Layaway & Gift Cards

A layaway starts at the register: ring the items, attach the customer (required — layaway is a promise with a name on it), then More > → Layaway. The register shows the total, the minimum deposit your store requires (a percentage set in Settings → Register & Receipts, default 20%), and the balance after deposit. Take the deposit in cash, card, or check, and Open Layaway.

The merchandise comes out of stock immediately and is set aside — layaway holds real goods, not intentions. The order gets a number and lives on until it's paid off or cancelled.

Layaways in the back office is the working view: tiles for active layaways, total on layaway, balance outstanding, and overdue (>60 days), plus a table with a paid-percentage bar and an age column that turns amber past 30 days and red past 60.

Take a payment from the layaway's order page — cash, card, or check, any amount up to the remaining balance, with an optional note. The moment the balance hits zero, the order completes automatically and the goods go home with the customer.

Cancelling requires a reason and does three things at once: restocks the merchandise (kits explode back into their components), keeps your configured cancellation fee — a percentage of the total, capped so it never exceeds what the customer actually paid — and tells you the exact refund due to hand back at the drawer. The fee percentage lives next to the minimum deposit in Settings → Register & Receipts (default 10%).

At the register, tap Gift Card (right panel or More >). Scan or type a card number and hit Check Card:

• An unknown number starts a new activation — the card activates when the sale completes.
• An existing active card becomes a reload, with its current balance shown.
• A deactivated card is blocked outright.

Pick an amount ($10/$25/$50/$100 quick buttons or any custom figure) and the card rides the ticket as a line item. No physical cards? New # generates a fresh digital code to write down or email. Redeeming is just as simple: at pay time, use the Gift tender tab — the register verifies the balance server-side and applies up to it.

If your business is on eGiftSolutions — EPI's hosted gift card program — HeroPOS talks to it directly. Enter your eGift Merchant ID, Location ID, Terminal ID, and Terminal Type under Settings → Payment Terminals → eGift Cards, and two things light up:

• The Gift Card screen gains a Store Gift Card / eGift Card toggle. In eGift mode, Check Card asks the eGift servers: a known card reloads, a fresh one activates at checkout — same flow, same quick amounts.
• Pay gains an eGift tender tab. Scan or type the card and press Pay — the card is charged at that moment. If it holds less than the amount due, its full balance applies and the register keeps the rest due for a split payment. Receipts print the card's remaining balance.

Because eGift balances live on the processor (not in your HeroPOS account), they work across every system your program is connected to, and refunds to an eGift card put the money back on the card as an add-value. Balances for eGift cards are checked on the eGift network — the heropos.net/gift page only covers store gift cards.

Gift Cards shows your active card count, outstanding liability (the accounting number — every unredeemed dollar), and cards issued in the last 30 days. You can also issue cards from here — auto-generated 16-digit codes or a custom code — and optionally link a card to a customer.

Each card's page carries the balance, a masked code (hover to reveal), and a complete ledger: activation, reloads, redemptions, adjustments, and refund credits, each tied to an order and a staff member. Adjust Balance handles goodwill credits and corrections (signed amount, note required, balance can't go negative), and Deactivate Card freezes a lost or compromised card until you reactivate it.

Your customers can check a balance themselves — no login, no phone call — at heropos.net/gift. They enter the full card number and see the balance, the card's last four digits, and your store name. That's all the page can do (no reloads or redemptions), and deliberate rate-slowing deters number guessing. Put the link on receipts and by the register: "Check your balance at heropos.net/gift."