanner

The Scanner (/dashboard/event-scanner) has a three-way mode strip when your venue uses more than one of its families: Tickets · Loyalty · Gift cards.

• In Gift cards mode, scan the QR from the customer's email, wallet pass, printed certificate or physical card — or type the code (it formats itself as you type; capitals and dashes don't matter).
• The Scanner also recognises codes across modes: scan a gift card while in Tickets mode and it offers a one-tap switch.
• The card's panel shows the balance, status and expiry, then:
• Take full balance (£X) — the one-tap path, or
• enter an amount on the keypad for a part-payment.

From the Gift Cards page

On /dashboard/gift-cards, find the card (search by the code's last characters, buyer or recipient) and redeem from there — the same one-tap full balance or amount entry. An active card's list row carries a quick Redeem action (and Resend email, where the card has an address on file) so you don't have to open the card first; opening the row still shows the full detail with every action.

At your online checkouts (optional)

Turn on Accept gift cards at online checkout (Gift Cards page → Selling & settings — OFF by default) and customers can spend their card on your public pages too:

• Booking deposits — a "Have a gift card?" box on your booking page. The card can cover part of the deposit (the guest pays the rest by card) or all of it — then there's nothing to pay by card at all.
• Event tickets — the same box at the ticket checkout, applied against the order total.

Order & Pay orders have their own separate switches, one per channel — Accept gift cards for table orders, Accept gift cards for collection orders and Accept gift cards for delivery orders (same Selling & settings card, all OFF by default; collection and delivery follow the table switch until you set them yourself) — so you can accept cards at the table but not on delivery, or for bookings and tickets without accepting them on orders at all.

The gift card is only charged the moment the booking or ticket actually confirms, so a failed booking never takes gift money. Spending online counts as redemption — it works on any plan — and the usual balance email and wallet-pass update follow. If a gift-paid booking or ticket is later refunded, the card payment refunds first and the remainder returns to the gift card: see Refunds, voids and corrections.

Partial balances and shortfalls

• A part-payment leaves the remainder on the same code — the customer keeps using it until it's empty or expires. If balance emails are on (the default), the customer gets a "£X used, £Y left" email after each redemption, and any wallet pass updates its balance.
• If the bill is bigger than the balance, ResoFlow takes up to the remaining balance and tells you plainly — e.g. "Still to take £15.00 another way." — so a redemption can never take more than the card holds. The customer settles the rest however you normally take payment.

When a card is declined

The panel gives the reason in plain words:

• Fully used — the balance reached £0.
• Expired — past its expiry date. A manager can extend the expiry, which restores the forfeited balance — the right fix for a customer who turns up a little late. See Refunds, voids and corrections.
• No longer valid — the card was voided or refunded.
• Needs activating — a physical card that hasn't been sold yet (the Scanner offers the activation flow to staff who can sell).
• Not recognised — the code doesn't exist; check for typos or try scanning instead.

A mis-keyed amount is fixed with a manager-gated balance adjustment — never by redeeming again.

Related: Refunds, voids and corrections · Physical gift cards · How do I check tickets at the door?