Gift Cards
This page explains how to issue, list, and deactivate gift cards for phone or in-person sales, and how clients redeem or buy them themselves.
Navigation label — Gift Cards: EN: Gift Cards · IT: Carte Regalo · FR: Cartes Cadeaux · DE: Geschenkkarten · ES: Tarjetas Regalo · PT: Cartões-Presente · NL: Cadeaubonnen
Before you start
Only studio managers can issue, view, or deactivate gift cards from the desktop backoffice. Clients can also buy a gift card themselves as a present, from the mobile app — see below.
Overview
A gift card is a prepaid balance identified by a code in the format GC-XXXXXXXX. It has an initial value and a remaining balance that goes down as it's redeemed against membership purchases. Gift cards can carry a recipient name, email, personal message, and an optional expiry date.
Issuing a gift card
Use this for gift cards sold over the phone or in person, where you're recording the sale manually rather than a client self-purchasing online.
- Go to Gift Cards in the left sidebar.
- Click Issue Gift Card.
- Fill in:
- Initial Value — the balance the card starts with
- Recipient Name (optional)
- Recipient Email (optional)
- Personal Message (optional) — shown to the recipient
- Expires On (optional) — leave empty for no expiry
- Click Issue.
The gift card appears in the list with a system-generated code (GC-XXXXXXXX), its initial value, and remaining balance (equal to the initial value until it's redeemed).
Deactivating a gift card
- Find the gift card in the list.
- Click Deactivate.
- Confirm.
Deactivating stops the card from being redeemed further. It does not delete the card or its history — any remaining balance simply becomes unusable.
How clients redeem a gift card
A client enters a gift card code at membership checkout, alongside (and independently of) a promo code. The balance is capped at the membership's price — it's never redeemed for more than the purchase costs — and is only actually deducted once the payment completes:
- Partial coverage: the gift card balance is deducted from the price, and the client pays the remainder via Stripe as usual.
- Full coverage: if the gift card balance fully covers the price, the purchase bypasses Stripe entirely (Stripe Checkout can't process a $0 charge) — the membership is granted instantly and the gift card is redeemed immediately. This only applies to one-time purchases, not recurring/subscription memberships.
Because redemption happens on payment completion (not on validation), an abandoned or incomplete checkout never burns down a gift card's balance.
Clients buying a gift card as a present
A client can also buy a gift card themselves, as a gift for someone else, directly from the mobile app's self-purchase flow. This opens a separate Stripe checkout (a one-off payment, not tied to any membership) for the amount they choose, with the same recipient name/email/message fields available to personalize it. Once payment completes, a new gift card is issued with that balance — it then works exactly like a manager-issued card at checkout.
What if something goes wrong?
A client's gift card code isn't accepted Check the card's status in the list — it may be Inactive, expired, or have a remaining balance of zero.
A client wants a refund on a gift card purchase Gift card purchases are one-off Stripe payments; process any refund directly in your Stripe dashboard. Deactivate the corresponding gift card afterward so its balance can no longer be used.
The remaining balance looks wrong after a purchase Remaining balance only updates once a Stripe payment actually completes (via webhook) — if a client's checkout session was abandoned, the balance is untouched, which is expected.