Once you have signed up for a Party Center Pay gift card account, our support team will handle the setup within your facility. There are two gift card options available; physical gift cards only or both physical and digital gift cards. Both are issued and reloaded the same way in Party Center Software. However, digital requires an email for the recipient of the gift card. This article will walk you through how to use Party Center Pay gift cards in your facility.
Contact your Customer Success Manager at customersuccess@PartyCenterSoftware.com if you are interested or have any questions.
- Creating a Gift Card Product
- Customizing Gift Card Email Text
- In House Gift Card Sales
- Online Store Gift Card Sales
- Using a Gift Card to Purchase
- Deactivating a Gift Card or Viewing Card History
Creating a Gift Card Product
Party Center Pay gift cards must be created as prepaid products before they can be used within your facility. Navigate to Products from the Admin page:
Click Add Product:
Click Advanced Products and choose Prepaid:
Set PC Pay Gift Card to Yes:
NOTE: PC Pay Gift Card must be enabled or Party Center Software will not recognize your prepaid product as intended for use with Party Center Pay.
Name your gift card product and set an amount. When you are done, click Add Product. You may wish to create several gift card products for different amounts.
Customizing Gift Card Email Text
When a customer purchases a digital gift card, they receive an email with the gift card number and information. Text in this email may be customized for your facility.
Navigate to Facility Info from the Admin page:
Click on the Preferences tab:
You will notice a section labelled PC Pay Gift Card Email Text:
Enter your gift card email text here:
Every Party Center Pay gift card email sent form your facility will contain that text. You may enter your facilities gift card policies, etc. in this field:
In House Gift Card Sales
There are two different ways a gift card can be issued or reloaded in house. Gift cards may be sold through the point of sale or added to a party order. We currently do not support the sale of a gift card as an add-on through a party order booked online, but a gift card may be added to a party order and paid for after it is booked either in house or online.
Selling Through the Point of Sale
Gift cards may be rung up and paid for like any other product in the point of sale:
Please see our article for help setting up gift card products in your point of sale.
The balance must be paid for before you can actually issue a new card or reload an existing card. Once the balance has been cleared, you may load the balance onto a physical or digital card:
Selling Through a Party Order
Once a party has been booked, either in house or online, a gift card may be added to the order:
Once the gift card has been added to the order, the entire order balance will need to be paid before the gift card card balance can be loaded onto a physical or digital gift card:
You may click Load now once the balance has been cleared to proceed:
Issuing a New Gift Card
The default option when loading a card is Issue Account. Use this option to activate a new Party Center Pay gift card.
If you are activating a physical card, leave Issue a Digital Card only unchecked:
The card number can be either typed manually or swiped into the Card Number field.
You may also choose to email the gift card information to the customer. If the card is being gifted to another person's email, checking Send a copy to me allows you to send the card information to the purchaser's email address as well:
If you do choose to email the card information, the following fields will be used to populate the email:
Here is an example of how those fields will be used:
You may also issue a digital gift card instead of a physical gift card:
A gift card number will be generated for you if this box is checked.
The digital gift code number and barcode will be sent to the email provided when you issue the account:
Digital and physical Party Center Pay gift cards behave the same within Party Center Software. The only difference is that there is no physical card associated with a digital account. When using a digital card to purchase, the number must be either scanned from the barcode sent to the recipient's email or manually typed in.
Reloading a Gift Card
You also have the option to reload an existing gift card account.:
When reloading an account, the card number may be swiped into the Card Number field from a physical card. If you are reloading a digital account, simply type the number manually or scan the associated bar code from the gift card email:
Checking an Account balance
You have the option to check the balance of an existing account during the load process:
When checking a gift card account balance, the card number may be swiped into the Card Number field from a physical card. If you are checking the balance of a digital account, simply type the number manually or scan the associated barcode from the gift card email:
You may also check a gift card's balance through the Check Prepaid Account Balance button. This button is located at the top of all Point of Sale orders:
It is also located under the Payments tab for party and online store orders:
This button opens a module specifically for checking the balance of a gift card account:
Online Store Gift Card Sales
Customers are able to purchase Party Center Pay gift cards directly through the online store. Gift card products must first be added to the online store.
Please see our article on the online store for help adding gift card products.
If a gift card is added to the online store, customers may add it to their cart and check out:
All online store gift card sales are digital. This means that the customer will need to provide at least an email address for each gift card purchased:
NOTE: If a customer adds multiple gift cards to their cart, they will need to fill out the above information for each gift card!
Only the email is required. The optional fields will be used to populate the email send to the recipient of the gift card:
Checking Send a copy to me will send a copy of the email to the purchaser's email address as well:
The customer must save the gift card information before proceeding to payment:
Once the transaction is completed, the gift card barcode and number will be emailed. The barcode may be scanned or the number may be manually entered at your facility to make a purchase.
Using a Gift Card to Purchase
Customers may wish to use gift cards to make a purchase in your facility. If this is a party order, click on the Payments tab first:
If this is a point of sale order, click the Pay button:
Select Prepaid. If you have multiple prepaid methods, make sure that your Party Center Pay Gift Card option is also selected:
Select the Card Number field:
Gift card numbers may be typed in manually, scanned from a barcode with a barcode scanner, or swiped into the field with a physical card. All methods will allow you to charge the purchase to the gift card account. After you have entered the gift card number, complete the payment to charge the account and subtract the amount from the gift card balance.
Deactivating a Gift Card or Viewing Card History
It may be necessary at times to deactivate an existing gift card or to view a history of the gift card's use.
This can be done by first navigating to Payment Acceptance from the Admin screen:
Most settings under Payment Acceptance cannot be modified without support assistance. However, there is a link to manage next to your Party Center Pay gift card account:
Following this link will bring you to a special gift card management screen. Enter any gift card number associated with your facility to bring up detailed account information:
If a valid card number is entered, you will see the date the card was issued, the location in which it was issued, the user that issued it, the opening balance, and the order number in which it was originally issued. Clicking on the order number will take you to the order in which it was issued:
You will also be able to view a history of each order in which the gift card was used to make a purchase. You may view how much was charged to the card with each transaction, as well as the card balance after each transaction. You may open each order by clicking on the order number:
You may find it necessary to deactivate a party center pay gift card account. You may do so by clicking the Deactivate button:
This will effectively freeze the account, preventing any future use. The gift card balance will still remain on the account. If you use the Deactivate button, you will still be able to reactivate the card if there is reason to do so:
If you wish to permanently deactivate a gift card as well as clear the balance of the account, you may also do so by using the Deactivate and Clear Balance button:
This action cannot be undone, and you will receive a warning if you attempt this:
If you proceed, the account will no longer be able to be reactivated, and all funds on the card will be cleared. Only use this option if you are sure that it is necessary:
NOTE: Deactivating cards will not remove the amount from your Liability Analysis report. You will have a Party Center Pay gift card account portal which will contain it's own reports that will better reflect existing prepaid liabilities.
Please reach out to our sales team at 1-888-804-1166 if you have any questions regarding opening a Party Center Pay gift card account for your facility.
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