Prism Users Guide - Chapter 31. Centrals
31.6 Central Gift Cards

Central Gift Cards enable you to track and update gift card balances in real-time. Without centrals, gift cards are susceptible to "double-dipping" and other frauds due to time lags in communication of data. When using centrals, each time a customer redeems a gift card, the system verifies the card's current balance at the Centrals Server. 
If preferences have been configured correctly (including enabling Central Gift Card tender in Tender Requirements preferences), when tendering a transaction, the Central Gift Card tender button will be available. Users can swipe the card using a non-encrypting card swipe or type the card number. For Centrals Gift card balance checks/transactions, currency conversion is applied, depending on the Base currency of the Subsidiary and exchange rates set in Admin Console > Global Preferences.
Note 1: A merchant does not have to create central gift card items in Inventory. A merchant can still issue/activate/add value to a central gift card by swiping/entering/scanning at POS.
Note 2:Any action you take you take to add money to a (new or already used central gift card) adds money.  Any action to somehow increase the balance on a central gift card can be performed on either a new or used card. Even listing a central gift card inventory item on a receipt can be done to ‘add value' and is not only limited to new central gift cards.

Basic Steps for Central Gift Cards

1. Configure permissions for central gift cards (Store Operations - Employees - Groups)
2. Configure preferences for central gift cards (Admin Console - Node Preferences - Transactions - Centrals)
3. Follow the steps for adding a new item to inventory and set the Item Type field in the item record to "Central Gift Card."
4. Sell the cards at POS to activate the cards. When a customer purchases the gift card, the Associate scans the card's barcode. Scanning the barcode at POS displays a prompt for activating the card for the specific amount.
5. When tendering transactions, use the central gift card tender type . When using the central gift card tender type, the remaining card amount is verified against the centrals server in real time.
6. Check gift card balance when needed.

This rest of this section has information about working with Central Gift Cards:

• Permissions for Central Gift Cards
• Central Gift Card Items
• Selling (activating) a Central Gift Card
• Redeeming a Central Gift Card
• Checking Balance of a Central Gift Card
• Adding Value to a Central Gift Card

Central Gift Card Permissions
You can control employee access to the central gift card feature using the following security permissions.

• POS - Add Central Gift Card: Allows the user to add a central gift card item to a transaction. Triggered when central gift card item being added to transaction.
• POS - Change Central Gift Care Expiration Date: When set to Allow, allows the user to manually edit the Expiration Date for central gift card items.

Central Gift Card Items
You can add one or more central gift card items to your Prism inventory. To do this, you select "Central Gift Card" in the Item Type field. When listed on a transaction, central gift cards are like regular gift cards except all action against the card goes through the centrals server. This topic explains how to:

• Add central gift card items to inventory
• Sell/activate central gift cards
• Redeem central gift cards
• Check central gift card balance

New Central Gift Card Item
Navigate to Store Operations > Inventory. Click the New button to start a new item. Set the Inventory Type to Gift Card - Centrals. Add an item for each Gift Card denomination that you plan to sell. For example, add a central gift card item for a $20 gift card, add a separate item for a $50 gift card, etc.
Sample inventory item with Inventory Type set to Gift Card - Centrals:

Taxable Central Gift Cards in VAT environment
You can configure your system so that central gift card items are taxable. In some locales, law requires the retailer to charge VAT on the sale of gift cards. In such a VAT environment, make sure the Tax Code field for the central gift card item is set to TAXABLE. This will ensure that tax is charged when the central gift card item is sold. In a VAT environment, the sale of a gift card is considered to be a merchandise purchase and therefore subject to VAT. While it is true that the merchant in a sense loses the tax amount on the sale of the gift card; however, the amount is made up when the card is redeemed because using a gift card is considered an exchange and therefore is not taxed.

Gift Card - Centrals items at POS
When using central gift cards, there are four possible transaction types:

• Purchase/Activate: When a customer buys a gift card, the gift card is activated and charged with value. The value on the card cannot be used until the card is activated.
• Redeem: When a customer uses a central gift card to pay for a transaction, the Associate selects "Central Gift Card" as the tender type.
• Check Balance: Associates can check the current balance of a gift card.
• Add Value: Add value ("recharge") a gift card with additional funds.

Note: To properly parse data from various card types, the user must touch or click the Swipe button to the right of the Central Gift Card No field. This will bring up a Swipe Gift Card dialog.

Sell/Activate Central Gift Card

1. On a transaction, list the central gift card item.    
2. The Gift Card Activation dialog is displayed. Click the Scan button and then scan the gift card's barcode. Enter or confirm the amount and click OK.    
3. Click the Tender Transaction button.    
4. The Gift Card Activation is displayed.     
5. Click the icon. Scan the Gift Card Number. Click OK    
6. Select the payment type and click the Take button. Tender and update the transaction. The Gift Card is pre-authorized for specified amount.    

Selling a Gift Card that exceeds the maximum value set in preferences
If the requested amount exceeds the allowed maximum, a prompt is displayed: "The requested amount exceeds the allowed maximum. Would you like to add the maximum value to this Central Gift Card?"

Redeem a Central Gift Card

1. Click Tender Transaction. The tender screen shows the Amount Due.    
2. Click the Tender Type button and click Central Gift Card. Click the icon and then swipe the card number. Click Take.    
3. The amount redeemed as well as the card number are displayed on the tender screen.    
4. Take additional tenders, if needed, and then print/update

Gift Card Past Expiration Date
If a user scans or enters a card number that is past its expiration date, the message below is displayed.
Check a Central Gift Card's Balance
You can check a card's balance outside of a transaction, or during a transaction.
Check Card Balance outside of a Transaction

1. Start a new transaction and list the central gift card item.
2. Click the Options button and select Central Gift Card Details.    
3. Swipe the card and click OK.    
4. On a transaction in progress, click Tender Type and select Central Gift Card. Swipe the card and click the Balance button.    
5. The Balance is displayed.    

• If you click Yes, the requested amount will be added to the central gift card.
• If you click No, only the amount that will bring the central gift card up to its maximum balance is added to the card.
• If the "Activate Gift Cards for Original Amount" preference is enabled, gift cards can only be activated for the original amount at which the card was sold.
• If the preference is disabled, then gift cards can be activated for an amount different than the original amount.

Duplicate Card Numbers
Users are not allowed to enter the same gift card number for multiple central gift card items on the same document. If they do they will be greeted with the red toasty listed below. User will have to select the tender button again to get prompted to enter a different gift card.

Expired Central Gift Card at POS
If you try to take a gift card that is past its expiration date, an error message is displayed. The dialog that is presented includes a Clear button. Click the Clear button to remove the expired gift card. Scan or type a new card number and continue with the transaction. 

Node Preferences > Transactions > General
In Node Preferences > Transactions > General, the "Activate Gift Cards for Original Amount" preference controls whether gift cards can be activated for an amount other than the original amount.​​​​​​​

Central Gift Card Rollback Tables
 

Central Gift Card Rollback Tables
The Prism database includes a set of "rollback" tables for central gift cards and central gift card transactions.

Clean Up of Central Gift Card Rollback Tables
An API call (CleanUpCentralGiftCardRB) can be called (or scheduled) to clear orphaned Central Gift Cards from the rollback tables (central_gift_card_txn_rb, central_gift_card_rb) when the transactions are older than 48 hours.
On the system acting as the Centrals Server, create a Tech Toolkit Scheduler task to execute the call.
Action End Point (URL): 
http:///api/common?action=CleanUpCentralGiftCardRB
Action Payload:
   {"data":[{} ]}

This POST action will return a success response as follows:
{
    "name": "cleanupcentralgiftcardrb",
    "metatype": "Action",
    "comment": "Clean Up Central Gift Card RollBack tables",
    "translationid": null,
    "errors": null,
    "data": [
        {
            "status": 0,
            "errmsg": null
        }
    ]
}
Check Pending Transactions before cleaning rollback tables
Before using the "CleanUpCentralGiftCardRB" API method, check Pending Transactions. If there are any Pending Transactions with central gift card tenders that you can handle via Pending Transactions, that is the preferred method. For example, you can update the transaction or delete the central gift card tenders and cancel the transaction. 

Transactions less than 48 hours old are preserved
Please note that the system will not delete an uncompleted transaction unless it is more than 48 hours old. This ensures no records are deleted for a transaction in progress. 

About Deleted Central Gift Card Tenders on Pending Transactions
It is possible to update a pending transaction that includes a tender deleted from the Central Gift Card Rollback tables. Users will see an error message when trying to update a transaction that has one of these "orphaned" central gift card tenders.
"A central tender is too old. Please void and renter it." 
If you see this error message when trying to update pending transaction with a central gift card tender, void the central gift card tender, then enter a new central gift card ID or choose a different tender type.