Sell now, serve later.

Selling and Redeeming in One Place

Gift card software needs to work at the till exactly as it does online, so a card bought as an online gift and redeemed in-store just works, without special handling. Kayana processes both through the same EPOS till, with balances checked and updated automatically at the point of sale.

A Gift Card Solution That Fits Existing Systems

Adding a gift card solution shouldn't mean bolting on a separate app or a second login for staff to learn. Kayana builds gift cards into the same system already used for sales and stock, so training time is minimal and reporting sits alongside every other sales figure.

Managing Balances, Expiry and Reporting

Gift card management software needs to answer basic questions quickly: how many cards are outstanding, what's the total unredeemed balance, and which cards are nearing expiry. Kayana surfaces all of this in one report, rather than leaving finance teams to reconcile figures by hand.

Built for Multi-Site and Online Sales

Gift card software that only works at one till or one website isn't much use to a business trading across several branches and online. Kayana keeps balances consistent everywhere a card can be bought or spent, so a card sold in one shop redeems correctly in another or online.

Selling gift cards online: driving revenue between visits

Selling restaurant gift cards online turns a business's branded website into a revenue channel that runs between services, not just during them. A customer browsing on a Wednesday evening can buy a gift card for a friend's birthday without either of them needing to visit the venue first. That sale happens at full margin, requires no kitchen time and no staff — and brings a new or returning customer through the door when the card is eventually redeemed.

Digital gift vouchers in hospitality also perform well around seasonal events — Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day — when customers are actively looking for a present that doesn't require delivery. A clear purchase flow on the website, connected to the same payment processing already handling online orders, is all that's needed to capture that demand.

Digital gift cards versus physical gift cards

Physical gift cards require printing, postage and stock management. A card ordered online for delivery takes days to arrive, which rules them out for last-minute gifts, and a card posted to the wrong address or lost in transit creates a customer service problem. Digital gift vouchers in hospitality solve each of those issues: purchase online, receive instantly by email, redeem at the till by showing the code on a phone.

Kayana supports both formats, but most hospitality operators find that digital-first works for the majority of gift card sales. Physical cards remain useful for point-of-sale impulse purchases — a card displayed at the counter that a customer buys while paying for lunch — which Kayana handles through the same EPOS system as any other transaction.

Gift cards and loyalty working together

A gift card is often a new customer's first interaction with a business. The moment they redeem it is an opportunity to enrol them in a loyalty rewards programme, turning a one-off visit into a repeat relationship. When both systems sit within the same platform, the enrolment happens at checkout without a separate step — the cashier offers points registration as part of the normal payment flow, and the customer leaves with both a zero balance on their gift card and a loyalty account already started.

For the business, this combination — gift cards bringing customers in, loyalty keeping them returning — is more effective than either programme in isolation. Kayana's reporting tracks both together, so the contribution of gift card redemptions to repeat visit rates is visible rather than buried in separate reports.

Payment processing and reconciliation for gift card sales

Gift card sales create a liability on the balance sheet — money received now for a service not yet delivered — and reconciling outstanding balances against actual redemptions is an accounting task that a well-built gift card system handles automatically. Kayana's reporting shows total cards issued, total value outstanding and total value redeemed in a given period, which is the data an accountant needs to account for gift card liability correctly.

All gift card transactions route through the same payment processing as every other sale, so they appear in the standard settlement reports alongside card and cash. There is no separate processor to reconcile and no manual export required to get gift card figures into the business's accounting software.