Vouchers

The system has the ability to sell vouchers both online and in house which can then be redeemed at a later date to purchase things at your venue. Before you can start using vouchers, you need to do a couple of configuration tasks. These can only be made by Admin users.

Create the email templates

The first thing to do is to go to venue settings, click on a venue, then click email templates.  Now click on the Voucher Email template.

Note: this is a special template that is shared across all venues.  The reason for this is that vouchers (and customers) are held at your client account level rather than per venue, so if you have more than one venue you only need to set up the voucher email template once and it will be automatically applied to all venues. However you can have multiple voucher templates if required.

Create the email template as usual, remembering to include the voucher code tag. Once the template has been completed, click Save.

If you plan to sell vouchers online through the Alpha Flow Web shop, then you will also need to create a Web shop purchase confirmation email template.  This is per venue, and will be used to email the customer once their purchase has been completed. 

Create a voucher payment method

Vouchers are redeemed using a special payment method, so this needs to be created.  

Note: Payment methods are at the venue level, so you need to create a separate payment method for each venue.

To create the payment method, go to venue settings, click on a venue then click Payment Methods at the top. Then click Add payment method.

Give it a name, and POS text, then select the type as Voucher.  If you want customers to be able to redeem vouchers on-line make sure you tick Enable for web payment, then click Save.

Repeat for your other venues (if applicable).

Create a Voucher Type

Vouchers are created and managed using the vouchers module on the navigation menu. 

To add a new voucher product, click the Add voucher product button, or to edit a voucher click on it's name.

Create a name and Description for your voucher. The description can also be included in the Voucher email by using the appropriate tag when creating the email template. Purchase price - this is the sales price of the voucher (i.e. the amount the customer will pay to purchase the voucher)
Redemption value - this is the amount of credit the customer will receive.  Usually this will match the purchase price, but you may have an offer where the customer will receive additional credit (e.g. pay £20 for a voucher to receive £25 of credit). If the voucher should be made available to purchase in the web shop, tick "Show on web shop". This will then show a tick box to allow you to configure whether the customer can chose from a list of prices for the voucher, or if the price will be fixed to the purchase price. If this box it not ticked, the customer will still be able to adjust the quantity, so for a £10 voucher they will be able to select 2 to make a £20 voucher.  Note: this option is only available if the purchase price and redemption value match.
If "Allow customer to chose voucher value" is ticked, some additional configuration options will be shown. Minimum voucher value - this is the minimum value the customer can select Maximum voucher value - this is the maximum value the customer can select. Price increment - Sets the gap between the prices. As an example, if the minimum value is 10, the maximum is 50 and the increment is 5 then the customer will be allowed to select from the following list of prices: £10,£15,£20,£25,£30,£35,£40,£45,£50.
Earliest voucher redemption date - This allows you to prevent the vouchers from being redeemed before a certain date.  Vouchers valid for - Sets how long from the date of purchase the voucher will expire and no longer be redeemable. You can choose whether a voucher can be redeemed by customers when making a booking online, or if it can only be redeemed by your staff via the point of sale (i.e. over the phone).  By default all vouchers cam be redeemed online, but if you want to restrict this (for example the voucher can only be used for specific events) then you can untick the "Allow Voucher to be Redeemed Online" box.
Voucher Appearance Finally, make sure the voucher has a good Product Information text. This will be shown on the web shop product page. It is also possible to add tags to Vouchers. The tags work in the same way tags for other products, for example to allow promotions to be restricted to just voucher sales and also to filter reports.  You can then upload two images for your voucher. The Product Image which will be displayed on your Web Shop and Point of Sale and then the Voucher Image which will be used in the Email Template that is sent to the customer. The maximum width is 640px and the maximum height is 640px although the image doesn't need to be square. Once the settings have been amended, remember to click save.

Editing or Revoking a Voucher

To set a specific expiry date as you sell the voucher, add the voucher to the bill then click on the voucher number (which will be partly obscured by asterisks). On the right you will see the expiry date which can be changed by selecting a new date in the diary and clicking update.

You can also edit a previously sold voucher by clicking on the voucher type, searching for the voucher and clicking on the voucher number (which will be partly obscured by asterisks).  You then have the same options as before to edit the voucher.

You can also revoke the voucher so it is no longer valid again by searching for the voucher, clicking on the voucher number (which will be partly obscured by asterisks) and then clicking the Revoke button. You will also need to record a reason. 

All staff can use the Bill number or email address used when purchasing the voucher to search for the voucher's bill via the Point of Sale screen.

All staff also have the ability to resend the vouchers, including to a new email address, for example if there was a typo in the original address. Click the Send Vouchers button towards the bottom of the Point of Sale screen (below the Total/Balance). You can then choose which vouchers you wish to resend by selecting the respective tick box next to the voucher. 

An audit trail of all voucher changes will be recorded on each individual voucher in the change log.

Importing External Vouchers

The import function allows you to add vouchers codes not sold via the Alpha system, so you can use them to pay for products in Alpha Flow. This is a manual process and cannot be automatically linked with any third party providers. Please see this page for instructions on importing vouchers.