Gift Vouchers & Discount Coupons
Version 3.1 and up comes with the Gift Voucher System installed. To use gift vouchers/certificates and the coupon system, please read the following instructions.
Creating a Gift Voucher
Creating a gift voucher for a customer to buy is the same as creating a new product with the exception that the gift vouchers model number must start with the word GIFT in upper case. It can be GIFT_25 or GIFT25 or whatever you would like to use. as the suffix to the word. But MUST START with the word GIFT You can create gift vouchers in any denomination.
You can also create gift vouchers by sending them to your customers via the admin->Vouchers/Coupons->Mail Gift Voucher selection within the admin. To use this to send a voucher to a customer use the drop down customer list. To send to a single customer or future customer you can put their email in the Email To: text box. Do not use both the customer dropdown list and the Email To: text box or the customer will get 2 gift vouchers. To determine what values the gift voucher is used on please see the doc on modules->order total->gift vouchers.
Gift vouchers are a virtual product. In this regard, in many shops, they do not require shipping charges to be added to them. To avert the shipping charge on gift vouchers set the weight of the gift voucher to 0 when creating the product and enable downloads by setting true the value admin->configuration->downloads->enable download .
Creating Discount Coupons
Creating a discount coupon is done through the admin->Vouchers/Coupons->Coupon Admin This selection allows you to create/insert, edit, email and delete a coupon. Coupons can be created in fixed or percentage amounts, for a single product, multiple products, a single category, multiple categories or the complete inventory. A note on product discounts: product discounts (which includes categories) are just that product discounts. Though you can set the modules->order total -> discount coupon to do shipping, tax, etc... this type of coupon will not figure the percentages of shipping tax. Though it will discount shipping it isn't a true discount in that it doesn't try to determine the products value in shipping etc.
Enabling Gift Vouchers and Discount Coupons
To enable the Gift Voucher, go to your admin->modules->order_total->Gift Vouchers and choose to install it. On a default system there should be a button with a green cross and the words install. Click that.
To enable the Discount Coupon, go to your admin->modules->order_total->Discount Coupons and choose to install it. On a default system there should be a button with a green cross and the words install. Click that.
The default settings for the Discount Coupons are as follows:
[ul]Discount Coupon
Display Total: true
Sort Order: 9
Include Shipping: true
Include Tax: true
Re-calculate Tax: none
Tax Class: none[/ul]
The default settings for the Gift Voucher is as follows:
[ul]Gift Vouchers
Display Total: true
Sort Order: 740
Queue Purchases: true
Include Shipping: true
Include Tax: true
Re-calculate Tax: none
Tax Class: none
Credit including Tax: false[/ul]
Before we start playing around with all the sort orders and other settings let's just get it running now.
Welcome Message Gift Voucher and Discount Coupon
There has been some changes in the way you instantiate the welcome message gift voucher and discount coupon. The default value of the new customer gift voucher and discount coupon are set so that no value or notification is sent in the welcome email.
The value in the admin->configuration->Welcome Gift Voucher Amount
tells the system how much of a gift voucher you would like to send your customer that has just created an account. If you do not want to use this option set the text box to 0. Do not leave blank.
To change the discount coupon that you send to your customer when creating a new account edit the
admin->configuration->Welcome Discount Coupon Code:
and place the coupon code that you would like to use in this textbox. Note: Previous versions of the Discount Coupon used the coupon_id value from the database. This version uses the coupon code that is made when you create the Discount Coupon.
Explanations of Gift Voucher Configuration Parameters.
To edit configuration parameters click on the edit button in the right hand box of admin->modules->order total->gift voucher
[ul]Display Total: true
Sort Order: 9
Queue Purchases: true
Include Shipping: true
Include Tax: true
Re-calculate Tax: none
Tax Class: none
Credit including Tax: Always leave set to true[/ul]
The parameters are set as follows:
[ul][li]Display Total: Always leave set to true.[/li]
[li]Sort Order: This needs to be set according to how you want tax to be calculated. You will also need to change the sort order of the other order total modules.
I would set the sort order of the order total modules as follows.
No tax recalculation required: [ul]Sub-total - Sort order = 1
Shipping - Sort order = 2
Tax - Sort order = 3
Gift Voucher - Sort order = 9
Discount Coupons - Sort Order =740
Total - Sort Order = 900[/ul]
Tax recalculation required: [ul]Sub-total - Sort order = 1
Shipping - Sort order = 2
Gift Voucher - Sort order = 740
Discount Coupons - Sort Order =760
Tax - Sort order = 800
Total - Sort Order = 900[/ul][/li]
[li]Queue Purchases
When a Gift Voucher is purchased there exists a possibility for fraud. Depending on the payment method, the customer may purchase a Gift Voucher, then by whatever means, cancel their payment. They can then use the Gift Voucher to spend on your store without having paid for it. If you have some payment methods that might make this possible then you should set this option to true.
Now when the customer purchases a Gift Voucher it will be logged in a queue. The customer will not be able to use the Gift Voucher until you use the admin option to release it from the queue.
If set to false the Gift Voucher will be immediately available to the customer.[/li]
[li]Include Shipping: Set to true to include shipping in the amount that the Gift Voucher is used to pay for during checkout.[/li]
[li]Include Tax: Set to true to include tax in the amount that the Gift Voucher is used to pay for during checkout.[/li]
[li]Recalculate Tax: The decision as to whether to recalculate tax depends on the Tax laws in the shop owners country. In most cases this should be left set at none. If you do need to re-calculate the tax element after deduction of the Gift Voucher amount, there are two strategies available.
Standard - This simply recalculates the tax on any taxable elements after deduction of the Gift Voucher amount. [ul]For example: If the cart contains $100 of goods which are liable to tax at 10% then before the Gift Voucher is applied then the checkout values will look like this.
sub-total = 100.00
tax = 10.00
total = 110.00[/ul] [ul]If the Gift Voucher is worth $10 then with standard tax recalculation the checkout values will look like this.
sub-total = 100.00
Gift Voucher = 10.00
tax = 9.00
total = 99.00[/ul]
Credit Note - This recalculates the tax by considering the Gift Voucher amount as a Credit Note. If the Gift Voucher is worth $10 and the Tax Class (see below) assigned to the Gift Voucher gives a tax rate of 10% then the Gift Voucher is assumed to contain a tax element of $0.91 (10/110*10)
This would give checkout values as follows
sub-total = 100.00
Gift Voucher = 10.00
tax = 9.09 (10-0.91)
total = 99.09[/li]
[li]Tax Class:
This is used to assign a tax class that is used when using the Credit Note tax recalculation method.[/li]
[li]Credit including Tax:
The Gift Voucher is created just like any other product in the store. Like any other product it can have a tax class assigned to it. Consider this situation.
In your country you must apply tax to Gift Voucher purchases at a rate of 10%. When you created the Gift Voucher product you assigned a tax class to accomplish this. The Gift Voucher price was set at $10.00 so at checkout the customer will be charged $11.00.
Now how much should go into the customers Gift Voucher account. if this option is set to true then they will get $11.00 in their GV account. If set to false they will get $10.00 in their Gift Voucher account.[/li][/ul]
Explanations of Discount Coupon Configuration Parameters
To edit configuration parameters click on the edit button in the right hand box of admin->modules->order total->discount coupon
Note: enabling and configuration values are similar to Gift Vouchers.
[ul]Display Total: true
Sort Order: 9
Include Shipping: true
Include Tax: true
Re-calculate Tax: none
Tax Class: none
Display Total: Always leave set to true.[/ul]
Sort Order
[ul]This needs to be set according to how you want tax and your discount to be calculated. You will also need to change the sort order of the other order total modules.
I would set the sort order of the order total modules as follows.
[ul]Sub-total - Sort order = 1
Shipping - Sort order = 2
Tax - Sort order = 3
Gift Voucher - Sort order = 9
Discount Coupons - Sort Order =740
Total - Sort Order = 900[/ul]
This allows the gift voucher to assume a greater amount of the total cost while applying the discount to the total after the gift voucher has been applied. If you have recalculate tax set to true then you should place the sort order as the following
[ul]Sub-total - Sort order = 1
Shipping - Sort order = 2
Gift Voucher - Sort order = 9
Discount Coupons - Sort Order =740
Tax - Sort order = 800
Total - Sort Order = 900[/ul]
Note: your discount coupon has many choices for per product/category items tax is only calculated on the item not on the total tax, so if you have tax on shipping it will not be recalculated though shipping would be if shipping is set to true.[/ul]
Include Shipping: true
[ul]Include shipping allows the discount coupon to be used against shipping also. If the discount coupon is used on a site wide basis the shipping tax is included in the discount if you have tax set to true else it only applies to the shipping. [/ul]
Include Tax: true
[ul]Include tax allows the tax of the item to be discounted as well as the item. [/ul]
Re-calculate Tax: None
[ul]Recalculating tax allows the tax to be shown either with the new tax or not. note: this item needs to be in conjunction with the sort order of how you would like it to be shown and include tax. [/ul]
Tax Class --none--
[ul]Determines on which tax class you would like the discount coupon to be used against. [/ul]