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Gift cards

Gift cards are a small, practical welcome: a first-time guest is registered and walks away with something they can redeem at your café or welcome desk. It costs you very little and it turns "we're glad you came" into something with substance behind it.

This page covers turning them on, who gets one, how they are redeemed, and — just as importantly — what the feature does not do, so you can plan around it honestly.

Gift cards are part of the Companion, Plus and Pro plans, alongside the connection card they usually go with. GoReach does not include them. See Plans.

What you can do​

  • Issue a card automatically when a new visitor is registered, or when somebody signs themselves up on the portal.
  • Top up an existing card when someone finishes a class that offers an incentive.
  • Redeem at your welcome desk by scanning the guest's Passport QR code.
  • Review every redemption: who, what, how much and when.

Step 1 — Turn gift cards on​

  1. In the main navigation, go to Admin → Settings.
  2. Under Guest follow-up, open Gift cards.
  3. Switch Issue gift cards to new people on.

You will then choose how a card carries value:

SettingWhat it means
CreditsEach card is worth a number of items — for example, 1 credit = one coffee. Best when everything at your counter is roughly the same price.
CurrencyEach card is worth an amount of money. Best when your counter has a real menu with different prices.
Where it can be spentWording only. It appears in the message the guest receives, so "the café in the foyer" is more useful than "the church".
Expires afterNumber of days. Leave it at 0 — or blank — and cards never expire.
tip

Start with credits and a value of 1. It is the easiest thing to explain to a volunteer at a counter, and you can change it later without affecting cards already issued.

Step 2 — Know who gets one automatically​

A card is issued, without anyone doing anything, when:

  • A new visitor is registered by a staff member or greeter through the guest page.
  • Somebody self-registers on the portal.

A card is topped up — not newly issued — when:

  • A class they are enrolled in completes, and that class has an incentive configured.

Cards are issued once per person. Somebody who already has one gets their existing card topped up rather than a second card, so a guest cannot accumulate several by registering twice.

Step 3 — Redeem a card​

At your café or welcome desk:

  1. Open Guests → Gift cards in the admin navigation, or Redeem on the team dashboard in the mobile app.
  2. Scan the guest's Passport QR code, or enter their Passport ID.
  3. The card shows whose it is, when it expires, and what is left on it. Check the name against the guest in front of you, then confirm the redemption.

The redemption is recorded against the person, so it appears on their timeline alongside everything else that has happened with them.

note

The mobile Redeem screen also needs the member portal switched on. If you do not see it on the team dashboard, check that Portal is switched on for your church.

Step 4 — See what has been redeemed​

Past redemptions, at the top of Guests → Gift cards, lists every redemption with the guest's name, what they had, the amount and the date. Filter it by date range to reconcile a week at the café.

Expiry is applied nightly, so a card whose date has passed is refused at the desk without anybody needing to touch it.

If your plan changes to one without gift cards, Passport stops issuing new cards and the desk can no longer redeem them. Your settings are kept, so moving back to Companion or above picks up where you left off.

What gift cards do not do​

Worth stating plainly, because it is easy to assume otherwise:

  • They are not triggered by check-in. Checking somebody in on a Sunday does not issue a card. Issuance happens at registration and self-registration only.
  • There is no rules engine. You cannot build "issue a card after three visits" or "issue one when somebody joins a group". The triggers listed above are the complete set.
  • They are not part of your giving records. A gift card is a welcome gesture, not a financial instrument, and it does not appear in donations, funds or tax statements.
  • They are not a journey step. Guest journeys handle the messages a guest receives; the gift card is issued alongside them, not by them.

If you want a guest to know they have a card, mention it in your guest journey copy — Admin → Settings → Guest journeys — where you control what they are sent and when.