A gift voucher is money a customer has paid you before they have chosen anything. Finocket issues vouchers in batches, lets the till take one as payment, and keeps what is left on each card as a ledger, so a half-spent card is worth exactly what remains. The shop's books carry the balance as a liability until it is redeemed or expires.
Issue a batch
On Gift vouchers, choose Issue vouchers, name the batch (the occasion or the campaign), set the face value and an optional expiry, and add the codes. Every code must be unique within the batch. Two cards with one code are refused before anything is written, because a duplicate would let the same money be spent twice.
Sell a voucher to a customer
When a customer buys a gift card across the counter, tap Sell a voucher on Gift vouchers (on a phone it is the ₹ button at the top). Type the Amount (₹), choose How did they pay?, and pick the Buyer (optional); leave it empty for a walk-in customer. A Printed code (optional) lets you use the code on a card you already printed; leave it blank and one is made for you. Add an Expires (optional) date if the card has one, then tap Take payment.
- A receipt, not an invoice. The money is recorded as a receipt and kept as an advance, and the card is issued against it. GST is charged on the bill the card pays when it is spent.
- Safe to retry. If the connection drops and you tap Take payment again, the same sale is finished rather than a second one taken. You see This sale was already recorded, so nothing was taken twice.
- Who can sell. Only someone who can make changes sees the button.
When it is done, give the customer the code shown, or tap Sell another.
Redeem at the till
At the counter, take the voucher as a tender like cash or UPI: enter its code, and the till applies what is left on it, never more than the balance and never on a card that has expired or been voided. What the card does not cover, the customer pays by another tender; what the bill does not use stays on the card.
Balance, expiry and voiding
The balance is never a stored number. It is the sum of the card's ledger: the issue, each redemption, and any expiry. Look a card up by its code to see what is left. When a card's expiry passes, the nightly sweep writes off whatever remains and marks it expired; a fully spent card is simply marked expired. A card issued by mistake can be voided while it is unspent.
What the accountant sees
Issued value is a liability, a redemption discharges that liability against the bill it paid (the revenue was recognised on the bill), and breakage (value that expires unused) is income. Finocket posts these once a chartered accountant has named the accounts for them in the loyalty and voucher settings; until then the ledger still shows the outstanding balance, so nothing is lost, and nothing is posted to accounts nobody chose.