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Solution · Finance & accountingThe voucher has a code, the code has a register, and the register knows what was sold, used and expired
Gift vouchers sold and reconciled
A robot runs the whole voucher lifecycle: online and counter sales with a unique code, a handsome PDF for print or phone, a reminder to the recipient before expiry, redemption ticked in a second and a register that always matches the money. How to book vouchers is your accountant’s call; we make sure she has something to book from.
Executive summary
Every shooting range, spa and restaurant sells vouchers, but few manage them: numbering in a notebook, redemption on the honour system, validity checked by eye and a register nobody dares reconcile with the till.
The robot gives every voucher a unique code, sends the buyer a PDF, watches validity with a reminder to the recipient, and lets staff redeem with one code check, no phone call to the owner.
The register matches the money: what was sold, redeemed, expired; double redemptions and forged printouts stop being possible, and the accountant gets a report instead of a shoebox.
online sales via a form and at the counter; the voucher register in SharePoint; code verification in a second; reports and alerts in Microsoft Teams
Business problem
A voucher is money printed on paper, managed like a laundry ticket
From a finance standpoint a gift voucher is a liability: somebody paid today for a service the venue will deliver someday. Yet it is run like a laundry ticket: numbering by pen, a stub in a binder, the sale noted in the till-side notebook, and redemption on a “show me the slip” basis. With twenty vouchers a year it all holds. At a few hundred, things start happening that nobody sees.
Redemption can be theatre: the customer produces a crumpled printout, staff hunt the number in the notebook, the notebook is in the other shift’s drawer, somebody calls the owner on holiday. It also happens that the same voucher, emailed around the family, comes back twice a month apart, and the second time nobody remembers the first. No bad faith required; the absence of a register is enough.
Validity is its own story: vouchers without a watched deadline hang as a liability for months, and recipients remember them in the last week of December, all at once. The venue suddenly juggles slots it does not have, or honours expired ones, because there is no way to check what exactly was promised.
At the end of this chain stands the accountant, asking how many vouchers were sold, redeemed and expired, and getting three different answers from three places. How to book them is her decision and her profession; but for her to exercise it, the register must exist and match the till. Paper will never provide that.
How it works today
Below is what the work looks like before anything is automated.
- PersonA voucher sale noted in the till-side notebook
- Risk of errorNumbering by pen; the printout circulates by email around the buyer’s family
- WaitingRedemption needs the notebook, the other shift or a call to the owner
- Risk of errorThe same voucher can come back twice, a month apart
- WaitingValidity checked by eye; December brings a wave of expired ones
- Risk of errorThe accountant gets three different numbers from three places
Why the current process costs more than it appears
The bill that never shows up in a budget.
- How many vouchers did you sell last year, and how many can you conclusively reconcile today?
- How long does counter verification take when the notebook is with the other shift?
- How many redemptions could not be found in any register afterwards?
- What liability from unredeemed vouchers does your accountant see today?
Cost of inaction
The model assumes 120 vouchers a month with an average value in the tens of euros and one in eleven without a conclusive reconciliation. You will learn your own number after the first month of keeping the register.
The estimate omits the simplest risk: a printed voucher today is a bearer document with no safeguards. A unique code verified against the register closes that better than any hologram.
A model organisation with realistic proportions – the numbers exist so you can run the same maths on your own data; they are not a client result.
A shooting range with a gift offer: shooting packages on vouchers, about 120 a month, a December peak, sales at the counter and by email after a transfer, a notebook and a binder, Microsoft 365.
Monday, 9:30 pm: a customer buys a “50 rounds package” voucher for his brother-in-law through the form. He pays by transfer with an individual reference.
The robot recognises the payment from the statement, issues a code, generates a handsome PDF with the code and validity and sends it to the buyer within a quarter of an hour of booking.
In February the brother-in-law calls and books a slot. At the entrance he reads the code off his phone; staff type it into the counter view, see “active, 50 rounds package” and tick the redemption with one tap.
In October the robot reminds recipients of November and December vouchers: validity ends in six weeks, here is a booking link. Part of the December wave spreads itself across the autumn.
On the first of the month the accountant receives a report: sold, redeemed, expired, liability balance. Three numbers from one place. A model scenario, not a record of a specific venue.
Proposed solution
Sales run on two tracks. Online: the customer picks a voucher in the form, pays by transfer with an individual reference, and once the payment is recognised from the statement export the robot issues a unique code, generates a PDF in your artwork and sends it to the buyer; at the counter: staff sell a voucher with one entry, and the code and PDF are born the same way. Every voucher is in the register from birth: amount or package, dates, status.
Redemption takes as long as typing the code: staff see the status, value and any restrictions, tick the use with one tap, and the register notes who, when and for what. Double redemption becomes technically impossible rather than prevented by a shift’s memory; partial use of a value voucher leaves the remaining balance in the register. A photo of a crumpled printout stops being an accounting document.
Validity watches itself: a reminder to the recipient a few weeks before the end, with a booking link, spreads the December crush across calmer months. Past the deadline the voucher expires in the register; what happens to such liabilities is a decision for you and your accountant, who receives a monthly report: sales, redemptions, expiries, liability balance. We give no accounting advice; we deliver a register that can be believed.
UiPath Orchestrator: the sales queue, validity reminders, retries and an audit trail of every redemption; UiPath Integration Service connectors to Outlook 365, SharePoint and Teams
Online sales with payment recognition, a PDF voucher generator in your artwork, a counter code-check view, pre-expiry reminders and a monthly report for the accountant
The bank statement via CSV/MT940 export; the till and card terminal unchanged, redemption ticked alongside; an SMS gateway for reminders on your own provider contract
How the automated process works
- AutomationAn online purchase: payment recognised, code issued, PDF sent within a quarter hour
- PersonAt the counter staff sell a voucher with one entry; the code creates itself
- SystemThe recipient gets a reminder before expiry, with a booking link
- AutomationRedemption: code typed, status shown, ticked with one tap
- AutomationThe register records redemptions, partial uses and expiries
- SystemOn the first of the month, the accountant’s report: sold, redeemed, balance
Human-in-the-loop model
Automation handles
- Codes, PDFs, payment recognition and a register of every voucher from sale to expiry
- Validity reminders to recipients and anomaly alerts in Teams
- The monthly report: sales, redemptions, expiries, liability balance
People decide
- The service itself and the customer contact at redemption
- Decisions on exceptions: extending validity, a refund, a lost voucher
- The accounting treatment of vouchers: your accountant’s domain, not the robot’s
Before and after
Systems and integrations
The stack is short on purpose: one engine, one execution layer, one place where a person decides.
Inputs
- the online purchase form and counter sale entries
- the bank statement as a CSV/MT940 export
- your voucher artwork
- redemption ticks from staff
Automation layer
- UiPath Orchestrator
- UiPath Robots
- UiPath Integration Service
- UiPath Action Center
Target systems
- PDF vouchers with unique codes to the buyers
- the voucher register with statuses in SharePoint
- a monthly report and alerts in Microsoft Teams
Human touchpoints: selling and redeeming at the counter with one entry; exception decisions; a monthly report review with the accountant
Technologies used
the sales queue, reminders, retries, a trail of every redemption
Athe register, alerts, dispatches to buyers and recipients
Athe voucher register and code checks with one entry
Aa voucher that looks like a gift, not a receipt
Apayments from the export; text reminders on your own provider contract
BIllustrative economic model
Numbers you can check against your own data.
The model assumes 120 vouchers a month; how much sealing is worth depends on how much leaks today, which by definition you do not know. The first month of the register shows the truth. Put your own figures into the calculator beside.
Run the maths on your data
An illustrative estimate based on your inputs. It models freed capacity, not promised savings.
Business benefits
- Every voucher has a code and a life story: sold, reminded, redeemed or expired
- Counter verification in a second, without the notebook or calls to the owner
- Double redemptions and forged printouts become technically impossible
- The December wave defused by reminders; more visits in the calm months
- The accountant receives, monthly, a register that can be believed
The management view
- The voucher liability stops being a number nobody knows; it is visible to the piece
- Gift sales can grow without fear of the flow collapsing in December
- The voucher channel becomes measurable: what sells, what returns, what expires
Board-level KPIs
vouchers conclusively reconciled · counter verification time · redemptions within validity · double redemptions caught · the liability balance known monthly
Security and governance
The automation has exactly the permissions it needs. Not one more.
- Buyer and recipient data processed solely for sales, reminders and redemption, in line with GDPR
- Voucher codes are unique and verified solely against your register; a printout by itself proves nothing
- Every redemption is logged: the code, who ticked it, when and for which service
- The robot has no access to the venue’s account; payments are recognised solely from the statement export
- Data stays in your Microsoft 365 tenant; the robots run in the EU region of UiPath Automation Cloud
Why now
December, which sells the most vouchers, is worth entering with a register rather than a new notebook.
Customers buy gifts online in the evening; a venue without form-based voucher sales hands that traffic to commission platforms.
A quick-win deployment closes in weeks, and the old paper flow can be retired gradually.
Relevant executive roles
Knows how much money hangs in vouchers, and sleeps well in December
Verify a code in a second instead of leafing through a notebook in front of a customer
Gets a register and a report instead of a box of stubs; how to book them stays her call
Common questions and objections
We enter them into the register with their numbers at first contact: a redemption or a customer question. The old flow expires naturally, and from day one every new voucher is born with a code.
No. The PDF works from a phone screen, because the document is the code in your register, not the sheet of paper. Whoever likes paper prints it; both look like a gift.
Yes. A value voucher has a balance: a partial redemption subtracts the amount and the rest waits in the register. Staff see the balance at every check, and the customer can spend it across several visits.
When this is not the right solution
- A dozen vouchers a year: the notebook still suffices, though the code tempts anyway
- Sales exclusively through external gift platforms: then we register only redemptions, which is half the benefit
- Expecting advice on how to book vouchers: that is your accountant’s work, we give her the register
A question for the next management meeting
How much customer money hangs in our vouchers today, and who in the firm knows that number even roughly?
Implementation approach
Scope without ambiguity, before anything is signed.
We deliver
- Online voucher sales with payment recognition and PDFs in your artwork
- A voucher register with codes, statuses and partial-use balances
- A counter verification view with one-tap redemption ticking
- Pre-expiry reminders and a monthly report for the accountant
- Migration of old vouchers into the register and two weeks of assistance after go-live
We need from you
- Your voucher offer: packages, amounts, validity rules and the artwork
- Access to Microsoft 365 and the bank statement export
- Half an hour with counter staff to walk through today’s flow
Stages
Discovery
How many vouchers, through which channels, what is known about redemptions; an hour’s conversation
Templates and rules
Packages, validity, the PDF design, reminder wording, exception rules
Build
Online sales, the register, the counter view, reminders, the report
Parallel run
Two weeks: new vouchers with codes, old ones entered at contact
Go-live
The whole flow in the register; a report review with the accountant after a month
A quick win. The biggest work is a one-off write-up of the offer and the voucher design; after that the flow runs itself, December included.
Saturday, 12:15: a customer shows a code from his phone. Staff type it in, see “active, 50 rounds package” and tick it. Eight seconds, zero calls to the owner.
Count the vouchers sold last year and the ones you can conclusively reconcile today. Send us both numbers; we will send back a register design and the arithmetic of sealing the flow.
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