# Selling gift cards - Giftline 1.x documentation

> Make a Gift card product with fixed amounts or any amount, and let customers choose a design, a recipient, a message and the day it's emailed.

Gift cards are sold as products of the **Gift card** type. You can have as many as you like: one emailed card, a printed one, a seasonal one with its own image.

## The Gift card product

In the **Product data** box, choose **Gift card** as the product type. A **Gift card** tab appears:

![The Gift card tab in the product editor](https://storage.extendiment.com/media/598/screenshot-10.png)

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Amounts** | The amounts customers choose from, separated by commas or spaces, such as `25, 50, 100`. |
| **Any amount** | Lets customers type an amount of their own. |
| **Lowest amount** and **Highest amount** | The limits for an amount of their own. Empty: 1 and 1,000 in your currency. |

The product's price follows the lowest amount, so it sorts and shows like any other product: "$25.00 – $500.00".

**Virtual** decides how the card reaches its owner:

- **Virtual**: the card is emailed once the order is paid. Customers can name a recipient, who gets the email.
- **Not virtual**: a printed card you ship with the order. Shipping applies as for any product. See [Printed gift cards](printed-gift-cards).

Inventory, linked products, attributes and the other usual tabs work as for a simple product. A gift card product has no regular or sale price of its own: the amount is the price.

> [!NOTE]
> Coupons never discount a gift card, and other plugins' sale prices don't change its amount, so a card can't be bought for less than it's worth.

## What customers choose

On the product page, above **Add to cart**:

![A gift card product page](https://storage.extendiment.com/media/596/screenshot-1.png)

- **Amount**: one of yours, or **Other amount** with their own.
- **Design**: shown when you have more than one (see [Settings and emails](settings-and-emails)). The design's colour is used on the email and the printable card.
- **Recipient's name** and **Recipient's email** (emailed cards). Left empty, the card is emailed to the customer who bought it.
- **From** and **Message**: shown in the email and on the printable card. Up to 300 characters.
- **Delivery date** (emailed cards, when **Delivery date** is on in the settings). Empty or today: the card is sent as soon as the order is paid. A later day: it's sent that morning at 9:00, your store's time.

The choices show under the item in the cart, at checkout, in the order and in the order emails.

## When the card is made and sent

Giftline creates the cards when the order is paid, that is when it reaches **Processing** or **Completed**, never while it's waiting for payment. Each unit is its own card: two of the same gift card in one order are two cards with their own codes.

An emailed card goes out:

- straight away, or on the chosen delivery date;
- never before the **Hold emailed cards for** time after payment has passed, if you set one. That gives you time to check a suspicious order and cancel it before the code is sent.

The order notes say when each card was created and emailed. Under the gift card line on the order screen you see each card's code, balance and status, with a link to its screen and to print it.

## The gift card email

The **Gift card** email (**WooCommerce → Settings → Emails**) says who sent the card, shows the amount, the code and the message in the design's colour, and explains how to use it. With **Printable card** on in the settings, a PDF of the card is attached, ready to print or forward.

The email also has an **Add this gift card to your account** link: a recipient with an account at your store can keep the card with their orders. See [Gift cards and credit in My Account](gift-cards-and-credit-in-my-account).

Need to send it again, or to a corrected address? Open the card under **WooCommerce → Gift cards**, change the recipient's email under **Details** if needed, and click **Email again**.

## Tax

By default a gift card isn't taxed when it's sold: tax is charged on what it's spent on. In many countries that's the rule for a card that can be spent on anything (a "multi-purpose voucher"). If your cards may only be spent on goods taxed at one rate, you can tax them when sold instead: see **Tax** in [Settings and emails](settings-and-emails).

Either way, a gift card or store credit pays for an order after tax. It's a way to pay, not a discount, so the tax on an order paid with a gift card is the same as on any other order.

## Cancelled and refunded orders

When an order that bought gift cards is cancelled or refunded, the cards it created are cancelled too, so their codes stop working, unless someone has already spent from one. A card that has been used is left as it is, with a note on the order, so you can decide what to do.

Source: https://extendiment.com/plugins/giftline/docs/1.x/selling-gift-cards