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Gift cards — buy, send, redeem

How customers buy gift cards on your public page, how the recipient redeems at checkout, and how to issue cards manually.

1 min read Updated 5/28/2026restaurant-ownercustomer

How the buyer flow works

  1. Customer opens /gift-cards/{tenantId}/buy.
  2. Picks a denomination ($25 / $50 / $100 / $200 or custom).
  3. Enters their email + the recipient's email + an optional personal message.
  4. Pays with Stripe.
  5. The recipient gets a branded email with the 12-character redemption code (shown as XXXX XXXX XXXX), a QR code the till can scan, and a link to check the balance. Older cards with GIFT-XXXX-XXXX codes keep working — dashes and spaces are ignored when a code is entered.
  6. Recipient applies the code at checkout — the matching amount is deducted from their order total.

Redeeming at checkout

On the checkout page customers see two redeem fields: Promo code (regular coupons) and Gift card. They can apply both — the gift card is applied after the coupon.

The gift card deducts up to the full remaining total. Any leftover balance stays on the card for future orders.

Balance lookup

Anyone with a code can check the balance at /gift-cards/{tenantId}/redeem. Lookup is read-only and shows: balance, currency, expiry (if set), redemption history count.

Issuing cards manually

Open Marketing → Gift Cards → Issue manually when you want to:

  • Hand a card to a customer in person.
  • Comp a customer after a complaint.
  • Pre-load a card for a wedding party.

Pick the amount, currency, recipient name + email, optional message and expiry. Toggle Email the recipient now to send the gift email immediately; uncheck it if you want to print + hand over a paper copy.

Accounting

The Gift Cards dashboard shows four KPIs:

  • Active cards — count with a remaining balance.
  • Outstanding liability — sum of all active balances. This is what you owe customers in future orders.
  • Lifetime issued — face value of every non-void card.
  • Lifetime redeemed — total drawn from cards across all orders.

Track outstanding liability on your books as a liability account — Restora 360's ledger is the source of truth.

Voiding a card

You can void any card that has zero redemptions — useful if a customer wants a refund instead of the card. Voided cards cannot be re-activated. To void a partially-used card, issue a refund through your POS for the remaining balance instead.

Ready when you are

Open Gift Cards dashboard

Continue

Frequently asked

  • Only if you set an expiry. By default they never expire. Some jurisdictions require a minimum 5-year non-expiry period — check your local rules before setting expiries.