RetailVista TCS flower gift card integration

This document describes the entry of the "TCS Bloemen gift card" in RetailVista. This instruction contains explanations for the cashier and explanations for the office on how to set up RetailVista. RetailVista is suitable for handling various types of gift cards. However, in this documentation, 'Gift card' refers to the TCS Bloemen gift card.

Office instruction

The gift card extensions are available from RetailVista version 2.188 and higher. The version number of RetailVista can be found at the bottom of the RetailVista login screen and within RetailVista via Help -> General information.

If you do not have this version of RetailVista yet, first perform a RetailVista LiveUpdate or contact NedFox for an update. This document assumes that the procedure for an update is known.

Within RetailVista POS (cash register), version 2.1.4079 or higher is required. You can find this version in the title bar of RetailVista POS. If version 2.1.4079 has been released by NedFox, this will be mentioned when starting the cash register.

In order to use the gift card functionality, it is important that the (free of charge until 2011) TCS gift card interface license is present in RetailVista.

First check the license via Help -> General information.

The license 'TCS Gift Card interface' must be listed in the license modules list. Contact NedFox if this is not the case. If more than 1 type of gift card is handled by TCS, for example the National Garden Voucher and the Flower Gift Voucher, an additional type of gift card CAL (Client Access License) is required as a license. The same 'Help' screen also displays the number of additional gift card CALS. The handheld scanner used must be able to scan Ean128 barcodes. This is possible with many types of scanners, but it needs to be activated in the scanner. For most scanners supplied by NedFox, a 'scansheet' is available. This sheet contains a number of barcodes that need to be scanned one after the other to activate Ean128. Contact NedFox support desk to find out if a scansheet is available for the scanners supplied by us. Contact your own supplier if you have purchased scanners yourself. 

Now go to Extra -> Settings -> Gift Card Integration within RetailVista. Check if the gift card integration is activated. The image below shows the corresponding screen. Next, go to Administration -> Gift Card Types to create the Flower Gift Voucher as a gift card type. Choose 'TCS via web' for 'Gift Card Type' and enter the following URL as the URL: https://cardbase.tcs-cms.nl/v3/giftcard.asmx. The brand code is 'bloemenbon'. The fields 'Sales init string, Payment init string' and 'One-time spending' can be left empty. Now go to Administration -> Gift Card Authorization. For each cash register terminal, enter the TCS merchant ID, along with the Merchant checksum for the 'Flower Gift Voucher' type, and enter the TCS security code for 'Initialization string'. TCS does not use Merchant passwords.

The Merchant Id and security code are provided by TCS, the Merchant checksum codes can be requested from NedFox. For each cash register terminal, a Merchant ID, checksum, and security code must be provided!

Now go to Start -> Product maintenance -> Product maintenance and check if there is already a gift card product of the gift card type 'Flower gift voucher'.

Through 'Advanced' in the product search screen, you can search for gift card type.

If it does not exist, create this product. Unlike the National Garden Voucher, the Flower Gift Voucher does not contain a prefix section in the total barcode in which a product is encoded.

For this reason, a random barcode can be created in product maintenance for the sale of the Flower Gift Voucher.

The VAT percentage is 0% (no VAT), do not give the product a selling price.

When selling this gift card, the cash register will ask for the price to be entered.

We do not know if the Flower Gift Voucher is sold at fixed prices, in most situations with electronic gift cards, that will not be the case.

By still entering a selling price for the product itself, the cash register will automatically assign that value to a sold gift card.

The 'Classification level 1' used in the following example is just an example, you can determine the classification to be used yourself.

Now deselect the option 'Sales item' in the 'Sales' tab.

The sale of a gift card is not revenue but represents a balance position in the financial administration.

Then mark the option 'Gift card' and choose 'Flower gift voucher' for 'Gift card type'.

By doing these actions, RetailVista now knows that scanning barcode 8717185571004 will sell a Flower Gift Voucher with a variable value.

Create payment method

The acceptance of gift cards is regulated through a payment method.

Now go to Administration -> Payment Methods and check if there is already a payment method 'Flower gift card'.

If that is the case, check if the below information is filled in correctly.

Otherwise, create a new payment method 'Flower gift card' if the payment method does not exist yet. Choose 'Gift card integration' for 'Payment method' and choose 'Flower Gift Card' for 'Gift card type'.

Optionally, assign a sequence number to indicate the position of this payment method in the list of payment methods.

On touchscreens, this may not have an effect if there are fixed payment method buttons coded in the layout.

In that case, contact NedFox support desk to have the layout adjusted.

Change is not allowed on this payment method (the customer will not receive any change if the gift card is used to pay more than the amount due).

RetailVista is now ready to sell and accept gift cards.

Cash register instruction

Sale of gift card:

Start the cash register and enter the article barcode of a flower gift card.

This is not the barcode of the gift card but the barcode of the previously created product.

In the example below, the packaging barcode 9900000011222 is followed by card number 6280501100861745081.

After scanning that barcode, a 'Gift card sale' screen will appear.

Now scan the barcode of the Flower Gift Card.

Then enter the value that should be assigned to the card.

This transaction can be supplemented with additional products and must then be paid through the usual payment methods.

The card number will ultimately be printed on the receipt.

Redeeming a gift card

The advantage of digital gift cards is that they can be used to pay in installments.

The redemption of a gift card takes place as a payment method.

This is different from loyalty cards, where the redemption of a loyalty card is processed as a discount on the transaction.

With gift cards, this is not allowed.

After scanning one or more products, you can choose a full or partial payment via gift card, in this case the 'Flowers Gift Card', in the payment screen.

After selecting the payment method 'Flowers Gift Card' and entering a payment amount of 1.75, a 'Gift Card Payment' screen will appear.

Scan the barcode of the gift card in this screen. A balance check will then be performed.

If the balance is sufficient, this screen can be closed by pressing 'Enter' or 'Ok' again.

Depending on the settings of RetailVista and whether the transaction is fully completed with this payment, the transaction will be automatically closed and the gift card transaction will be processed definitively.

Balance information

Through the Sales -> Gift card details menu, the balance of a gift card can be requested. The previously sold gift card 6280501100861745081 with a value of 25.00 euros was later used to pay €1.75 euros. The remaining balance of €23.25 is also shown in the following screen:  

Possible error codes

The following error codes can be returned from the Flower Gift Card server:

0010: An unknown error has occurred

0050: A system error has occurred

0100: The card number is not filled in

0110: The merchantID is empty

0120: The amount is invalid

0130: The requested currency is not supported

0140: The transaction identifier does not exist

0150: The card number is not found

0160: The specified card status is unknown

0200: The card is not yet active

0210: The card status is not valid for the requested operation

0220: The card is not yet active

0230: The card is not active

0240: The card has expired

0400: The amount is higher than the maximum allowed value for the card

0410: The amount is lower than the minimum allowed value for the card

0420: The card uses a different currency than the requested currency

0430: The card has already performed the maximum allowed number of transactions

0440: The card has already been topped up the maximum number of times

0450: The card does not have sufficient balance

0500: The retailer cannot be found

0510: The retailer is not active

0520: The retailer is not authorized for this card

0530: The retailer is not authorized to activate

0540: The retailer is not authorized to top up cards

0550: The retailer is not authorized to debit cards

0600: A system error has occurred

0610: A system error has occurred

0620: The request identifier is not known

0630: The request identifier does not match the original

0640: The request identifier is causing an internal problem

Frequently asked questions

Question: After waiting for 20 seconds, I receive the message 'Connecting gift card'

Provider's message 'A timeout has occurred for the operation. What does this mean?
Answer: The gift card provider cannot be reached via the Internet. Please check your Internet connection.

Question: I am getting an error message for a gift card transaction with error code 'ServerError'
Answer: This is an error on the TCS servers. Please contact the RetailVista support desk so that they can inform TCS.

Question: When selling a gift card, I receive the message 'This gift card has already been activated'. What does this mean?
Answer: A gift card can only be sold once. This gift card has already been sold before and may still have a balance.

Question: How can I use the balance checker?
Answer: We are currently not aware if there is a balance checker available on the Internet for the Bloemen Cadeaubon.

Question: Does the sale of a gift card count towards the revenue?
Answer: No. Due to the indication 'No revenue' assigned to the article linked to the gift card, sold gift cards are excluded from the revenue.

Question: If I don't have Internet, can I still sell a gift card?
Answer: No, if there is no Internet, the gift card cannot be topped up and it is also not possible to check if the gift card has been sold before.

Question: What is the packaging barcode of the Bloemen Cadeaubon?
Answer: We are not aware if there is a luxury packaging available for the Bloemen Cadeaubon.

Question: If I don't have Internet, can I still accept a gift card?
Answer: In principle, no.

Question: When is a sold gift card actually activated?
Answer: Upon closing the cash register transaction. A gift card should not be given out before the transaction is fully processed.

Question: When is the balance deducted from the card when paying with a gift card?
Answer: The actual deduction takes place upon closing the transaction.

If 'Flower Gift Card' is chosen as the payment method when paying, the card must be scanned and only a balance check will take place.

Question: I have a rejected transaction when printing an end-of-day summary. How can I successfully process that transaction?
Answer: If the balance cannot be deducted when processing a gift card payment at the end of a transaction, the transaction will be rejected and the deduction must be processed manually. Contact RetailVista support desk.

Question: When starting the cash register, the message 'At this moment, a connection cannot be made with the TCS gift card service. When using a gift card, another attempt will be made to reach the service! Contact RetailVista support desk if this message persists.' What does this mean?
Answer: A connection cannot be made to the internet where TCS gift card transactions are processed. Check your internet connection.

Question: The payment reference on the receipt is displayed as '33-1-3-25356-1'. What does that mean?
Answer: This is a unique payment reference that can be used to inquire with TCS about the payment with a gift card. The reference consists of the RetailVista company number, store number, cash register, receipt number, and payment number (1st payment, 2nd payment, etc.).

Question: What is the URL of the production environment?
Answer: That is https://cardbase.tcs-cms.nl/v3/giftcard.asmx

Question: What is the URL of the test environment?
Answer: That is http://posws.uat.ntb.tcs-cms.nl:9042/Giftcard.asmx