Overview

In its simplest form a voucher is a token or printed card which can be used as cash or credit against a future purchase .  Vouchers can be bought by customers and redeemed for goods and services across CRM.COM modules.  The products on which the vouchers can be redeemed can be subject to restrictions. There are 3 different types of vouchers which can be used according to your line of business and business requirements.

• Printed Payment Vouchers: Vouchers printed in advance by the company and they can be bought by customers either from the company or from a retailer. Using printed vouchers is an alternative method of payment. Printed vouchers might be bound to specific products, have a specific price and duration. 
• Electronic Payment Vouchers: Vouchers issued only upon customer demand either for his/her own use or to give it as a gift. An Electronic Voucher's value might vary depending on its supported products and the period for which the customer wants to buy the voucher for. electronic Vouchers can also be used as an alternative method of payment.
• Refund Vouchers: Refund Vouchers are issued for specific customers as a refund method, i.e. they are issued so to to return back money by the company to the customer. 

Setting Up Vouchers and Core Processes

Before you start using Vouchers set up the system to reflect your own business needs.

Voucher Rules

Voucher rules are associated to printed and electronic payment vouchers. Through the rules screen you can set up the Financial Transaction types which will be issued by the system according to an event taking place with a voucher. For example, you can set what type of financial transaction generated when printed vouchers which were sold to partners are returned, or what kind of financial transaction is generated when purchasing an electronic voucher.

Voucher Restricted States

By default, each voucher process(see below) can address vouchers in a specific life cycle state.  For example, the modification process can address vouchers in a 'Draft', 'Accepted for Activation' or 'Activated' life cycle state, by default. 
You can limit the allowed voucher life cycle states through this process by defining that vouchers in an 'Activated' life cycle state cannot be modified.

Used to set additional restrictions on the following voucher processes:

• Modification
• Purging
• Cancellation
• Export

Voucher Types

Voucher types are used to define parameters for generating vouchers. When creating a voucher type, first select a classification between printed, electronic and refund, to view the information required per classification. Common to all classifications is the Secret Number Length of the secret number of the voucher which will be used upon redemption of the voucher as well as the Supported products which includes the products the voucher can be redeemed with.

Printed Voucher

Provide the product which will be used on the invoice when purchasing voucher products, voucher value settings to define whether the amount redeemed by the voucher will be fixed for all vouchers of the type in which case you must provide a value or variable where the value will be defined on generating vouchers of the type. You can provide additional Extra Added Value is the additional free value offered by vouchers of that type (if the value option is set to 'Fixed').

Electronic Voucher

If you are creating a type for electronic vouchers you must provide a validity duration as well as whether they will be used for personal use or as a present ('shareable') As in printed vouchers you can either provide a fixed value or define the value at the voucher level.

Refund Voucher

If you are creating a type for refund vouchers then you must provide a validity duration as well as the refund method which will be used when refund vouchers are used.

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Using Vouchers

Each voucher depending on its classification provides information associated to its validity, a monetary value as well as the products it can be redeemed for. Through the Voucher page you can find the Voucher Secret Number through Actions > View Secret Number.

Depending on the classification of the voucher, vouchers go through a number of stages, each identified through its life cycle state before they can be used.  Various processes progress vouchers through their life cycle. Through Actions > History action you can view information on all of the stages the voucher went through.

Printed Payment Vouchers 

Printed Vouchers are created in lots from which they inherit their type, value and validity dates (required information).  Once the lot details are defined, the vouchers can be generated.

Generating Printed Payment Vouchers

Multiple vouchers are created in a single flow through lots. Printed Payment Vouchers are created based on a voucher type which defines their basic characteristics, i.e. characteristics that will be common across all vouchers within the Lot. Each Voucher will be assigned a unique serial number and secret number. The secret number will be kept in CRM.COM in encrypted form at all times. All Vouchers are generated in Draft life cycle state and also related to the company's Internal System accounts receivable to indicate that they belong to the company.

Navigate to lots page and create a new lot by specifying the voucher type, the number of vouchers to be generated and the validity dares. Click on Actions > Generate to generate the vouchers.

Accepting Printed Payment Vouchers

Right after the vouchers are generated you can accept the vouchers to verify whether the Lot was generated as expected. Vouchers can be accepted as long as they are in "Draft" life cycle state. The process can either be performed on a Lot or for specific Vouchers. In both cases, the selected Vouchers will be updated into the "Accepted for Activation" state which indicates that the Vouchers are eligible to be moved to the next life cycle state.

Navigate to either the lot page (to accept all vouchers of the lot) or the voucher page (to accept single voucher) and select Action > Accept

Rejecting Printed Payment Vouchers

Vouchers created with errors can be rejected and not activated right after they are generated  Whereas the voucher type and validity dates can be modified, the value of a voucher cannot, so rejecting a voucher is the only course of action if the value is wrong.  It is possible to simultaneously reject all vouchers included in a lot or reject individual vouchers. Vouchers will be updated into the "Not Accepted for Activation" state which indicates that these vouchers cannot proceed in term of life cycle state, i.e. they should never be sold to customers.

Navigate to either the lot page (to accept all vouchers of the lot) or the voucher page (to accept single voucher) and select Action > Reject

Activating Printed Payment Vouchers

Once accepted vouchers are verified, they must be activated and therefore can be sold to either customers or partners once printed. It is possible to simultaneously activate all vouchers included in a lot, or a number of vouchers within a specific range, or vouchers of a specific type given that they have an “Accepted for activation” state. Activation can either be applied in all of the vouchers within a Lot, all of the voucher of a specific voucher type or to a specific set of vouchers (defined by a vouchers serial number range). 

Navigate to Vouchers and select Actions > Vouchers Maintenance Utility from the summary page. Select New > Voucher Activation and in the Conditions provide the lot, voucher type or voucher range of vouchers you wish to activate.

Cancelling Printed Payment Vouchers

Vouchers in a 'Draft', 'Accepted for Activation', 'Not Accepted for Activation' or 'Activated' state are disabled by being 'Cancelled'.  Possible reasons for canceling vouchers include their loss or theft or a decision by the business not to distribute the specific voucher type to customers.

Once the process is completed successfully, the voucher's life cycle state is updated to 'Cancelled'. Cancellation can also be applied after selling vouchers to partners and upon request from a Partner either based on the Invoice which was issued when the vouchers were sold to the Partner or by defining the Partner.

Navigate to Vouchers and select Actions > Vouchers Maintenance Utility from the summary page. Select New > Voucher Cancellation and in the Conditions provide the lot, voucher type, voucher range, partner account or invoice number of the vouchers you wish to cancel.

Purging Printed Payment Vouchers

Purging permanently deletes 'Expired', 'Cancelled' or 'Not Accepted' vouchers and sets their life cycle state to 'Purged'.  Purged vouchers cannot be used in any action or report. This process can be applied on multiple vouchers by specifying either a voucher type or a lot. It is possible to select vouchers of a specific state to purge or vouchers who have already expired.

Navigate to Vouchers and select Actions > Vouchers Maintenance Utility from the summary page. Select New > Voucher Purging and in the Conditions provide the lot, voucher type of the vouchers you wish to purge.

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Modifying Printed Payment Vouchers

Vouchers can be modified and their values corrected (e.g., voucher type and validity dates) instead of being canceled or rejected.   The process modifies the voucher value, extra added value, validity, products and allowed organisational units, in order to correct the values that were set by an erroneously configured Voucher Type. This can be applied on multiple vouchers, in life cycle state “Draft”, "Accepted for Activation" and "Activated".

Exporting Printed Payment Vouchers

Activated vouchers are ready for printing and distribution to customers and can be exported in a CSV, XML, or Excel file format. A unique number is generated for each run, providing in that way a clear view of the vouchers that were encrypted and the user who performed this action. 

To export vouchers navigate to Foundation > Utilities > Export Data > Export Vouchers and create a new export by providing the lot you wish to export.

Importing Printed Payment Vouchers

‘Printed’ vouchers which were generated in 3rd party systems can be imported in CRM.COM through an excel or csv file instead of being generated as described above. Vouchers are created in either "Activated" or "Accepted for Activation" states.

Selling Printed Payment Vouchers to customers

Printed Payment Vouchers can also be bought by customers directly from the company. Customers buy Printed Payment Vouchers from the company in retail price, i.e. the value defined on the voucher. On selling such a voucher to a customer, an Invoice is posted against the customer's accounts receivable. In order to sell a voucher to a customer navigate to Financial Transactions  and click on Actions > Voucher Sales. Provide the account of the partner and select the vouchers you would like to sell to them

Paying with a printed payment voucher

Printed Payment Vouchers are bought by customers in order to use them as a way of payment. Only non-expired vouchers in "Activated" state can be used for payments and only as long as they have never been used for another payment before. Using a voucher results in creating a posted Payment against the accounts receivable of the customer. The payment has the same amount as the voucher's value (not the extra added value). The voucher is updated into "Used" life cycle state so as to prevent from using it again and it is also related to the Accounts Receivable of the customer who used it. On using printed payment vouchers, the customer must define the voucher's secret number (decrypted).

Voucher payments can be effected from the voucher's Data Entry page or from the Communication Center page through the Use Voucher action.

Electronic Payment Vouchers

Electronic vouchers main difference to printed vouchers is that they do not need to go through the process described above till they are available to be sold to customers. Electronic vouchers can be sold to customers either through your company or partners directly to customers. Additionally, you have the option to sell electronic vouchers to customers which will be given as gifts to others.

Selling electronic payment vouchers from the company

Electronic Payment Vouchers are readily available to be sold from the company to its customers and upon customer's request.

On selling an Electronic Payment Voucher, a single voucher is automatically generated based on the customer's preferences such as the voucher type and the required value. The Electronic Payment Voucher is created in Activated state (ready to be used) and it also holds information on the customer who bought it. The customer buys the Electronic payment either for personal use or to give it to another customer. In both cases, the customer who makes the purchase will be invoiced for this sale (is retail price) and the process will issue a Payment with the same amount.

You can purchase an e-voucher through Financial Transactions > Purchase e-voucher action.

Selling electronic payment vouchers from a partner

Customer also have the option to buy electronic payment vouchers from your partners upon request.

A partner is allowed to sell a company's Electronic Payment Vouchers as long as his Credit Limit is not exceeded. On selling an Electronic Payment Voucher from a partner, a single voucher is generated based on the customer's preferences such as the voucher type and the required value. The Electronic Payment Voucher is created in Activated state (ready to be used) and it also keeps information of the retailer who sold the voucher to the customer and the customer who bought it as well.

When selling Electronic Payment Vouchers to customers at a partner, the partner is invoiced for this sale in wholesale price. No financial transactions are generated against the customer's account.

You can purchase an e-voucher from a partner through Financial Transactions > Purchase e-voucher from retailer action.

Cancelling electronic payment vouchers

Electronic Payment Vouchers can be performed because of a fraud, loss or when the customer just wants to return back the voucher. E-vouchers can be cancelled through Actions > Cancel available through the e-voucher page as long as the voucher has not expired and it's still Activated. A cancellation reason must also be specified to justify the cancellation. On cancelling because of a return, financial transactions generated through the voucher's sale are cancelled.

Using electronic payment vouchers

Electronic Vouchers are used by customers as an alternative method of payment.

As long as their voucher has not yet expired and is activated,the voucher can be used as any other type of payment. The account owner who uses the voucher should either be the customer who actually bought it if the voucher is a Personal one, or the account owner who was given the voucher by the customer who bought it if the voucher is shareable.

On using the voucher, a payment financial transaction is created against the accounts receivable that will actually use the voucher. The electronic voucher is set to Used state so as to prevent from using it again.

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Refund Vouchers

It is possible to refund a customer by providing them with a refund voucher which can be redeemed later on.

Issuing and using a refund Voucher 

To issue and provide customers with refund vouchers it is required that the refund (financial transaction) created will be using the refund method specified in the Voucher Type. If this is the case, the system will create a refund voucher and assign to the customer's account, so that they can use it accordingly.

You can create and provide your customer with a printed refund voucher or a refund token that the customer will be able to use in the future. Once a customer uses his refund voucher the voucher goes into "Used" state so as to not be reused in the future.

Additional Processes and Automations for Vouchers

Gift vouchers

Customers have the option to buy gift vouchers and give to their friends as present. To create gift vouchers, create e-voucher type vouchers with usage method set to 'Shareable'. Once this type of vouchers are bought through Financial Transactions > Purchase e-voucher, the account of the customer the voucher will be given to is must be provided.

You can create customer-defined voucher values or specific voucher values. If the customer can buy vouchers of a value determined by them, then you should set a variable value on the voucher type. However, if you would like gift vouchers to be of specific value then set a fixed value on the voucher type.

Retrieving Voucher Secret Number

This process is used to retrieve the secret number of a voucher (of any classification) in decrypted form. Retrieval can be performed only by authorized users to prevent fraud. You can retrieve secret numbers either from voucher's data entry page or through Communication Centre

To prevent fraud, the user who performs the voucher's secret number retrieval is logged into the voucher's history.

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Providing free amount in vouchers

When using printed or electronic payment vouchers it is possible to provide offers, where customers will be paying an X amount to buy the voucher however the voucher value will be greater than the one they have paid for. This is possible by providing an Extra Added Value to the voucher. Extra added value is defined when creating a Voucher type or is possible to define it upon the creation a lot of a voucher type which does not come with a fixed price.

Communicating Vouchers

Communications can be sent to customers through event based communications. Communication tags for vouchers can be used regardless of the communication reason and voucher classification. You can use tags related to Vouchers (text that is automatically replaced by values specific to selected records) when creating communications. Tags are available for selection by typing '#'. 
Refer to the Communications manual for a complete list of Voucher tags.

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