Gift Certificate Sales & Redemption

pdsluk · September 24, 2014, 7:18pm

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! I set up my cards as described in your tutorial, now I am trying to figure out how to make the Certificate Number to be read off the NumberPad instead of using the .GetUniqueString function in your tutorial. I have been trying for at least 8 hours, but I am stumped. I tried using the ?RequestInput command and I’ve tried calling an Action similar to your Select NUMPAD action. I also attempted to create a rule using a Numberpad Value Entered, which accomplished creating both the entity and account, but then did not complete the sale of the Gift Certificate product. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

gsreddy · November 21, 2014, 8:18am

@QMcKay I have re checked all these process iam missing few actions , as RULE- Numerpad value entered in this rule I cannot see action AC DISPLAY TICKET , and RULE-RU GC Redeemed (Update GC data) in this rule some actions missing , AC GC Update State Redeemed not showing, can u pls fix for me thanks.

QMcKay · November 21, 2014, 3:12pm

gsreddy · November 21, 2014, 9:59pm

@QMcKay thanks the display ticket worked but can u pls guide the AC GC State Redeemed Action as the AC GC Update State GC Status already exist but redeem missing thanks for help.

QMcKay · November 22, 2014, 12:13am

It is there in the original post…

Action - GC Credit & GC Debit:

Actions to Credit & Debit accounts when a GC is Purchased and Redeemed.

Name: AC GC Purchase
Type: Create Account Transaction Document
Document Name: GC Purchase Doc
Account Name: [:Account Name]
Description: GC Credit Account [[:CertNum]]
Amount: [:Amount]

Name: AC GC Redeem
Type: Create Account Transaction Document
Document Name: GC Redemption Doc
Account Name: [:Account Name]
Description: GC Debit Account [[:CertNum]]
Amount: [:Amount]

gsreddy · November 28, 2014, 8:02am

@emre, Yup …Fixed printing got it now, But I need help from any one that I want gift certificate to be print in report printer in A4 Size tried but no luck as the receipt paper looks not better need in good paper thanks.

natascafe · January 24, 2015, 6:36pm

I’m almost there!!
Gift Certificates work great
Customer Receipts are awesome…took some effort on my part as I’m trying to not ask questions which have already been answered.

In Ontario if a customer buys 6 or more baked goods they don’t pay tax on them. I need to get samba to count items that are currently in 1 product category called Desserts. If the number of these items total 6 or more on one bill then taxes should be removed from those items only.

Jesse · January 24, 2015, 7:14pm

@natascafe Are you using Tax templates for your taxes? If so you can not do per item like that. You would need to do a logic similar to the many Discount Tutorials.

natascafe · January 24, 2015, 7:23pm

ohhhh…ok I do have it set up with tax templates
thanks. I’ll have a look at that

Jesse · January 24, 2015, 7:24pm

Tax Templates and Calculations are Ticket Wide functions. When I say use that logic just because the tutorial says its a discounts tutorial the raw function of it is it deducts money specifically from the item either through percents or fixed amounts. This is basically what a tax does as well. So just ignore the terminology of discounts and look at the logic of how they got it to work and you can apply that as a tax.

Jesse · January 25, 2015, 12:24am

I moved 18 posts to a new topic: Help setting up SQL Server and convert SDF file to it

natascafe · January 26, 2015, 5:30pm

Is there a way to add existing gift certificate numbers that previously exist in my business that were not generated by samba?

And just to confirm…the work period report remains incorrect regarding the sale of gift cards showing up in Sales Total? Or did I miss something?

Jesse · January 26, 2015, 11:35pm

Work Period report does not work very well for custom implementations. This is why Custom Reports was developed. In fact in the near future I am thinking you will see the default reports that are built in will change and become dynamic no longer hard coded. They will still exist but will be fully customizable just like Custom reports are now. @emre has hinted at this several times.

In fact I would be willing to bet custom reports will probably become standard feature eventually with the old reports as default pre-built custom reports that you can edit to your liking or make completely new ones.

I recommend you look at Custom Reports module from Samba Market and if you want a starting place for tutorial look here:

http://sambapos.com/wiki/doku.php?id=custom_reporting

natascafe · January 27, 2015, 1:43pm

ok…the existing reports do enough for me but it would be great if the Sales Numbers didn’t reflect gift card purchases

Any way for me to add pre existing gift card numbers to this process? I’ve added some test numbers but the gift card search wont list them. even with gc20 as the prefix.

thanks

QMcKay · January 27, 2015, 2:22pm

While the GC is showing as part of Sales in the WorkPeriod report, it is not actually part of the Sales Account. As to why the Report shows it as a Sale, I don’t know. The Report is wrong, but you cannot alter it (at least not yet). The only alternative (at this time) is to design your own Report instead.

You should be able to add them manually, but it isn’t particularly easy to do so. The reason the search mechanism isn’t finding them is because it filters for a GCStatus State of Purchased. Setting this Entity State is the tricky part.

Create an Account for GC20xxxxxxxx
Create a Gift Certificate Entity for GC20xxxxxxxx
Set the Entity to use the Account (must have identical name)
Set the Entity custom data field for GCBalance to the value of the GC (which is the last numbers of the GC name)
Create a Transaction Document containing a GC Credit Transaction which transfers funds from (source) GC20xxxxxxxx to (target) GC Funds for the value of the GC.
Now the tricky part: set the GC Entity State called GCStatus to Purchased. How do we do that? I would use SQL.

INSERT INTO [EntityStateValues] (
 [EntityId]
,[EntityStates]
) values (
 (select [Id] from [Entities] where [Name]='GC201501270806685200') -- substitute your GCxxx name here
,'[{"D":"\/Date(1422367600895-0600)\/","S":"Purchased","SN":"GCStatus"}]'
)

We could design a way to do all of this via Automation, but the practicality of doing so would be a factor of the quantity of GCs you need to create.

Account:

Entity:

Transaction:

natascafe · January 27, 2015, 2:59pm

There are hundreds of gift cards outstanding. The return rate is unknown…at the moment the numbers and balances are on paper.

I’m not sure that it would be worth the effort. It may be a better idea to change the gift card to a ‘new’ samba account as the customers present their old card. Can I create a card without tendering a payment?

QMcKay · January 27, 2015, 3:17pm

Not with the implementation described in this Tutorial, since the Account and Entity Creation is done upon Settlement. However, if you understand the flow of how this works, it could be done with some alterations.

This is what currently happens:

GC is added to Ticket, and receives Order State of Ordered.
Ticket is Settled. This invokes the Event called Before Ticket Closing.
The Rule called GC Update States captures this event and changes the Order State to Printed. This invokes the Event called Order State Updated.
The Rule called GC Purchased & Printed captures this event and does the work of creating the Entity and Account, creating the Credit Transaction to the Account, and setting the Entity State to Purchased.

So what can we do to change this? Here is one idea…

EDIT: This addition is so simple, that I am going to add it to my system. One reason for being able to do this (for me) is when I donate a GC to a charity, and I don’t want tender any cash for it or show it as a Sale.

Create an Automation Command called GC manual create, map it to Order Line, and set the Enabled States and Visible States to Ordered.
For security purposes, it may be wise to also either map the Automation Command to Administrator User Role and/or set the Confirmation to Admin PIN.
Create a Rule to capture the Automation Command and fire the Action GC Update Order State to switch the State from Ordered to Printed.

Automation Command:

Rule:

Operation:

Enter the value of the GC into the Numpad area, then select the GC Product.
Highlight/select the GC Order line in the Ticket.
Click GC Create … all the magic happens here automatically.
Highlight/select the GC Order line in the Ticket again.
Click Cancel.
Click Close.

FLOW:

GC Entity Search:

Accounts:
The Cash Sale for 50.00 was for another product for illustrative purposes. Notice there is no Sale nor Cash visible for the GC Creation of 700.

Work Period Report:
Again, notice the GC Create is not reported here…

natascafe · January 27, 2015, 7:04pm

great solution!
This will work well.

Thanks guys

I wish I was able to return the effort you’ve provided me.

GreatShakesBar · February 10, 2015, 2:31pm

Ive followed everything spot on (I’m sure) But it won’t print a gift certificate when I’ve made one.

I go to finish the transaction, and when its cashed off nothing prints.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Matt

GreatShakesBar · February 10, 2015, 2:33pm

Also to add, there is no mapping for a lot of the rules in this tutorial. Does that mean there shouldn’t be any mapping? and it should all be greyed out?

Thanks