Liabilities and Redemptions

Liabilities give you a way to sell store credit to customers that they can come back and redeem later. Learn how to set up liabilities in BackOffice, issue and redeem them at the register, and view reports on their usage.

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Table of Contents

What is a Liability?

  • Liabilities are redeemable inventory items, like gift cards or gift certificates.
  • When you sell a liability, its revenue is kept separate from the rest of your sales.
  • The business is “on the hook for” liabilities until customers redeem them.
  • When a liability is redeemed, the sale amount is then counted as sales revenue.

    • Set Up a Liability Item

    Enable a liability tender and create an inventory item so you can start issuing liabilities at the register.

    1. In BackOffice, click 'Settings' and select 'Tenders'.
    2. Under 'Redeemable', check a box to enable one of the liability tenders.

      Visit our Tender Settings article to learn about the other tenders listed here.

    3. Click 'Items' and select 'Items List'.
    4. Click 'Add New'.
    5. Select 'Create' under 'Basic Item'.

      Items with variants cannot be liabilities.

    6. Fill in the item's details.

      Visit the complete Adding Items article to learn more about each field.

      Click to Enlarge
    7. Check the 'Liability' box and select a tender.
      Click to Enlarge
    8. Click 'Save' to save the item.
    9. (optional) Add the item to the button layout.

    Issue a Liability

    Issuing a liability gives a customer credit which they can redeem in-store at a later point. Sell a liability item at the register to issue a liability to a customer.

    1. Add the liability item to a sale.
    2. If the liability is priced in store, enter its sales price and tap 'Done'.
    3. To complete the sale, select how the customer is paying.
    4. If using ShopKeep Gift Cards, swipe a card to load the balance.
    5. Finish the sale like normal.

    Redeem a Liability

    Liability redemptions work like any other payment tender for sales at the register.

    1. Ring up a sale like usual.
    2. To complete the sale, tap 'More...' and select a liability tender.

      If processing a gift card/certificate for less than the sale total, perform a split tender transaction.

    3. If using ShopKeep Gift Cards, swipe the gift card to redeem its balance.
    4. Finish the sale like normal.

    Liability Reporting

    Keep track of issued, redeemed, and still outstanding liabilities with the Gift Card Liabilities Report.

    If you are using ShopKeep Gift Cards, visit the ShopKeep Integrated Gift Cards article to learn about additional reports available through the gift card reporting portal.

    Run the Report

    From BackOffice, run the Gift Card Liabilities report for an overview of liabilities issued and redeemed during a specific time period.

    1. Click 'Analytics' and select 'Gift Card Liabilities'.
    2. To change the default view, click the Date icon and choose a preset or custom range, then press 'Retrieve'.
    3. Toggle between 'Redeemed' and 'Issued' to view liabilities redeemed or issued.
    4. Click the 'Show Tender(s)' dropdown to view gift certificates, gift cards, or both.
    5. (optional) Click 'Export' to download a copy of the report.

    Read the Report

    Learn to read the Gift Card Liabilities report to see how popular liabilities are at your business.

    Dashboard Tiles

    The tiles at the top give a broad overview of liability activity.

    Click to Enlarge
    New Liabilities | Total amount of liabilities sold over the selected date range.
    Redeemed Liabilities | Total amount of liabilities redeemed over the selected date range.
    Net Liabilities | The amount of outstanding liabilities the business still owes to customers.
    Redeemed View

    The default reporting view shows details on redeemed liabilities.

    Click to Enlarge
    Date | Date and time a liability was redeemed.
    Tender | Type of liability that was redeemed (gift card or gift certificate).
    Total Amount | Amount of the liability that was redeemed.
    Issued View

    Switching to Issued highlights how customers are purchasing liabilities.

    Click to Enlarge
    Date | Date and time a liability was issued.
    Item | Name of the item that was sold to issue the liability.
    Quantity | How many of the liability item was sold.
    Linked Tender | Type of liability that was issued (gift card or gift certificate).
    Total Amount | Amount of the liability that was issued.
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