Gift Certificates with Numbers and QR Check

Point a phone camera at the certificate’s QR code — a page opens with its status, balance and expiration. If the QR does not scan, type the number printed under it on the same page: case does not matter, the letters O and I are read as 0 and 1, and a typo is caught before the check.

Certificates in a batch are printed inactive: until the register marks the sale, nobody can pay with them. That way a lost or stolen stack of blanks is worth nothing. At the sale, staff scan the certificate and tap “Activate” — from then on it is valid, and “N days” counts from the sale.

Find it in the “Books” tab by number (customers usually remember the date and amount) and tap “Reissue”. The old code becomes void, and the new one gets the same number and the same balance — you can print it right away from the batch list.

Checks and redemptions go through the server, so without a connection the register will not say “valid”: two offline registers could redeem one certificate twice. Instead it shows the last known status with the time it was checked and a “not confirmed” label, and lets you note the amount to process once the connection is back.

The tool gives hints by country: in several US states (California, for example) gift certificates cannot expire and small balances are paid out in cash on request; in Germany courts treat terms shorter than three years as invalid; in Russia a certificate is a prepayment and its money can be refunded. The hints are reminders, not legal advice.

Yes: “Overprint on blanks” prints only the QR code, the code and the number — in the same spots as in the layout, without background or frame. Order the blanks without numbers, print the test page, adjust the printer offset and scale, and load the blanks into the tray: the numbers land in the space left for them.