Cardknox Gift Card Integration

Aluvii has a built-in gift card system included with the software platform.  Although this native gift card system has many features that works for most Aluvii customers, this system only works within a single Aluvii instance. For Aluvii clients that have multiple locations and have set up each location in separate Aluvii instances, you may want to consider using our gift card integration with Cardknox Payment Gateway. Aluvii communicates seamlessly with the Cardknox gift card service and allows many locations to share gift cards across stores as long as all the locations all use Cardknox for payment processing. This article provides more information about how to set this up. 

Enable Cardknox Account

The first step to get the integration to work will be to have an active cardknox account and gift cards enabled. This is a back end configuration that is done by your Cardknox agent. Reach out to Aluvii support for more details about how to do this. Furthermore, if you want to link multiple locations to all pull from the same Gift Card account, this can be done on the back end as well.

Note that in order to sell/redeem gift cards using the Cardknox system, a list of gift card barcode numbers need to be pre-registered with the Cardknox back end. In other words, unlike the Aluvii built-in service, you cannot use any random number as a gift card unless those gift card numbers are pre-loaded into Cardknox.  

Enable Cardknox Gift Cards in Aluvii

Once your Cardknox account is enabled for Gift Cards, you also need to enable this setting in Aluvii so that your Aluvii software knows to route gift card requests to the Carknox account instead of the built-in gift card service.

1. Navigate to the Configuration tab under the Administration activity. Click the sub tab called Common Settings, and then click Payment Gateway tab. 

2. Check the box for "Enable Gift Cards" and click Save Changes button. This will enable the Cardknox gift card system in Aluvii. Leaving this box unchecked means that your site will use the built-in Aluvii gift card system. 

Selling Gift Cards using Cardknox Integration

 Selling a gift card using the Cardknox integration follows the same flow as the built-in service. 

1. Go to the Employee Register activity and select a register. At the bottom of the register, click the icon that looks like a gift box. 

2. A popup window will display two fields. Enter the barcode number from the gift cards. You can enter manually, or scan the barcode, or use the magstripe. Using the magstripe often displays extra characters related to the card. This full magstripe string can be left in place and Cardknox will parse out the card numbers properly. If the card is already recognized by Cardknox, you should see some green text below the barcode field as shown in the below screenshot. If the text is red, this means that the barcode number has not been pre-registered with Cardknox as mentioned above.

Then enter the amount you want to load onto the card, and click Add to Cart button. 

3. Proceed to checkout and make a payment using any payment type and complete the transition like normal. At the completion of the transaction, the gift card number that you entered will be loaded with the amount you entered. The gift card and its balance are stored within Cardknox--they are not stored inside Aluvii database. This is what allows Cardknox to work across all locations when locations are linked on the Cardknox back end. 

Paying with a Gift Card

 Making a payment for a transaction using a Cardknox gift cards is the same flow as the built-in service. 

 1. When doing a sale, add items to the cart and proceed to checkout. Select the Gift Card payment tab and enter the gift card number. This can be manually typed, scanned, or swiped. Click the Get Balance button and then click Pay with Gift Card button. This will enter the payment and you can complete the transaction as normal. This process will reduce the card balance by the amount of the gift card payment for a real-time balance tracking. 

Lookup Gift Card Balance

While on the employee register, click the gift box icon at the bottom as if you're going to sell a new gift card. Enter the gift card barcode number and the gift card balance will show in green text below the barcode field. See screenshot above about selling gift cards.

For more functions, including reporting, related to Cardknox gift card system, you can login to your Cardknox merchant portal to find more. To read more about the Cardknox merchant portal, click here.