How gift card sync works

Crossdock mirrors the digital gift cards you issue in Square into Shopify and keeps their balances in step on both sides. Gift card sync is available on the Premium and Scale plans and, like the rest of Crossdock, treats Square as the source of truth.

What syncs

Square is the source of truth for your gift cards. Digital gift cards you create in Square appear in Shopify automatically — Crossdock issues a matching Shopify gift card with the same code.

Balances stay in step in both directions. When a card is charged or reloaded through Square activities, Crossdock updates the Shopify balance to match. When a customer redeems or is refunded to the card during Shopify checkout, Crossdock records the change back in Square. Square’s balance is always the authority; if the two ever disagree, Crossdock heals Shopify toward Square.

Requirements

Gift card sync needs a few things in place:

• The Premium or Scale plan.
• Gift card permissions granted on both Shopify and Square. The Gift card sync card in Settings walks you through granting them.
• The same currency on both sides. If your Shopify store currency differs from your Square location currency, gift card sync is turned off and Crossdock shows a banner explaining why — balances in different currencies cannot be compared safely.
• Digital cards only. Physical gift cards are not supported at this version.
• Cards valued up to $2,000. A Square card issued above that amount is not mirrored, and Crossdock shows a banner.

What does NOT sync

• Physical gift cards — digital cards only for now.
• Gift cards issued in Square before you turned on gift card sync — only cards created afterward are mirrored. Existing card stock is not imported.
• Cards created directly in Shopify — Crossdock only syncs cards it minted from Square. A gift card created in Shopify is detected and flagged with a banner, never silently copied to Square.
• Deactivation — Crossdock never deactivates a gift card on either side. Voiding a card is always a deliberate action you take yourself in Square or Shopify.

When two registers count at once

Gift cards can be spent in more than one place at the same time, and no sync system can lock a single card across two separate platforms — Square and Shopify each accept redemptions independently. When the same card is charged at your point of sale and online at nearly the same moment, the combined redemptions can briefly add up to more than the card’s balance before the two systems reconcile.

Crossdock cannot prevent this — there is no shared lock across Square and Shopify — but it does detect it. During its regular reconciliation sweep, Crossdock compares both balances for every card and, if the redemptions imply a negative balance, raises a critical alert that shows the card’s last 4 digits and the exact discrepancy.

When you see a gift card drift alert:

• Review the card’s activity in both the Square Dashboard and the Shopify admin.
• Decide which redemptions are correct and adjust the balance manually if needed.
• The alert shows the exact difference between the two sides so you know how far apart they are.

Square’s balance is authoritative, so when in doubt, honor the balance Square reports.

What the gift card banners mean

• Gift card sync unavailable — currency mismatch — your Shopify and Square currencies differ, so gift card sync is turned off until they match.
• Gift card over the $2,000 limit — a Square card above Shopify’s issuance ceiling was not mirrored.
• Gift card created in Shopify — not synced — a card Crossdock did not issue was used on a Shopify order; it is flagged, not mirrored to Square.
• Gift card balance mismatch — possible double redemption — the critical drift alert described above; the same card was likely redeemed on both Square and Shopify at nearly the same time.