Step 1: Turn On Gift Cards in Your POS
Toast, Clover, Square, Lightspeed, TouchBistro, and most others have a gift card module. Some are included, some are a paid add-on. Turn it on first, because it decides everything else: whether your cards need a barcode, a magnetic stripe, or a QR code, and how the card numbers have to be formatted. See how gift cards work with POS systems.
Step 2: Find Out What Your Register Scans
Open the gift card screen in your POS and look at what it shows. A striped bar means a barcode, usually Code 128. A swipe prompt means a magnetic stripe. A square code means QR. Order the matching card type. A card that looks perfect but uses the wrong format will not work at the register.
Step 3: Decide Who Assigns the Card Numbers
Your POS generates them
Export the list and send it to the printer. This is the cleanest option because the numbers already exist in your system.
The printer generates them
You receive a number list with the cards and import it into your POS before selling any. Common when a POS lets you bulk-import gift card numbers.
Either works. What breaks a program is ordering cards with random numbers and never importing them.
Step 4: Order Cards That Match
Restaurant gift cards are standard credit card size, 30 mil PVC, printed both sides. The front is your brand. The back carries the barcode or stripe, the card number in plain text, and a short line on how to check a balance. Order enough for the holiday season plus a buffer; December alone accounts for a large share of annual gift card sales. restaurant gift cards.
Step 5: Train the Front of House in Five Minutes
- Selling: ring the gift card as a sale, scan or swipe to activate, load the amount
- Redeeming: scan or swipe as a tender, apply the balance, collect the rest
- Balance check: scan the card on the gift card screen
- Damaged card: type the printed number by hand
Print this on a card and tape it to the register.
Step 6: Track the Liability
Sold gift cards are money you owe. Your POS gift card report shows outstanding balances. Review it monthly so unredeemed value doesn't surprise you, and check your state's rules on expiration and unclaimed property.
Common Mistakes
- -Ordering cards before turning on the POS gift card feature
- -Barcode format mismatch, usually Code 39 cards on a Code 128 system
- -Card numbers never imported into the POS
- -Barcode printed over dark artwork so the scanner can't read it
- -No balance-check instructions on the card, so servers guess