Gift Cards & Store Credit
Gift cards and store credits now live under Client profiles and Sales & Visit History instead of a standalone setup step.
Where gift cards live now
Gift cards and store credit are no longer a standalone setup section. They are still tracked as real records, but they are reviewed where the activity belongs:
- Client profiles show client-associated gift cards, prepaid cards, store credit, referral credits, memberships, packages, visits, and payments.
- Sales & Visit History imports gift card sale and redemption activity when it appears in invoice, payment, or application evidence.
This avoids scanning every client in your booking system just to discover whether a balance might exist. For Zenoti especially, the useful sold-card and prepaid-card endpoints are mostly client-specific, so a center with thousands of clients could require thousands of calls during setup.
Why gift cards are different from regular sales
When a client buys a $200 gift card, you've collected $200 in cash — but you haven't delivered anything yet. You still owe a service. In accounting terms, that's deferred revenue: money you've received but haven't earned yet. It sits on the balance sheet as a liability, not as income.
Revenue from a gift card isn't recognized until the client actually redeems it to pay for a service. At that point, the gift card balance converts from a liability to earned revenue.
This distinction matters because:
- Cash flow vs. profit — collecting a gift card improves your cash position but doesn't increase profit until the service is delivered
- Outstanding liability — at any given time, your clinic may owe thousands of dollars in future services to clients holding gift card balances
- Accurate reporting — if Nabu treats a gift card sale the same as a service sale, your revenue figures will be overstated in the month of purchase and understated in the month of redemption
Nabu tracks the full gift card lifecycle from activity
Sale → Balance → Redemption
When a gift card is sold, that's a cash/liability event. When it is redeemed, that's a liability drawdown and possible revenue recognition event. Nabu uses Sales & Visit History to preserve the invoice, card code, purchaser when known, redeemer when known, original value, applied redemption amount, and review warnings when a balance or mapping is unclear.
Gift cards are transferable. The person redeeming a gift card does not have to be the original purchaser.
What to do during setup
- Complete Clients so activity has a profile to attach to.
- Complete Payment & Financing Fees manually so external processor fees are known before payment history is imported.
- Import Sales & Visit History so gift card sales, redemptions, and warnings can be created from real transaction evidence.
If a gift card or credit balance is known outside transaction history, add it from the Client profile under Gift Cards & Credits.
Outstanding balances from before Nabu
If clients already have gift card or credit balances from before you set up Nabu, bring them in through the Client profile or through the client gift cards and credits template. Sales & Visit History will also enrich balances when it sees sale or redemption evidence.
Gift card types covered
- Traditional plastic gift cards sold at the front desk
- E-gift cards purchased online and sent by email
- Store credit given as refunds (when a client returns a product or cancels a service)
- Loyalty rewards given as credits for referrals, birthdays, or promotions
From Nabu's perspective, these all represent stored value or credits. They are not external processor payments, so card or financing processing fees are not applied to gift card redemptions by default.
Why tracking gift card liability matters
Knowing your outstanding gift card balance tells you:
- How much future service you're committed to delivering (useful for capacity planning)
- What your true cash position is (some of the cash you're holding is already "spoken for")
- Whether gift card promotions are actually profitable after the services are delivered
Common questions
What if we give store credit informally — like just telling a client they have a $50 credit? If it's tracked in your booking software, it'll come in via the import. If it's truly informal and untracked, there's nothing to enter — but we recommend always recording credits in your booking software so they're accounted for.
Does Nabu integrate with my gift card system? If your booking software tracks gift card sales and redemptions, those records come in via the Sales & Visit History import when the source data includes enough evidence. Nabu preserves unmapped or ambiguous activity for review instead of guessing.
Do physical gift cards and e-gift cards need to be separate? Only if your source data distinguishes them or the card code/type matters for review. Nabu does not require separate setup definitions before importing Sales & Visit History.