iWASH - Pre-Paid Cards

PrePaid Cards are a powerful feature of the iWASH system. The PrePaid Card feature is based on an active Warehouse as a central store and guardian of the PrePaid Card Database.

To use the PrePaid Card feature you need to first produce your PrePaid Cards. They can be either a Magnetic Swipe Card or with a Barcode on them. On every card the code needs to be unique. The encoding can use any length or combination of letters and numbers but it must start with the prefix PV.

It is a good idea to have the code printed in plain text on the card at the same time, in case the reading equipment in the store is not working at the time the customer tries to use the card.

PrePaid Cards are similar to Gift Cards with the except that they are used for a specific product which should be clearly stated on the card with Terms and condition on the back. The design of the card is still completely up to you.

Once a card is used it should be destroyed, that number should not be ever used again. While there is no technical reason why a card cannot be re-used or topped up, but there is a security risk in doing this.

The barcode used in the example above is called “3 of 9”. This is a common barcode and is even downloadable free from the internet. Many printers will have extensive barcode libraries. You might want to have some examples created and test them with your hardware to make sure that they can be read.

Encoding Magnetic cards requires special equipment. It can be purchased but there are dedicated companies around that can print and encode the cards. When encoding, it does not matter which track is used as iPOS is looking at all 3 tracks. Only encode on a single track, not all the tracks, otherwise iPOS will read the card 3 times for each swipe. Track 1 is normally used for encoding which uses letters like we are.

There are 2 things that can be done to increase the security of the cards. The first is to not print the plain text at all, and the second is to omit some common characters from the plain text. Either method is of dubious value since the hardware to read the coding is easily available.

The easiest method to test you encoding is to use Notepad (Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad). Scan/Swipe the card and the results will be shown in the Notepad window. Magnetic Cards will add symbols % ; ? around the numbers. That is OK, iPOS can handle these. Both devices will also add Line Breaks to the end.

Before a card can be used it needs to be SOLD and Activated. The person buying the card is may not be the person using the card. In fact the card may not be even used in the store it was purchased from. This requires some accounting and reconciliation to make sure that each store gets their entitlements.

Firstly a special central bank account should be set up for PrePaid Cards, this may be a virtual account (in your books) or a real account, see your accountant about what is right for you. (this document will continue to refer to this as the “PrePaid Cards Fund”)

When a card is sold the funds need to be collected from the store and deposited into this account. When a card is used, the store where it is used then claims the amount from the fund. This is simple in principal but it can get complicated very quickly when multiple cards and stores are involved.

The cards once produced are unknown the system and currently have no value. The next step is to activate a card so that it is recongised and it therefore has value. As a security measure, leave activation until a customer pays for the card, this way the cards are worthless until activated.

An active Card can get the nominated wash in any of your stores.

To sell a card this is done from the Point of Sale. Normally done as a Cash Sale.

Start the POS, Select a Your Name (login).
Read (Swipe/Scan) the Card.
Since the card is not yet in the warehouse you will get this screen.

Click on the matching buttons to the product name on the card. This will create the record in the warehouse, and the system will add a “PrePaid Card Sale” to the order in the POS.

Behind the scenes the system has stored the number of this card against the transaction. It will be saved both in the order at the store and transmitted to the warehouse. The warehouse can be used to track the usage of the card.

On completing this sale. iPOS treats it very specially. Normally when you sell something it adds to your Gross Sales, Selling PrePaid Cards does not. On all iPOS reports PrePaid Card Sales are after the Gross Sales line but before Tender Types and banking. This is very important.

The store does not pay GST on the sale of a card, the GST is paid when the washes are claimed at a later date. Since a card can be used in other stores, this store may not be liable for the GST. The money must be deposited into the fund, and drawn done when a card makes a claim. The card is a form of receipt that a customer uses to prove they have given you money to hold in credit for when they will purchase.

The example on the left shows this when a $20 voucher was sold and paid Cash. If the voucher was paid for by Eftpos then the report would show Tender Types $20 and Banking $0.

At no time has the Gross Sales amount changed.

Now a customer has arrived at the store with a Prepaid Card and wants to use it. Prepaid Cards are special, they will not only add the correct wash to the sale, they will also 'pay off' their part of the sale in one step.

Start a Sale as per normal.
Now swipe/scan the PrePaid Card.
The Point Of Sale machine reads the code from the card and checks with the warehouse what the value of the card is.

If the card is valid the warehouse will display a window as shown. Cards which have been used up or not entered into the warehouse will warn this to the operator and will not let the sale continue.



Balance of cards can be checked at anytime by swiping the card in the point of sale. Value is NOT reduced unless a sale is completed. The warehouse can also tell you the balance of a card as well as a full statement of its use.

Extra items can be added to the sale, such as Food and Drink without affecting the wash and the prepaid amount.

Cards are administered through the Warehouse.

Start the warehouse and login.
Select PrePaid Admin from the PrePaid Card Menu.

There are 2 reports in the warehouse that can be used to maintain and reconcile the balance of the PrePaid Card Fund.

PrePaid Journal – This report shows all cards used in a date range.
PrePaid Reconciliation – This report shows each store in the network and the number of cards sold and used in the date range. Use this report weekly or monthly to create journals in the PrePaid Card Fund and collect/give the money to the stores to match.