The Account Funds WooCommerce store credit plugin lets customers buy credit directly. This works for purchasing a gift card for themselves or loading a prepaid account for themselves or a friend.
When customers complete the purchase, the amount is deposited into their wallet immediately.
This guide covers creating and managing store credit products, common use cases, and best practices for prepaid wallet systems.
Understanding Store Credit Products
Account Funds provides two types of store credit products:
Deposit Products
Deposit products are regular WooCommerce products with a special product type. You create them like any other product, set a price, and when purchased, that amount becomes store credit instead of shipping a physical item.
Key characteristics:
- Created as standard products with the “Deposit” product type
- Appear in your shop like regular products
- Fixed price per product
- Can have images, descriptions, and categories
- Customers can purchase multiple quantities
Top-Up Products
Top-up products let customers add a custom amount to their wallet from the My Account page. There’s no physical product in your catalog—customers simply enter an amount they want to add.
Key characteristics:
- Not visible in your shop catalog
- Customer-defined amounts
- Accessed from My Account → Store Credit
- Single-quantity purchases only
Creating Deposit Products
To create a store credit deposit product:
- Navigate to Products → Add New
- Set the product name (e.g., “$50 Store Credit,” “Gold Member Credit Pack”)
- In the Product Data dropdown, select Deposit
- Set the regular price—this is the amount of credit the customer receives
- Add a product image and description as desired
- Publish the product
Deposit Product Settings
When you select the Deposit product type, certain options are automatically configured:
Virtual: Always enabled. Deposit products don’t ship.
Tax status: Defaults to “None.” Store credit purchases are typically not taxable since no goods or services are exchanged—the customer is essentially prepaying for future purchases that will be taxed when used.
You can override the tax status if your jurisdiction requires taxing prepaid credit.
Product Variations
Deposit products don’t support variations. If you want to offer multiple credit amounts (like $25, $50, $100), create separate deposit products for each amount.
Enabling My Account Top-Up
To let customers add custom amounts from their account page:
- Navigate to Store Credit → Settings → General
- Find the “Account top-up” section
- Enable “Allow customers to top up their balance”
- Optionally set minimum and maximum top-up amounts
- Save changes
Top-Up Settings
Minimum amount: The smallest top-up allowed. Prevents tiny transactions that cost more to process than they’re worth.
Maximum amount: The largest single top-up allowed. Useful for fraud prevention and liability management.
Top-up image: The image displayed in the cart when a customer adds a top-up. Upload a branded graphic that represents store credit.
How Top-Up Works for Customers
Once enabled, customers see a top-up form in My Account → Store Credit:
- Customer enters the amount they want to add
- They click “Add to Cart” (or similar button)
- A special top-up item appears in their cart
- They complete checkout with any payment method
- Upon order completion, the credit is deposited to their wallet
Use Cases and Configurations
Gift Card Alternative
Sell store credit as an alternative to traditional gift cards.
Configuration:
- Create deposit products at common gift amounts ($25, $50, $100)
- Use gift-themed product images and descriptions
- Consider seasonal variations (holiday designs, birthday themes)
- Enable top-up so recipients can add more themselves
Note: Account Funds credits are tied to customer accounts. For sending credit to others, consider a dedicated gifting extension or manual admin adjustments.
B2B Prepaid Accounts
Set up prepaid purchasing for business customers.
Configuration:
- Create high-value deposit products ($500, $1000, $5000)
- Use Constellation to restrict deposit products to wholesale roles
- Enable top-up with high maximum limits
- Consider offering a small cashback percentage on deposits to incentivize prepayment
Benefits:
- Simplifies invoicing—businesses prepay in bulk
- Reduces payment processing on individual orders
- Teams can share a company account with a single balance
Kids and Family Accounts
Parents load credit for children to spend.
Configuration:
- Enable top-up with moderate limits
- Use friendly product names (“Pocket Money Credit”)
- Disable partial payments so kids must spend within their balance
Loyalty Tier Unlock
Sell credit packs that include a bonus.
Configuration:
- Create a deposit product priced at $100
- Set up a cashback reward that grants extra credit on deposit product purchases
- Example: Customer pays $100, receives $100 + $10 bonus = $110 credit
Customer Experience
Purchasing Deposit Products
Deposit products appear in your shop like any other product. Customers can:
- Browse and add to cart normally
- Purchase alongside regular products
- Buy multiple quantities
At checkout, the system requires account creation if the customer is a guest—store credit must be attached to an account.
When the order status changes to Processing or Completed, the credit is deposited immediately. Customers see a transaction in their wallet:
+$50.00 — Customer bought store credit deposit. (Order #1234)
Using Top-Up
From My Account → Store Credit, logged-in customers see their balance and transaction history. If top-up is enabled, they also see a form to add credit:
- Enter amount (within min/max limits)
- Click to add to cart
- Proceed to checkout
- Pay with any available method
The cart shows a “Store Credit top-up” line item with the entered amount. Once paid, credit appears instantly.
Account Requirement
Store credit products require customer accounts. When a guest adds a deposit or top-up product to their cart:
- Guest checkout is automatically disabled
- Account creation is enabled and required
- After checkout, the new customer has both an account and a balance
Order Handling
When Credit Is Deposited
Credit is deposited when the order status reaches Processing or Completed—whichever comes first. This matches WooCommerce’s concept of “paid” orders.
For most payment gateways, this happens automatically after successful payment. For manual methods like bank transfer, credit deposits when you manually change the order status.
Refunds
When refunding an order containing deposit products, the credit is automatically reversed:
- The deposit amount is debited from the customer’s wallet
- An order note records the reversal
- The money is refunded through the original payment method
If the customer has already spent some of their deposited credit, their balance could go negative. Review balances before processing refunds on deposit orders.
Cancellations
Cancelled orders don’t deposit credit. If an order is cancelled before reaching Processing/Completed status, nothing happens to the customer’s wallet.
If credit was already deposited (order was Processing, then cancelled), the system reverses the deposit automatically.
Combining with Rewards
Store credit products can interact with cashback and milestone rewards in several ways.
Cashback on Deposits
You can configure cashback rewards to include deposit products. This lets you offer bonus credit on prepaid purchases:
- Customer buys $100 deposit product
- 10% cashback reward triggers
- Customer receives $100 (deposit) + $10 (cashback) = $110 total
To set this up, ensure your cashback reward’s eligibility rules include deposit products (or “All Products”).
Excluding Deposits from Cashback
If you don’t want to give cashback on deposit purchases, exclude them:
- Create a product category for deposit products
- Configure cashback to exclude that category
This prevents customers from gaming the system by buying credit, earning cashback, and repeating.
Inventory and Reporting
Stock Management
Deposit products don’t track inventory by default since they’re virtual. However, you can enable stock management if you want to limit total deposits:
- Enable “Manage stock” on the product
- Set a quantity limit
- Useful for limited-time promotions (“First 100 customers get bonus credit”)
Sales Reports
Deposit product sales appear in WooCommerce reports like any other product. You can:
- Track deposit revenue separately by creating a dedicated category
- View Store Credit → Transactions to see total credits issued
- Export transaction data for accounting
Liability Tracking
Outstanding store credit balances represent a liability—money you’ve collected but not yet delivered goods for. Track this by:
- Reviewing total wallet balances in Store Credit → Dashboard
- Running transaction reports filtered to deposits
- Comparing deposits received vs. credit spent
Best Practices
Product Naming
Clear, value-focused names work best:
- Good: “$50 Store Credit,” “Store Credit – $100”
- Avoid: “Deposit Product,” “Credit Type A”
Pricing Strategy
Consider round numbers that match common gift amounts and payment patterns. $25, $50, $100, $250 are typical.
For B2B, consider higher tiers: $500, $1000, $2500, $5000.
Fraud Prevention
Prepaid credit can be a fraud vector. Mitigate risk by:
- Setting reasonable top-up maximums
- Reviewing large deposit purchases manually
- Monitoring for unusual patterns (rapid deposits from new accounts)
- Considering velocity limits on deposits per account per time period
Communication
Set customer expectations clearly:
- Explain in product descriptions that credit goes to their account
- Note any expiration policies
- Clarify that credit is non-transferable (if applicable)
- Include terms and conditions for store credit in your policies
Troubleshooting
Credit Not Deposited
If a customer purchased a deposit product but didn’t receive credit:
- Check the order status—must be Processing or Completed
- Look for order notes indicating deposit success/failure
- Review Store Credit → Transactions for the customer
- Verify the product type is “Deposit” not a regular product
Top-Up Not Showing
If customers don’t see the top-up option:
- Verify top-up is enabled in Store Credit → Settings
- Check that the customer is logged in (required)
- Clear any caching plugins and test again
- Verify the My Account page is using the standard WooCommerce endpoint
Cart Shows Wrong Amount
If the top-up amount in cart doesn’t match what the customer entered:
- Check session data isn’t corrupted (have customer clear cookies)
- Verify no minimum/maximum restrictions are being applied
- Test in an incognito window to rule out caching
Related Guides
- Getting Started with Account Funds
- Cashback Rewards — Automatically reward purchases with credit
- Partial Payments — Let customers combine credit with other payment methods
- Refunds to Store Credit — Credit refunds instead of returning to original payment