Gift Cards for Multiple Locations

[RevelOn]

We currently use Square and are going to be opening additional franchise locations soon.  If all locations are using Square, we would like for a customer to be able to purchase a gift card at one location and be able to use it at all our other locations.  The issue is that each location will have different franchisee owners.  We want to make sure that funds from the gift card purchase go to the location(s) where the card is used.  We have heard that other POS systems park funds from the purchase of a gift card in an intermediary account and distribute the funds appropriately.  Is this something that can be added to Square as I'm sure other growing businesses are running into the same limitation with Square?

[AshleyK]

Hey @RevelOn welcome to the Seller Community!!

This is an awesome feature request, but I do think we may have what you are looking for. Each location has their own sales reports and bank account, so if a customer buys a gift card at a certain franchise location then that location will receive credit for the gift card sale, but the customer can still use the gift card at any other location tied to that master Square account. 

The only time this wouldn't work would be if you had a separate Square account for each franchise as then the gift cards will not transfer over. 

I hope this makes sense, but please let me know if I'm missing anything! Thank you very much. 🙂

[RevelOn]

It is my understanding that if a customer buys a gift card at location "A" for $50 then location "A" will receive credit for the full $50.  If the customer uses the card at location "B" then that location will bear the cost of what was purchased, but not receive any credit for the gift card purchase.  Is that the case?  My preference is that location "B" would get credit for the $50 since that is where the card was used.  

[AshleyK]

Location B will show in the Sales Summary that $50 of their gross sales was a gift card redemption, but will not get credit for the $50 gift card sale, or activation, since that happened at Location A. 

[RevelOn]

Thank you for helping me understand what Square is able to do, but do you see that this still presents a problem for us?  We really need for Square to be able to distribute credits from the original gift card purchase to the locations where it was used.  This is a feature offered by other POS systems and is important for any franchise businesses that offer gift cards. 

[buygrimsby]

We have a similar issue.  We want people to be able to purchase an E-gift card for any location from the website, but have the funds deposited into the account of the location where it's used.

Right now it's sitting in the website location which does not have a bank account linked.

Tim S.

[myplaycafe]

Has this issue been fixed? We want the correct funds to go to the correct location, regardless of where it was purchased.

[_Violet]

hI @myplaycafe 👋 Violet here, stepping in for @JJ_ while he's out of the office.

eGift cards are redeemable at all of your locations. All eGift card sales will be processed by the selected reporting location.

[JJ_]

At this time, our gift cards behave the same way. The reason behind it is that Square will load a gift card but the actual purchase transaction will be tied to the location it was loaded as. At this time we are unable to transfer funds between locations and for that reason, the funds will be transferred to the bank account of the purchasing location upon Card Purchase and loading. 

I want to thank you for taking the time to share your interest in this feature @myplaycafe I recommend you submit a Feature Request here. This will help our product team get visibility and track other Sellers with similar interest in your request. 

Important: When submitting a request, make sure to include the desired feature, and provide the details of how this feature will help your business succeed (how would you use it and what you expect from it).

[myplaycafe]

How about e-cards. Which location will get the funds?