Best Practices For Adding A Gift Certificate Or Gift Card Value To A Client's Account
Introduction
If your client would like to purchase a "gift certificate" or "gift card" from you to use those funds at a later time, you can charge the client's card or bank account and leave the funds on their account as an open payment to use later.
In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to create an open payment on the client's account. The open payment can then be applied to future invoices (see How To Apply Open Payments).
Notes: You may want to allow clients to see that they have an open payment on their account. To learn how to show and hide open payments and credits on a client account, check out our help doc Showing Credits And Open Payments In The Client Portal.
Open payments are different than credits in Time To Pet. Credits should be used only if the client has not paid you any money. For example, a credit can be used to reward a referral for your client who has recommended a friend or neighbor to use your services. In the referral credit example, no money has been received, but a value (a credit) has been placed on your client's profile. To learn more about credits and open payments, check out our help article on Understanding Open Payments and Credits In Time To Pet.
When not to use this tool:
- If you already have an open invoice and want to add a payment directly to that open invoice. To charge a client for a specific invoice, see our help doc on Charging A Client. To apply a manual payment that you've received outside of Time To Pet, check out our help doc on Adding A Manual Payment To An Invoice (Cash, Check, Or Other Payment Outside Of TTP)
Adding An Open Payment To A Client's Account
Navigate to the client's profile and click on (view) next to Balance, under the client's name:
In the Balance Sheet, click on the "Create Open Payment" button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen:
Follow the instructions on the next screen.
If you have integrated with one of our payment processors here in Time To Pet, your screen will look like this:
You can add the Open Payment by charging the client's saved payment method or by logging an external payment that was collected outside of Time To Pet.
If you have not integrated with one of our payment processors here in Time To Pet, you will only have the option to manually add a payment:
After entering the payment details in the previous step, an Open Payment has been added to the client's account that can be used for future invoices.
- When the client has an open invoice where an open payment can be applied, Time To Pet will remind you in several places. Here is our help doc on How To Apply An Open Payment as well.
FAQs
Q: Can a client see their Open Payment on their account?
Some of our customers choose to show clients their credit and open payment balances. You can enable this in Settings > Client Settings > Portal Settings within the "Invoicing" section. For more information on credits and open payments, please review our help doc on Understanding Open Payments and Credits in Time To Pet. We also have a help article on Showing Credits and Open Payments in Client Portal.
Q: Can a client purchase a gift card through their portal?
Yes, if you have enabled the Gift Cards feature and have integrated with one of our payment processors, your clients can purchase their own gift cards through their Client Portal. We have a help article on setting up and utilizing the Gift Cards feature available here: Gift Cards.
Q: Can I use this if my client pays me a lump sum ahead of time but doesn't have an open invoice?
Yes, some customers have clients who prefer to pay ahead of time (either for a year, a month or by a larger lump sum). You can charge your client or enter the payment manually if it was received outside of Time To Pet. Then, follow the steps in our How To Apply Open Payments to apply the payment to invoices at a later time.