Why gift cards show up as a liability

When a customer buys a gift card, you get the cash right away, but you haven't actually earned it yet — you owe that customer a future rental equal to the card's value. That unredeemed amount is called a liability: money you owe, not money you've kept.

Where to find it

Go to the Gift Cards page for the running total, or Reports → Gift Card tab for a specific period's figures.

The Gift Cards page's Total outstanding liability figure

How it works

• Total outstanding — the sum of every active, real (Live) gift card balance that hasn't been redeemed yet
• This liability figure always counts real, Live gift cards only. Cards created or redeemed while testing in Demo mode are never included, no matter which lane (Demo or Live) you happen to be viewing at the time — they don't reflect money a real customer is actually owed.

For example: if you sell $500 in gift cards this month and customers redeem $150 of that, your liability is $350 — that's the amount still sitting out there as a promise you haven't fulfilled yet.

Good to know

• Voiding a gift card marks it invalid and reduces your liability by that amount, whether the balance is returned or credited elsewhere.
• For the period-based sales and liability figures used in reporting, see Gift card sales and liability.