Creating and managing staff Shopify Balance cards
You might be able to add secondary cardholders for your Shopify Balance account. The primary cardholder of a Shopify Balance account can add secondary cardholders from the staff accounts associated with their Shopify store. The primary cardholder can create either a virtual or physical card for a secondary cardholder.
When creating a card for a secondary cardholder, card availability depends on the linked account:
- Main Shopify Balance account: Physical or virtual cards
- Additional Shopify Balance accounts: You might be able to create virtual cards (one per account)
On this page
Create a card for a new secondary cardholder
As the primary cardholder of a Shopify Balance account, you can create secondary cards for your staff.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Finance.
Select the Shopify Balance account that you want to create a new card for.
In the My cards section, click the
icon to create a new card.In the Cardholder field, select the cardholder or click Add a new user.
In the Linked account field, select the linked account.
Choose either Virtual or Physical as your card type.
Optional: You can set up spend controls for the secondary cardholder, such as a monthly spend limit or an automatic lock date.
Click Create card.
The staff member that you invite needs to accept the invitation and finish setup before they can begin using their card.
Accept an invitation to become a secondary cardholder
After the primary cardholder sends you an invitation to become a secondary cardholder, you need to complete your secondary cardholder setup before you can use your Shopify Balance card. Steps differ slightly when you already have a secondary card for another Shopify financial product than when you're becoming a secondary cardholder for the first time.
Before you begin, you need to have two-step authentication (2SA) activated. 2SA is required to access all the features of Shopify Balance.
For a new secondary cardholder
Complete the following steps to activate your Shopify Balance card and finish your cardholder setup.
Steps:
- From the cardholder invitation email, click Activate.
- Enter your personal information, and then click Activate.
- If the invitation is for a physical secondary card, then enter the last four digits of your Shopify Balance card and click Next.
For an existing secondary cardholder
If you already have a secondary card for another Shopify financial product, then you need only to activate the new card.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Finance.
In the Cards section, select the new card.
Review the terms for the new card, and then click Activate card.
Set up spend controls for secondary cardholders
The primary cardholder can set spend controls for each card, such as a monthly spending limit or an automatic lock date. These spend controls can be updated at any time to match your use case.
Change the monthly spending limit of a card
If you change the monthly spend limit of a card to an amount that's less than the current month's spend, then the cardholder can't make any additional purchases that month.
If at any time the Shopify Balance account's current balance is less than the card’s monthly spending limit, then the secondary cardholder can't spend more than the remaining available amount.
For example, if the remaining available balance is $500 USD, and the secondary cardholder's available monthly spending limit is $1000 USD, then they can spend only $500 USD.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Finance.
Select your card.
On the Cards page, select the secondary card.
Click
, and then click Card settings. Update the spending limit for this card, and then click Save.
Set up an automatic lock date for secondary cardholders
After you create a new card for a secondary cardholder, you can schedule a date to lock the card automatically. If no date is set, then the card remains active until manually locked. You can modify or remove the automatic lock date at any time in Card settings.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Finance.
Select your card.
On the Cards page, select the secondary card.
Click
, and then click Card settings. Choose a date when this card automatically locks, and then click Save.
Manually lock a secondary card
The primary cardholder can manually lock a secondary card to temporarily prevent spending, such as when a card is lost or when a staff member is on leave.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Finance.
Select your card.
On the Cards page, select the secondary card.
Click Lock card.
To unlock a card, complete the steps to access the secondary card, and then click Unlock card.
Remove a secondary cardholder
If you deactivate a staff member's account that is a secondary cardholder with active cards, then that cardholder's cards are automatically locked and can't be used. If you reactivate that staff member's account, then their cards are automatically unlocked and can be used again.
If you remove a staff member's account from your store, and that staff member is a secondary cardholder with active cards, then their cards are canceled and can't be used.
You can also remove a secondary cardholder without deactivating or removing their staff account.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Finance.
Select your card.
On the Cards page, select any card associated with the cardholder that you want to remove.
Click
, and then click Remove cardholder.