When a Gift Card/Store Credit is issued in Counterpoint a customer can IMMEDIATELY check the balance of the gift card/store credit on the Magento 1 website.
This real time lookup functionality is accomplished by making a secure web call to the Commerce5 CPGateway Service that is running on the Counterpoint server
Default location of Gift Card/Store Credit Balance Check Page:
https://www.mywebsite.com/giftvoucher/index/check/
The customer can enter their Gift Card/Store Credit Number and click "Check Card Balance"
The Card Balance and History of Activity is displayed
Example of Card # TEST4321 performing a lookup to the Store Credit in Counterpoint
History Detail
Example of History Detail that Shows that a Gift Card was originally issued for $150 on ticket T-1002196 and then redeemed for $72.36 on ticket T-1002197
Corresponding Gift Card Activity Records in Counterpoint database
When the Gift Card/Store Credit Balance Check is performed a gift card is created on the fly in Magento as seen here: