Gift vouchers are money you have been paid for work you have not done yet. That is a good position to be in, and it comes with a few traps that only show up months later when someone arrives with a crumpled card and an expectation. The rules below are the ones that cause the arguments, with a plain position on each. Decide them now, write them down once, and put the same words everywhere.
Expiry
In Australia, gift vouchers sold to consumers must be redeemable for at least three years from the date of sale, and the expiry date has to be shown on the voucher. Shorter expiries are not enforceable. Build your rule around that: three years, printed on the voucher, and honoured without a fuss. Many salons go longer or never expire them, which is simpler still and costs very little, because most vouchers are used within a few months anyway.
The practical trap is not the law; it is the voucher from the old system, or the one a previous owner issued, that turns up with no date. Decide once: honour it, or honour it up to a value. Then stop deciding case by case.
What it can be spent on
The cleanest rule is any service, any product, any stylist. A voucher restricted to a particular service, or that cannot be used on retail, generates a conversation at the desk every time. If you sell experience vouchers for a named treatment, print the dollar value on them too, so that when the treatment changes price or disappears, the client has a number to spend.
Partial use and change
A $150 voucher spent on a $95 cut leaves $55. Say what happens to it. The fair answer is that the balance stays on the voucher for later, and you write the new balance on it or in your system. Giving cash change on a voucher is unusual and you are not required to; say so. The rule in one line: balances stay on the voucher; no cash change.
Lost vouchers
If you record vouchers when you sell them, with a number, a value and the buyer, a lost voucher is recoverable: the buyer or the recipient gives you a name and you find it. If you do not record them, a lost voucher is lost, and you should say that at the point of sale. The honest position is: we record every voucher, so a lost one can usually be found from the buyer's name. Then make sure that is true.
Refunds
A voucher the buyer regrets buying the next day is a judgement call; most salons refund within a short window as goodwill. A voucher the recipient does not want is not refundable to the recipient. Services bought with a voucher follow your normal policy: if the service was not acceptable, fix the service. Write the one line you are comfortable with and stick to it.
Deposits and no-shows
A client booking with a voucher is a client who has already paid, so a deposit is unnecessary. A no-show on a voucher appointment raises the question of whether the voucher is forfeited. Most salons say no the first time and yes if it happens again, and that should be said when the booking is confirmed, not after.
Price changes
The voucher was bought when a facial was $130. It is now $145. The voucher is worth what was paid, and the client pays the difference. If the voucher names the service rather than a value, honour the service; the difference is your cost of selling an experience voucher. Printing the value fixes this for next time.
Say it the same way everywhere
Write the rules as four or five short sentences and use them on the voucher, on the booking page note, in your confirmation text and in the notes your phone line reads from. Something like: valid three years from purchase; usable on any service or product; balances stay on the voucher, no cash change; we record every voucher, so a lost one can usually be found; not redeemable for cash.
If you use Glow Line, those sentences belong in the notes box on the Receptionist page. Voucher questions are a large share of spa and salon calls, especially in January, and with the rule in notes the assistant answers them from your words. Without it, the assistant says the team will confirm, and you answer the same question by text twenty times.
December
Vouchers sell in December and are redeemed in January and February. Before December: check the printed rules, check the expiry wording, make sure whoever answers the phone can quote the voucher values and the rules, and decide whether you want to offer a bonus voucher with purchase. After December: expect a quiet week in early January followed by a run of voucher bookings, and make sure the diary and your staffing allow for people who want the full package they were given.
A voucher should be the easiest sale you make and the easiest booking you take. The rules exist so that it stays that way.