How to handle Groupon or similar coupon promotions

Groupon as gift cards (voucher) --

There are three possible ways to handle Groupon-style promotions.

Option A: Create pre-sold, serialized vouchers and redeem them by SN when tendered.
Option B: Create serialized vouchers that are sold to customer accounts with a tagalong that negates the value. The voucher is then redeemed as tender on a future sale.
Option C: Create a non-inventory coupon entry with negative value and sell that as a line item in POS (no SN tracking). See warning below.

Details --

Option A: Create pre-sold serialized vouchers with fixed values and redeem them as a tender when used by customer.

Option B: If you want to associate the sale of the voucher with a customer account prior to redemption, you will need to first sell a voucher with their account assigned during the sale. Assuming you create 100 serialized vouchers set to $35, and want the total to be 0.00 when tendered, you will need to create a second line entry to reverse the $35 charge before tendering the sale.

Create a new item in Manager, Database, Items, New, Inventory type = non-inventory, Description = Groupon Promo or your choice, ILC = your choice, assign to Gift Card dept, retail price = -$35.00. (enter as -35 and number will appear in parenthesis indicating negative). Click OK to save.

Go back to your Groupon voucher entry and select the Special tab in Item Properties.
Add the non-inventory item just created as a Tagalong for the voucher, Quantity = 1. Click OK to save.

Now whenever the Groupon voucher is sold to a customer in POS, the next line will be the -$35.00 non-inventory entry offsetting the amount. Once tendered, the customer can use the $35 voucher on a future sale (workorder pick-up, etc.).

You don't necessarily need to create a separate voucher tender since vouchers are uniquely serialized.
However, a separate tender will allow you to track these redemptions separately if that is what you want to do.
To add a tender type, go to Manager, Database, Tender Types and create a new voucher entry.

If you are not sure which voucher method is best for your situation, create an sample entry of the two voucher options described above and test them in POS.
Don’t fully tender while testing, then decide which option works best for you, and remove the entry you won't use.

Option C: Create a coupon entry (non-inventory item) with fixed negative value or ‘Must enter price at POS’ configured under Options tab.
The item lookup code should be something simple such as PROMO101 or P101 so it can easily be entered in POS.
When this coupon item is sold in POS, the negative value is deducted from the sale.
If 'Must enter price' is enable for variable pricing, the cashier must enter the NEGATIVE value to deduct from sale such as -10 for $10 off.
If the price is not fixed, You could also enter a default value of -$X for the full face value, but cashier will be prompted to change the value when entered in POS. They will have to remember to type in a negative number. There is no tender requirement in this example.

WARNING: If your state requires taxing the sale before any coupon discount is applied, you cannot use Option C.