Gift Cards

Gift cards bring in revenue up front and send new guests to your restaurant. Selflane supports four programs, and you can run them together.

• eGift Cards: sold online and emailed to the recipient
• Selflane Gift Cards: branded printed cards you order from Plastic Printers and sell on Selflane POS
• Physical Gift Cards: processor-backed ValuTec cards used with a PAX terminal
• Gift Certificates: a simple, low-cost manual option

How to choose

• Choose eGift Cards for the fastest start and online sales around the clock.
• Choose Selflane Gift Cards for branded printed cards you order yourself, with no onboarding call.
• Choose Physical Gift Cards for a processor-backed ValuTec program through your PAX terminal, with its own fees.
• Choose Gift Certificates for the lowest setup cost.

Combine programs

Many restaurants run more than one program:

• eGift Cards for online sales
• Selflane Gift Cards or ValuTec cards for in-store and holiday gifting
• Gift Certificates for local promotions and events

eGift Cards

Guests buy eGift cards on your Selflane.com  page any time, even after you close. Turn them on or off with eGift Card Program under Gift Cards > Settings in the Back Office . You can also offer a discount on eGift card purchases. See eGift Card settings. This setting only controls online eGift cards. Selflane Gift Cards don’t need it.

eGift Card features

• purchase any time, including after business hours
• email delivery to the recipient
• redemption online and in store
• no setup fee or monthly fee

When to use eGift Cards

• holiday and seasonal campaigns
• remote gifting by non-local customers
• quick promotions without physical inventory
• discounted eGift offers with a minimum purchase

Selflane charges a commission on each eGift card sold. See details in Pricing .

Selflane Gift Cards

Sell branded printed gift cards in your restaurant with Selflane POS. Order the cards yourself, then sell and redeem them by their printed numbers.

Order and design cards

Order from the Selflane storefront at Plastic Printers . Cards are printed with your restaurant’s branding and encoded for Selflane POS.

No onboarding call is needed, and you do not need to turn on the online eGift Card Program.

Each location that redeems Selflane Gift Cards needs the Physical Gift Cards add-on, or a plan that includes it. The add-on is billed monthly per location on the POS plan. It is included on the Essential, Power, and Premium plans. Selling your first printed card on Selflane POS turns it on for that location. You can also turn it on from the Gift Cards page or Manage Plan. See Turn on Physical Gift Cards. ValuTec cards don’t need this add-on. You order and pay for the cards themselves at Plastic Printers.

Sell and activate cards

Use Selflane POS 7.5.1 or later to sell Selflane Gift Cards.

1. Open Gift Card Center on Selflane POS.
2. Tap Sell Selflane Gift Card.
3. Scan or enter each card’s printed number and set its value.
4. Take payment for the order in full.

A card holds no balance until the order is paid in full. Payment activates the cards automatically.

Redeem at checkout

Use Selflane POS 7.5.0 or later to redeem cards by number.

1. Open the customer’s order and tap Pay.
2. Tap Gift Card and use the Selflane Gift Card section.
3. Scan or enter the card’s printed number to apply it to the payment.

See Redeem gift cards for the checkout guide.

Check balances and sales

1. Open Gift Cards in the Back Office .
2. In the Check Balance card, enter the card’s printed number in Card number.
3. Click Look up.

Sales appear in the Store Gift Card list on the same page. See Review gift card sales.

Choose the correct card program

Cards ordered from the Selflane storefront at Plastic Printers belong to the Selflane Gift Card section on the POS. Don’t activate them through the processor-backed Physical Gift Card section. That section is for the separate ValuTec program, which uses a PAX terminal and has its own fees.

Physical Gift Cards

Physical Gift Cards are processor-backed cards for in-store gift programs. Selflane works with ValuTec  to issue and process them. On the POS, use the Physical Gift Card section with your PAX terminal for this program.

These are separate from the Selflane Gift Cards you order from Plastic Printers. Use the Selflane Gift Card section for those cards. Don’t activate them through the ValuTec program.

The Physical Gift Cards add-on in the Back Office is for Selflane Gift Cards only. ValuTec cards don’t need it, because your PAX terminal processes them.

Physical Gift Card features

• branded card design options
• familiar card experience for guests
• processor-managed card lifecycle

When to use Physical Gift Cards

• front-counter upsell during checkout
• holiday display and in-store gifting
• customers who prefer physical cards

Your ValuTec processor agreement sets the setup, card, and processing fees.

Gift Certificates

Gift Certificates are a low-cost alternative to card-based gift programs. If your certificates carry unique IDs, Selflane POS can track each one’s redemption history.

Turn on Gift Certificates

Turn this payment option on or off in Payment Settings .

Set up certificate types

Under Gift Certificate Types in POS settings , you can:

• name each certificate type
• require staff to enter a certificate ID

Redeem at checkout

On Selflane POS:

1. Tap Pay.
2. Tap Gift Card.
3. Tap Certificate.
4. Choose the Certificate Type, enter the Certificate ID if required, and enter the Charge Amount.

When to use Gift Certificates

• community promotions
• local events and fundraising
• low-volume programs that do not require processor integration

Manage gift cards in the Back Office

Use the Gift Cards page in the Back Office  to turn programs on, look up a card when a guest asks about a balance, and review gift card sales. The sections below follow the page from top to bottom.

Turn on Physical Gift Cards

When this location can’t redeem printed gift cards yet, the page opens with the notice Physical gift cards are off for this location. The notice shows the monthly price for this location. If a free trial applies, it shows the month the trial ends.

• See plans opens the Selflane pricing page.
• Turn On starts the monthly add-on for this location after you confirm the price.

Only users with access to Plan & Billing see Turn On. Everyone else sees Ask an owner to turn it on. You can also turn on the add-on from Manage Plan.

The notice doesn’t appear when your plan already includes Physical Gift Cards or the add-on is already on.

This add-on covers only Selflane Gift Cards, the printed cards Selflane POS scans. It doesn’t cover ValuTec cards, which you redeem through your PAX terminal under a separate processor agreement.

eGift Card settings

The Settings card shows whether the online eGift program is Enabled or Disabled. When a discount is active, it also shows the discount’s title, percentage, and minimum purchase.

To change the settings, click the pencil button on the Settings card.

• eGift Card Program: sell eGift cards online on your Selflane page. Turning this off hides the rest of the form.
• Discount Program: give buyers a percentage off eGift card purchases. Shown only when eGift Card Program is on.
• Discount Title: the name of the offer, at least 4 characters.
• Discount Percentage: the percentage off. Must be greater than 0.
• Minimum Purchase: the smallest eGift card purchase, in dollars, that gets the discount.

Turning Discount Program off clears the title, percentage, and minimum purchase when you save.

Order Selflane Gift Cards

The Selflane Gift Cards card summarizes the two steps for printed cards and links to the storefront with Order cards at Plastic Printers. See Selflane Gift Cards for the full steps.

Check a card’s balance

1. In the Check Balance card, enter the printed number in Card number.
2. Click Look up.
3. Review the card’s Balance, original Amount, and Date.
4. Click View card detail to open the card.

If no card matches, the page shows No card with that number.

Review gift card sales

Use the year selector to choose which year’s cards appear in both lists below it.

The eGift Cards card shows all-time totals:

• Sold: the number of eGift cards sold.
• Revenue: the total value sold.
• Remaining Balance: the unredeemed value still on cards.

Its list shows each card’s Date, Amount, and Balance for the selected year. Cards that still hold a balance are highlighted green. Click a row to open the card.

The Store Gift Card card covers gift cards and certificates sold on Selflane POS. It shows Sold and Revenue for active cards. Its list shows Date, Type, Amount, Last 4, and Status. Click a row to open the order that sold the card.

• Type shows how the card was sold:
  • card: a ValuTec card activated or reloaded through the PAX terminal.
  • selflane: a Selflane printed card sold on Selflane POS.
  • paper: other in-store sales, such as gift certificates.
• Last 4 is the card number’s last 4 digits, blank for paper. For a ValuTec card, the PAX terminal reads it.
• Status changes to cancelled when the order that sold the card is cancelled.

Card detail

Opening a card from Check Balance or the eGift Cards list shows:

• the card with its current Balance and a QR code customers can scan at checkout
• the date the card was created
• Card number, or Assign number when an older card has no number yet. Assigning a number lets you look the card up by number later.
• PDF: download a printable copy of the card
• a link icon that opens the card’s public page

When the information is available, the detail also shows who bought and received the card:

• Original owner: the email of the buyer
• Recipient: the email the card was sent to
• Fix email: correct the recipient’s address. Available only until the recipient claims the card.
• Resend email: send the card notification to the recipient again
• View original order: open the order that bought the card

Below that, a history table lists each Credit and Debit on the card with its date and amount. Voided entries show Voided in the Status column. Click a row to open its order.

Related links

• Redeem gift cards on Selflane POS
• Manage Plan