# Issuing a city voucher for your town: keeping the money local

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# Issuing a city voucher for your town: keeping the money local

 One issuer, one local voucher, spendable at every participating shop. Buying is online with iDEAL | Wero, redeeming works in parts, and double-spending is technically impossible.

 [Jasper Koers](https://mijnevent.nl/en/author/jasper-koers) · 21 May 2026 · 5 min read 

        In short

- One issuer — a municipality, retailers' association or BID — issues a single local voucher that is spendable at every participating shop, with the recipient choosing where to spend it.
- Buyers order online and pay with iDEAL | Wero; the voucher arrives by email with a unique code and QR code, and it can be spent in parts with the remaining balance publicly checkable.
- Participating shops need no MijnEvent account: they are invited by email, set their own PIN, and redeem by scanning the QR or typing the code — double redemption is technically impossible.
- The holder is automatically emailed after each redemption, and the issuer sees per shop exactly what has been redeemed and what is still to be paid out.
- Payouts run in rounds: you select the shops, MijnEvent draws up the self-billed invoices and produces a SEPA payment file you import at your own bank — the money never passes through MijnEvent.

  Many municipalities, retailers' associations and Business Improvement Districts want the same thing: to keep spending inside their own town centre. A local gift voucher is a proven way to do it — but execution often gets stuck on paper vouchers, manual admin and shops waiting months for their money. The [Gift cards & city cards](/en/modules/city-cards) module turns it into a digital, watertight system.

# One issuer, many places to spend

The model is simple: **one issuing party** — the retailers' association, the municipality or the BID — issues a single local voucher under the name of its own town centre. That voucher is then **spendable at every participating shop**: the bookshop, the restaurant, the bike repair place. The buyer doesn't have to choose upfront where it gets spent; the recipient decides that. That is exactly what makes a city voucher such a popular gift and such an effective instrument for the local economy.

# Buying online with iDEAL | Wero

Sales run entirely online. On the public order page the buyer picks an amount and pays with iDEAL | Wero. Right after, the voucher lands **by email**, complete with a unique code and a QR code. Print it for an envelope or forward it digitally — both work fine. No printing, no stock management, no staffed physical point of sale.

![The public order page of the city voucher](https://regify-mijnevent.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/blog/screenshots/stadsbon.webp)*The city voucher order page: pick an amount, pay with iDEAL | Wero, voucher straight to the inbox.*

# Spendable in parts, balance always checkable

A €50 voucher doesn't have to be spent at once. The city voucher is **spendable in parts**: spend €32.50 at the restaurant and €17.50 stays for the florist. The remaining balance simply stays on the voucher — and it's never a mystery, because anyone can check it publicly by entering the code on the balance page.

# Every shop gets its own login and scanning app

Participating shops don't need a MijnEvent account. The issuing organisation simply invites a shop with a name and email address; the shop receives an invitation link, **sets its own PIN** and then logs into the shop app with **email and PIN** — just like a ticket inspector at the gate.

At the till it's three steps: **scan the voucher's QR code** (or type the code), **see the available balance**, and **redeem an amount**. Works on any phone or tablet, no installation.

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The system guards two things that structurally go wrong with paper vouchers. First: **double redemption is technically impossible** — every redemption is deducted from the balance immediately and definitively. Second, it's forgiving with **sloppy input**: lower-case letters, a missing dash in the code — it's corrected automatically.

# The holder stays informed

The moment a shop redeems an amount, the **holder is automatically emailed**: how much was redeemed, at which shop, and the remaining balance. So the recipient effortlessly keeps track of both their balance and where the voucher was spent — no surprises, no guesswork.

# The money stays local

The best part of a city voucher is under the hood: every voucher sold is spending that's **guaranteed to land in the town itself**. The gift budget that would otherwise have gone to a national web shop or a big chain now reaches the shops around the corner. For municipalities it's also a practical way to give residents something — a token for volunteers or informal carers, say — whose value flows straight back into the local economy.

# Paying out the shops

The money your residents spend sits in your own account; MijnEvent is not in between. Paying out is therefore something you do — but not by hand.

Every shop enters its **payment details** once in the shop app: IBAN, account name and company details. Account name and trading name are asked separately, because a sole trader's account is often in the owner's name while the chamber of commerce lists the trading name — exactly the difference banks warn about. Once confirmed those details are locked: only you can release them again, with a stated reason, and the shop is automatically notified. That is the brake on the classic payment diversion.

Paying out itself runs in **rounds**, under Dashboard → City card → Payouts:

1. You select which shops are included. Shops without payment details are shown separately *with* their amount, so they don't drop out of your selection unnoticed.
2. MijnEvent books a payout per shop — with the same lock that makes paying twice impossible.
3. You download the **SEPA payment file** (`pain.001`) and import it at your own bank. A CSV is there too, for anyone who prefers to work by hand.
4. You move the status along yourself: submitted → reconciled. A file import gives no per-transaction feedback, so that button belongs to you.

For every round MijnEvent draws up a document on behalf of each shop, addressed to your organisation: a **self-billed invoice** or a **payment statement**, with its own numbering series and, where applicable, a UBL file. Which form that is, you set per programme — how a city voucher is treated for VAT is a question for your accountant, not for us. Each round also produces one **summary sheet** for your records, and every shop receives its document as an attachment to the payout email.

Something wrong with a single line? Set it to **failed**; its redemptions are released and reappear in the next round by themselves. Withdrawing a whole round is possible as long as the file has not reached the bank yet.

> The file with IBANs is not kept — only its checksum. A folder full of payment files is a data breach waiting to happen.

# Getting started

The Gift cards & city cards module is **available on request via MijnEvent**. Active at a municipality, BID or retailers' association and want to launch your own local voucher? Check the [module page](/en/modules/city-cards), read what is involved in [issuing your own city pass](/en/issue-a-city-pass) after the Groupcard bankruptcy, or get in touch — we'll help think through the setup for your town centre.

   Frequently asked questions

## Frequently asked questions

## How does someone buy a city voucher?

  On the public order page they pick an amount and pay online with iDEAL | Wero. The voucher then arrives by email with a unique code and QR code, ready to print or forward.

## Can a city voucher be spent in parts?

  Yes. A €50 voucher can be split — for example €32.50 at the restaurant and €17.50 left for the florist — and the remaining balance stays on the voucher and can be checked publicly with the code.

## How do participating shops redeem a voucher?

  A shop is invited by email, sets its own PIN and logs into the shop app with email and PIN. At the till it scans the voucher's QR code or types the code, sees the available balance and redeems an amount — no account or installation needed.

  [    Back to blog ](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog) 

  MijnEvent

## Read more

 [ ![](https://regify-mijnevent.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/blog/covers/stadsbon-direct-in-je-kassa.webp) stadspas 

 Jasper Koers · 30 August 2026 · 4 min read

## City voucher straight into your till: scan the amount, done

New for shopkeepers: after redeeming a city voucher, the shop app shows a barcode carrying the amount. One scan with your own till scanner and the line is in your register — no retyping.

 ](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog/city-voucher-straight-into-your-till) [ ![](https://regify-mijnevent.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/blog/covers/een-platform-in-plaats-van-vijf-losse-tools.webp) modules 

 Jasper Koers · 29 August 2026 · 9 min read

## One platform instead of five separate tools — and now your website too

A ticket shop here, a web shop there, the membership list in a spreadsheet and a website built by yet another agency. What that collection really costs you, and what changes once it is one system with one Mollie connection.

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 Jasper Koers · 26 August 2026 · 8 min read

## GDPR for event organisers: handling visitor data properly

You collect names, e-mail addresses and payment details. That comes with obligations — here are the ones that matter, in plain language.

 ](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog/gdpr-visitor-data-events) 

   MijnEvent

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