When a customer enters an order and has a coupon code, he can enter it on the view cart contents screen. A box will be displayed to allow him to enter the coupon number if you have checked to display coupon and gift certificate entry in the manager.

<b>If you have a customer number please enter it here</b><br>Customer Number
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Customer Number" VALUE="%%user-id%%">
</td></tr>

 with:

<center><b>If you have a customer number please enter it here</b><br>
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Customer Number" VALUE="%%user-id%%"></center>
</td></tr>
%%coupon%%

 The important thing is the %%coupon%% which will display the entry for a coupon or certificate number if selected in the manager.

 When the total is shown on future screens the customer will see an entry for "Coupons/Gift Cert." if he has used one:

 However if the coupon is not found the following will be displayed:

 Likewise, if the coupon has expired, or the order does not meet the minumum requirements for the total, restrictions or quantity, the appropriate message will be displayed.

 The total will be reduced by the amount of the coupon if valid. Discount and taxes will be figured on the subtotal before deducting the coupon.

 The coupons can be entered, edited and deleted by clicking on the "Edit Discounts" link at the top of the manager screens.

 To add a coupon, enter the appropriate data and click submit: (sample screen)

 To edit a coupon click on the "edit" and to delete it click on the "delete" for that particular coupon:

 When you click on Edit, the edit a coupon screen comes up:

 The coupon has the following attributes:

• Coupon Number: This is the number for the coupon. It is what must be entered for the customer to get the discount given by that particular coupon.
  
• Amount: The amount of the coupon. It can be entered as a dollar amount, or a percentage. I.E. $10.00 would be a $10 discount, and 5% would be a 5% disount, figured from the subtotal before tax and shipping if there are no coupon Restrictions (see below).
  
• Days Left: This is entered on the initial coupon, and allows you to assign an expiration date to the coupon. If the date is beyond this date, then the customer will receive an expired coupon notice.
  
• Exp. Date: When the coupon is edited the date it expires it listed and can be updated or changed.
  
• Min QTY: This is the minimum number of items that must be purchased for a customer to be able to use the coupon.
  
• Min $: This is the minimum dollar amount the subtotal must equal before a customer can use the coupon.
  
• Restrictions: Specific products or quantities of products this coupon is restricted to. see your own criteria for specific information on how to use this.
  
• # Used: The number of coupons that have been redeemed.

 Note that if any of the restriction fields (Min qty, Min $ and Restrictions) are left blank then that test will not be applied. I.E. If all 3 are left blank, the coupon can be used on any order. If more than one restriction is entered then they must all test valid for the coupon to be used. It is highly advisable to apply a minimum $ for the coupon which is equal to or greater than the coupon amount, or you could end up with a negative total, which doesn't work very well for credit card transactions.

 Note: If doing percentage discounting with a coupon, the discount will be taken on the total subtotal if there are no coupon restrictions specified (total and quantity are fine). If there are restrictions, then the discount is taken on only those lines that met the criteria of the restrictions. The reason for this is that you may want to offer a 10% discount if a person purchases $10 or more of bubblegum. You would most likely not want the discount to apply to a television in the same order if the customer purchased the gum, you would only want it to apply to the gum part of the order.

 In addition certificates can be purchased in the cart by your customer, and the gift certificate number and certificate will be generated automatically by the cart.

 The following code shows a typical "pulldown" for gift certificates. It is uploaded as an option file, and the gift certificate item will have the filename of the code entered in the "option file" field for that item.

<TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR ALIGN="CENTER"><TD><FONT FACE=ARIAL SIZE="2">
<B>Gift Certificates</B>
<br>
</FONT></TD></TR>
<TR ALIGN="CENTER"><TD><SELECT NAME = "Certificate|1|%%PRODUCT_ID%%">
<OPTION VALUE = "%%error%%">Gift Certificates
<OPTION VALUE = "Gift Certificate $|10.00"> $10 certificate
<OPTION VALUE = "Gift Certificate $|25.00"> $25 certificate
<OPTION VALUE = "Gift Certificate $|50.00"> $50 certificate
<OPTION VALUE = "Gift Certificate $|100.00"> $100 certificate
</SELECT></TD></TR>
</TABLE>

 This certificate is available under the name "gift_certificate.html". All you have to do it put "gift_certificate.html" in the options field to automatically load and use it.

Note that if a customer purchases a gift certificate and selects COD for their shipping method, the certificate will be marked Redeemed at the time of creation. If you receive the funds for the COD, you will have to go into the manager and mark it Outstanding so they can use it. Otherwise a person could order it COD, never pay for it, but have a working certificate.

 The significant difference between an option and a certificate is in the name, where "Certificate" is used instead of "Option". This tells the cart that it must generate a certificate, put it in the database and email the certificate number to the customer.

 The following is how the above code will display to the customer (it is functional).

 When the customer purchases the gift certificate, it will be placed in the cart and look like the image below. In this case the "testing" item was given a base value of $10, and a $25 certificate was chosen. You will likely want to leave the base value blank for the item unless you want to charge a processing fee for the certificate.

 Adding a gift certificate is similar to adding a coupon, you simply use the correct box:

 And editing a coupon is similar as well:

 The gift certificate has the following attributes:

• Coupon Number: This is the number for the certificate. It is what must be entered by the customer to cash in that particular coupon.
  
• Amount: The amount of the certificate. It can only be entered as a dollar amount, not a percentage.
• Purchase Date: This is the date the certificate was purchased, unless changed later in the edit screen. The date is entered automatically upon purchase in the cart, or if the certificate is entered in the manager.
• Purchaser: This is the user id of the customer who purchased the certificate in the shopping cart, or whatever was entered in the manager when the certificate was generated.
• Status: This is the status of the coupon. It can only be redeemed or outstanding. The coupon will be outstanding when created, and will be changed to redeemed by the cart upon use, or if changed in the manager.

 • Restrictions - OK, lets say that you have the restrictions set to "A & B ^ C & D", I.E. the coupon is valid if there is a product or products in the basket that matches A and B or matches C and D. Any line in the cart that matches A and B or C and D will be summed for figuring the discount. If all there is in the cart is A and D then no discount will be applied at all, but if there is A and B and C in the cart, then the discount will apply to those items that have A and B in them and the total will be the total of all the products that have A and B in them.