This guide is for course providers who want to issue, sell and manage gift cards. A Gift Card holds a reusable monetary balance. A Discount reduces a booking price and does not hold credit; for promo codes, see Create and Apply Discounts.
Customers redeem gift cards during a new public course checkout. The code field is not available when paying an existing invoice or payment link. If an order already exists, do not ask the customer to create another booking; contact Cademy Support about the existing order.
Install Cademy Gift Cards
Use a System Admin account to install and manage Gift Cards. To sell gift cards online, connect Stripe using the Stripe guide. This purchase journey uses Stripe, not PayPal.
Open Apps in the Admin dashboard.
Select Cademy Gift Cards, then Install.
Open Gift Cards from the left menu. If the app is already installed, go straight to Gift Cards.
Check the charges for your account before selling gift cards. See Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees and ask Support to confirm any account-specific fees. Creating or changing a gift card balance does not itself collect payment.
Create a Gift Card manually
Gift cards are issued in your account currency. There is no currency selector in the gift-card form. Confirm the currency before entering the amount.
Open Gift Cards. Select Create Gift Card if the list is empty, or New Gift Card if it already contains cards.
In Create voucher, enter the Amount.
Enter a Redeem Code (optional), or leave it blank to generate a code.
Choose Expires on, or leave it blank to use the default of one year from creation.
Optionally enter the Recipient details. Entering an email address here does not send the gift card.
Select Create voucher. Open the resulting card from Gift Cards and check its code, currency, Initial amount, Current amount and expiry.
Copy the code using the copy button and send it to the intended recipient yourself. Explain where it can be used and when it expires.
Do not rely on Allowed Courses to restrict gift-card use. The field is shown in the form, but does not reliably limit gift cards to the selected courses. Contact Support if you need a restricted offer.
Use Gift Cards for credit from another system
For credit you have agreed to honour on future public course bookings, you can manually issue a gift card for the customer’s remaining balance. Confirm the amount, currency and expiry against your existing records first, then follow the creation steps above and send the code yourself. A Discount does not track a reusable remaining balance. If the credit needs to settle an existing order or invoice, ask Support about that order instead.
Sell Gift Cards online
Customers start from the Vouchers tab on your Cademy website, the site where your courses are listed. If you want to offer gift-card purchases through your own website’s embedded booking system, ask Support to confirm the setup for that website.
The customer chooses one of the preset amounts, for example £25, £50 or £100, or enters another amount. The amounts use your account currency and show its symbol.
They enter the required Recipient Name and an optional Message.
They choose Email or PDF. Email requires a Recipient Email; PDF is for the buyer to print and share.
They select Continue, enter their buyer details and continue to payment.
They complete the Stripe payment and reach Voucher Purchased. For a printable voucher, they select Print Voucher.
After successful payment, Cademy sends the buyer a receipt and, when Email was selected, sends the gift card to the recipient address. A purchase notification goes to your account’s configured notification recipients, with System Admin recipients used when none are configured. PDF does not email the recipient; the buyer shares the printout. The buyer receipt also includes a printout link.
The purchased card appears under Gift Cards. Open it to check the recorded payment status, balance and expiry. Online cards receive a one-year expiry when the card record is created during checkout. Unpaid purchases are not shown in the normal Gift Cards list. If a purchased card is missing or payment or delivery is unclear, contact Support with the buyer’s details and purchase reference before asking the customer to buy again.
Manage a Gift Card
Open Gift Cards and select the card.
In Voucher details, check Initial amount, Current amount and Expires on. The code is labelled Promo Code on this screen, even for a gift card.
If an agreed correction is needed, select Edit voucher. You can change the code, expiry and Current amount. Check the intended balance before changing it; editing this number does not collect or refund money.
Select Save, then reopen the card and verify the saved values. To leave without saving, select Cancel.
An expired card can still appear in the list with a positive balance. Check the expiry as well as the amount before telling a customer it is ready to use.
To remove an eligible manually created card, open its details, select the bin icon and confirm Confirm Delete. Purchased gift cards cannot be deleted through this action. For a manual card, the current balance must equal its initial amount. That check does not prove the card has never been used: a refund or manual adjustment can restore its balance. Check the relevant orders under Orders and your own credit records before deleting. The gift-card details screen does not provide a complete usage history.
Redeem a Gift Card at checkout
The customer needs the code for the provider they are booking with. The card must be activated, unexpired and have a positive balance. Its currency must match the course’s currency. For a page to send to a customer, see Book a Course for Yourself or Other People.
If a course date uses a different currency from the course, the gift-card check still uses the course currency. Matching the card to the date alone does not make it eligible. A code can pass this check even though the selected date uses another currency. Gift-card balances are not converted. Ask Cademy Support to check the intended booking before asking the customer to apply the card or pay. For the course and date settings, see Choose Currencies for Courses, Memberships and Gift Cards.
Start a new booking from the provider’s public course page and choose the course and price option. Select a date when the course requires one.
Continue to Payment. The step number can vary.
Open Apply promo code or gift card. Enter the code in Enter code... and select Apply.
Check for Voucher applied successfully! and review the updated total.
Complete the booking, paying any remaining amount using an available payment method. If nothing remains to pay, select Continue to finish. Check the booking confirmation.
With no additional customer-paid fees, an £80 order using a £50 gift card leaves £30 to pay. A £50 order using an £80 card leaves £30 on the card for another eligible booking. Check the final displayed amount, including any fees, before payment. Applying a code is not the same as completing the booking.
The checkout accepts one manually entered gift card or promo code at a time. Eligible automatic discounts may also apply. The code field can be hidden when there is no amount to pay.
If you offer deposits or monthly instalments, both are worked out on the amount left to pay after the gift card. When nothing is left to pay, or the amounts would fall below the minimum for the currency, those options are not offered. See Offer and Manage Deposits and Offer and Manage Monthly Instalments.
Gift Cards and manually created orders
Add Discount selects a saved Discount; it does not redeem a gift card. Reducing a course’s price and separately reducing Current amount is not equivalent to recording a gift-card payment: it changes the sale price and can change the calculated tax and discounts. Contact Support before using gift-card credit for a manually created order or an existing invoice.
Do not create a duplicate booking to work around a missing code field. Give Support the existing order or invoice reference and the gift-card details. If you previously adjusted an order and card separately, explain that before cancelling or refunding; Cademy has no automatic link between those separate changes.
Check where a Gift Card was used
Open Orders and select the relevant order. An order created through gift-card checkout shows a Gift card row with the code and amount in its totals. Compare this with the card’s Current amount. A manually reduced course price or an order note does not create that gift-card payment record.
When a new order from the public checkout has one invoice, Cademy also records the redeemed gift card as a payment against that invoice, as long as the invoice still has at least the gift card amount due. The payment lowers the amount due on the invoice. To check it, open Orders, select the order and find Invoices & Payments. The same payment is listed when you open Orders and select the Payments tab, with Gift Card as its Provider, and an export from that tab includes it.
If the order has more than one invoice, for example separate invoices for different courses, or an older invoice still shows the redeemed amount as due, check the invoice before asking for another payment. Contact Cademy Support with the order and invoice numbers if the amount due does not reflect the gift card.
Restore Gift Card credit when cancelling an order
This concerns cancelling a course order paid with a gift card. It does not refund the customer’s original purchase of the gift card. Contact Support for that separate request. For the cancellation and refund steps in full, see Cancel an Order or Refund a Payment.
Open Orders, select the order and review its payments. Choose Manage Order → Cancel Order when cancellation is the intended outcome.
Under What happens to each invoice, inspect the refund choice. For a gift-card-only payment, the label includes the amount and to gift card, for example Refund £80 to gift card.
For an invoice paid through more than one method, choose the refund option and review the separate allocation rows. Check the amount allocated to Gift card and each other payment method; do not assume the whole refund returns to the card.
Review the cancellation and refund summary. Confirm using the button labelled with the refund total, for example Cancel Order & Refund £80. If the gift-card destination is missing or the amounts are unclear, stop and contact Support before confirming.
After confirmation, reopen the order and the original Gift Card. Verify the recorded refund and the restored Current amount before telling the customer it is available.
Restoring a balance does not extend Expires on. Check the expiry separately, especially for an older card. If a refund fails or the displayed balances disagree, contact Support before retrying or manually increasing the balance.
Frequently asked questions
Does manual creation email the recipient?
No. Copy the code and send it yourself. Adding recipient details does not send a purchase email.
What happens with Email delivery?
After successful payment, Cademy sends the gift card to the Recipient Email entered by the buyer. If it does not arrive, check the address and payment status before contacting Support.
What happens with PDF delivery?
The buyer selects Print Voucher after purchase, then prints or shares it. The buyer receipt also includes a printout link. PDF does not email the recipient.
What if the gift card does not cover the order?
The customer pays the remaining amount using another available payment method.
What if the gift card is worth more than the order?
Only the amount used by the completed booking is deducted. The remaining balance stays on the card.
Why is a code not accepted?
Check the issuing provider, course currency, activation, expiry and remaining balance. If the selected date uses another currency, follow the currency warning under Redeem a Gift Card at checkout. Copy the code carefully. If it still fails, contact Support before changing balances or creating another booking.
Why is the code field missing?
Check that this is a new public course checkout with an amount to pay. For an existing invoice or payment link, see the start of this guide.
Can Add Discount apply a Gift Card?
No. It selects saved Discounts. It does not record gift-card payment.
Can I apply a Gift Card to an existing invoice or a manually created order?
Not by entering a code. Contact Support about the existing record or intended order. Do not substitute a price reduction or ask the customer to book again.
Does cancelling an order restore gift-card credit?
Only the amount allocated to the gift-card refund is restored through that refund action. Check the outcome and expiry. Separate manual price and balance changes are not automatically linked or reversed.
Should I use a gift card for credit carried over from another system?
For agreed credit towards future public course bookings, a gift card tracks a reusable balance. Confirm the amount, account currency and expiry first. Use Support for credit against existing orders or invoices.
Can a gift card pay for a course in another currency?
The code check refuses a gift card whose currency differs from the course’s currency. It does not switch to checking a date’s separate currency, and the balance is not converted. If the selected date uses a different currency from the course, ask Support to check before redemption.
Can a gift card and promo code be entered together?
No. One manually entered code is accepted at a time. Eligible automatic discounts may still apply.
Can I restrict a gift card to selected courses?
Do not rely on Allowed Courses to enforce this for gift cards. Ask Support to confirm a suitable restricted offer.
How long is a gift card valid?
The default expiry is one year from creation. A System Admin can choose another expiry when issuing a manual card or edit an existing card’s expiry. A refund does not extend it.
Where do I create a promo code?
Use Create and Apply Discounts. Promo codes reduce prices; they do not hold reusable gift-card credit.