If you sold gift cards with a third-party point-of-sale before switching to Lightspeed Restaurant K-Series, you can import those gift cards into the Back Office so your customers can redeem them at your Restaurant POS. When a customer uses a gift card, the gift card record will update accordingly, allowing you to manage your gift card liabilities directly from the Back Office.

You can import the gift card number and the balance of the card. To get started, download our gift card import template and enter the gift number and the card’s current balance. Then, import that spreadsheet into the Back Office. To learn more about redeeming or checking the balance on an imported gift card at your POS, visit our Using gift cards 2.0 at the POS article.

Creating the gift card import spreadsheet

To get started, download the gift card import spreadsheet and enter your gift card information. The spreadsheet must be formatted correctly, or your gift cards will not be imported. Only the gift card’s number and current value can be imported.

1. Log in to Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant credentials.
2. Navigate to Customers > Gift cards.
   
3. Select the Import gift cards button and click the Download the gift card import template link.
   
4. Open the template using spreadsheet software. Microsoft Office, Excel, and Google Sheets are recommended.
5. Format the spreadsheet's cells as Text before entering or pasting in your gift card information.
   Text formatting ensures long gift card numbers and balances are saved correctly for a successful import. If you need help completing this step, refer to the support documentation for your specific spreadsheet software.
6. Enter your gift card information into the spreadsheet. Enter the gift card numbers or IDs in the “gift_card_id” column and the gift card balance in the “balance” column. You can enter up to 10,000 rows. If you have more than 9,999 items to import, repeat these instructions to create another import spreadsheet. Refer to the following table for formatting restrictions:
   
   

   Column	Description	Formatting requirement
   imported_id	The gift card number or ID.	The imported_id does not have any restrictions, but the field cannot be left empty. For example, the following ids are valid: abc_123 http://giftcard.com/123 $$$$$vbc^#$%
   balance	The amount on the gift card.	The first and last character can be any symbol. For example, the following balances are valid: $100 100$ 100B These examples are not valid: $$100 ABC100

7. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV or XLS file. Back Office will reject the import if the spreadsheet is not saved in the correct format.

Importing the spreadsheet

Once you’ve created and saved the gift card import spreadsheet, import it into the Back Office.

1. Log in to Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant credentials.
2. Navigate to Customers > Gift cards.
3. On the Gift cards page, click the Import gift cards button.
   
4. In the Upload CSV section, enter a Batch name. If left blank, Back Office will automatically name the batch after the date and time of the import.
5. Click the Select where the cards come from drop-down menu and select the name of your previous POS. If it is not listed, select Other and enter the name of your POS in the field.
6. Drag and drop your spreadsheet file into the page or browse to choose a file.
7. Click Start import. Once an import begins, you can close the page.
   

Back Office will email the user who initiated the import when the import is complete. If there are any issues with the import, such as duplicate entries or empty fields in the spreadsheet, Back Office will display an error message on the import page. For tracking purposes, imported cards will include an Imported ID and an Original source in their card details.

Redeeming imported gift cards

1. Sign in to your POS and start a new order or select an existing order with unpaid items.
2. On the Register screen, tap the gift card icon in the upper-right corner.
   
3. Tap Type ID and enter the gift card number.
   
4. Wait for confirmation that the order has been paid.

What's next?