In short
- SameCount links each Clover item to the Shopify product variant with the same SKU.
- Every 60 seconds it reads both stock counts, adds up what changed on each side, and writes the same number to both.
- New shops start in watch-only mode: changes are logged, not made, until you approve them.
- It pauses and alerts us if more than 20% of items would change at once or more than 25 would drop to zero.
- It reads items, SKUs and stock levels only. Never customers, orders, payments or staff.
What gets synced
| Synced both ways | Not synced |
|---|---|
| Available stock for every linked item: sales, returns, deliveries, recounts and manual edits, made in either system | Product names, prices, descriptions, photos, new products, orders, customers and payments |
You keep managing products the way you do now. SameCount only keeps the stock count for each linked item the same.
Linking items
Items are matched by SKU. When you connect, SameCount links every Clover item to the Shopify variant with the same SKU. Items without a match on the other side stay unlinked and aren't touched.
SKUs are where most sync problems start, so check them first with the free SKU Check. It flags:
- Blank and duplicate SKUs
- SKUs longer than Clover allows
- One SKU used for two different products (product names are compared to catch this)
- Stock counts that already differ, negative stock, and items that exist in only one store
The sync rule
Most sync tools copy one side over the other, and the last write wins. If a sale happens on the side being overwritten, it's lost. SameCount adds changes up instead.
Each minute it compares both counts with what they were at the last sync, adds both changes to the shared count, and writes the result to both systems.
| Blue enamel mug | Clover | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| After the last sync | 10 | 10 |
| One sold at the till | 9 | 10 |
| Two sold online, same minute | 9 | 8 |
| Next sync: 10 − 1 − 2 | 7 | 7 |
Both sales come off. Restocks work the same way: receive 24 in either system and both show 24 more.
Safety rules
- Watch-only start. A new shop runs in watch-only mode first. Every change SameCount would make is logged and none are made. We go through the log with you before switching it live.
- Pause on big swings. If more than 20% of linked items would change in one sync (with at least 10 changing), it pauses instead of writing.
- Pause on mass zeroes. If more than 25 items would drop to zero in one sync, it pauses. An accidental import or a bad recount shouldn't empty your online store.
- Alerts. A pause, or three failed syncs in a row, alerts us right away, and we tell you what happened.
- Least access. SameCount can read products, stock levels and locations, and change stock levels. Nothing else.
When Clover or Shopify is down
Sales keep happening while an API is down. SameCount retries every minute, and when both systems answer again it adds up everything that changed in the meantime, so no sale is missed or counted twice.
Writes are recorded before they're sent. If a sync is cut off halfway, the next one checks what actually landed before doing anything else. Access tokens renew automatically; if Clover ever needs you to reconnect, your links are kept.
Tested at scale
Before our first shop, we ran SameCount against a test store with 3,989 items on each side:
- The SKU Check linked 3,617 items in 3.1 seconds, with no wrong links and none missed.
- Over 15 syncs we made about 600 random sales and restocks, including 300 on Shopify landing mid-sync.
- The slowest sync took 28 seconds. There were no errors, and every count was correct afterwards.
What you need
- A Clover merchant account and a Shopify store
- SKUs on the items you want synced, the same in both systems
- One Clover merchant and one Shopify location per plan. Running more locations? Tell us.