A gift certificate is stored value at your venue: a code with a balance that a patron can spend on tickets. This article is the venue admin's view of all of them — the list, the money you owe, and what you can do to a single certificate.
Click Gift certificates in the Money card on your venue hub. If the link is not there, gift certificates are not turned on for your venue — ask Noctern support.
Outstanding liability
The first card on the page is a single figure: the sum of every active certificate balance. It is money you owe against future redemptions, not revenue. Watch it the way you would watch any float — it is the number your accountant will ask for.
The list
Each row is one certificate:
| Column | What it shows | |---|---| | Code | The last four characters only, as a link to the certificate. Full codes are never shown in the list | | Initial | What it was worth when issued | | Balance | What is left | | Status | Active, redeemed, voided or expired | | Source | Online, Box office, Refund credit, Staff issued, or Import | | Purchaser / Recipient | Who bought it and, below, who it was for | | Created / Expires | Dates. None means it never expires |
Search by code, email or recipient in the box above the table and click Apply.
Issuing a certificate or credit
Issue certificate / credit at the top right opens a dialog for the tenders you take by hand.
Only cash, check and comp are handled here. For a card sale, send the buyer to your public gift-certificate page — card processing is not available in this dialog.
- Pick the Tender: cash, check or comp.
- Enter the Amount ($).
- Add the reference (e.g. a check number) where asked.
- For a comp, type a reason. A comp certificate is refused without one — you are creating value out of nothing, so it is always on the record.
- Fill in the purchaser's name and email, and the recipient's name, email and gift message if there is one.
- Click to issue.
The full code is shown once, on the success screen, and never again. Copy it to the customer before clicking Done.
A single certificate
Click a row to open it. The page shows the masked code, the purchaser and recipient, six summary tiles (initial value, current balance, status, source, created, expires) and a running ledger of everything that has happened to it — Issued, Redeemed, Redemption released, Refund credit, Adjustment, Voided, Expired.
Three actions sit at the top right:
| Action | What it does | |---|---| | Adjust | Add to or take off the balance by an amount, with a reason. Use it for a goodwill top-up or to correct a mistake | | Void | Kill the certificate. A reason is required. The balance stops being spendable and the outstanding liability figure drops | | Resend | Regenerate the code and email it to the recipient again. Disabled when there is no recipient email on file — the button's tooltip says so |
All three are disabled once a certificate is voided; a void is final.
Resend issues a new code. The old one stops working. It is the right answer for "they lost the email" — and the wrong answer for "they want to check the balance", which the patron can do themselves.
Where certificates come from
- Online — a patron bought one on your public gift-certificate page.
- Box office — staff sold one at the window. See "Selling a Gift Certificate".
- Refund credit — a refund was issued as venue credit instead of money back.
- Staff issued — the cash/check/comp dialog on this page.
- Import — brought in from a previous system.