Artisan Corporate Gifts in Bologna: How It Works

An artisan corporate gift is bought like any other supply: one point of contact, one order, one invoice. What changes is what reaches the person: not a gift box full of options nobody will use, but a code that works on a real experience, in a studio in Bologna, on a date chosen by whoever receives it. Below are the answers procurement always asks for — a single invoice for several codes, validity, unredeemed codes, personalisation, December lead times — and the three shapes the gift can take: gift card, private workshop, gadget made by hand by a Maker.

Giving an object or giving an experience

An object has to be guessed right: size, taste, colour, and the very real risk that an identical one is already at home. An experience does not: you choose it as a category, not as a detail. The recipient decides the craft, the date and the studio, so the hardest problem — getting the person right — moves to whoever actually knows their own taste.

• No sizes, no returns: there is no wrong colour and no parcel to send back in January.
• It gets talked about: an afternoon at the potter's wheel gets told on Monday morning at the office, a water bottle does not.
• It still ends in an object: from a workshop you go home with what you made with your hands, and that object stays in sight for years.
• It works with anyone: employees, clients, suppliers, speakers at a conference. What changes is the accounting treatment, not the document you hand over.

If you have never seen how a session actually runs, we described it in what an artisan workshop is: it helps you understand what you are giving, not just what it costs.

One invoice for several codes: how the order works

A corporate order does not go through a shopping cart. You write to us from the companies page, telling us how many people, what amount per head and when the codes are needed; we come back with a written proposal and, once you confirm, we issue the codes in bulk.

1. You tell us the number of recipients, the amount per head and the date by which they must be delivered.
2. We agree the format: the same code for everyone, or different amounts for different groups inside the same order.
3. You get the proposal with the total. We reply to requests from the companies page within 24 hours.
4. Once confirmed we issue the codes: we send them by email to each recipient, or hand them to you in bulk if you would rather put them in an envelope yourself.
5. You receive a single invoice for the whole order, with Handsome as the only supplier.

On the accounting side there is one rule: show it to your accountant before ordering, not after. As a reference point, in answer no. 519 of 2019 the Italian Revenue Agency sets out the rules on vouchers: a voucher is single-purpose if, when it is issued, the VAT treatment of the service it entitles the holder to is already known (article 6-ter of Presidential Decree 633/1972), and multi-purpose if it is not (article 6-quater); for multi-purpose vouchers, transfers preceding redemption are not relevant for VAT purposes. In the same document, the costs incurred for vouchers given to clients are traced back to the ministerial decree of 19 November 2008, with deduction as entertainment expenses (article 108 of the TUIR) remaining conditional on the requirements of that decree and of circolare 34/E of 2009.

If the recipients are your own employees, a different set of rules applies — fringe benefits and corporate welfare — and the document should be chosen with your payroll adviser before ordering.

Who chooses the date and the studio

The recipient does. This is where an experience gift either works or falls apart: if the company locks in one date for everybody, half the people will not be there. With a code, each person books when they can, on the studio's real calendar.

The Handsome gift card is valid for 12 months from purchase on any workshop on the platform, arrives by email and works like a wallet: if the experience costs less than the value of the code, the balance stays available for a future booking; if it costs more, the difference is paid at the time of booking. Preset amounts run from 25 to 150 euro, and a custom amount can be set from 15 euro upwards.

• No date to block in advance: the recipient picks it, on the Maker's genuine availability.
• No supplier hunt: if one craft is not free in the right period, the recipient finds another on the platform without phoning anybody.
• No direct contact to manage: the company talks to us, the studio talks to us.

Validity, unredeemed codes and December lead times

The code has an expiry date: 12 months from purchase. After that it can no longer be redeemed and the amount is not refunded, which is why the usage window is decided together with the delivery date.

• Deliver in December, experience in January: before Christmas studios are at their busiest. A code handed over under the tree and used in late January is worth more, both to the person receiving it and to the person running the session.
• Order with room to spare: for a large order, or for codes carrying a personal message, the right moment is November.
• Ask us for a mid-way check: we can tell you how many codes are still unused, so you can send an internal reminder while people are still in time.
• The gadget has its own timing: an object made by hand in a small batch is not taken off a shelf, it is scheduled into production weeks ahead.

The gadget made by hand by a Maker

There is one case where the object beats the experience: when everybody needs the same thing, handed out on a single occasion — the end-of-year dinner, a trade fair stand, a welcome kit. That is where the artisan twin of the promotional gadget exists, and it is not the catalogue item with a logo printed on it.

• Made by a Maker, not imported: a small batch, chosen materials, visible differences between one piece and the next.
• Genuinely customisable: shape, colour, engraving or mark, within the limits of the technique and the material.
• Quantities and timing are agreed: there is no stock to clear, there is a production run to schedule.
• It combines with the experience: the gadget for the many, the workshop for the people you really want to thank.

It is not a catalogue product: we start from quantity, material and delivery date, and build the quote on those. The request starts from the same place, the companies page, so it stays a single order even when the gift is mixed — codes for some, objects for others.

How to recognise a real artisan

The word «artisan» printed on a box guarantees nothing. Public references do exist, though: in Emilia-Romagna the Region grants the status of artistic and traditional artisan enterprise on the basis of regional law 1/2010 and of the regulation on artistic and traditional crafts sectors (Presidential Decree 288/2001), on an online application from businesses registered in the Register of Artisan Enterprises and in the Business Register.

On the platform the check is more direct: every Maker has a public profile with their name, their studio, their techniques and reviews from people who actually took part. Before ordering you can look at who the Makers are.

Price: what you see is what you pay

Handsome takes no commission on the workshop revenue: the payment lands directly in the Maker's own Stripe account. The 0.50 euro booking Guarantee per seat is already included in the round figure the customer sees — the price shown is the price paid, with nothing added on top — and Handsome invoices it to the Maker once a month, only on events that actually took place.

For procurement the translation is simple: the quote you approve is the figure you find on the invoice. No service percentage on top of the total, no surcharge for the recipient at the moment of redemption.