This page is held back from the merchant guide. The card path has been built and hardened, but no card has yet been run end to end on the deployed build. Until one has, nothing published to merchants may say that cards are accepted. Everything below describes what the screens do; treat it as an operator reference, not as customer-facing instructions.
When the Card tender appears
Card is on the tender list when this register has a terminal attached and your account's terminal link is configured. Its subtitle names the device — Tap, insert, or swipe on 1850123456.
Two cases show the tender greyed out with a hint you can act on:
- Open a register to take terminal payments — no register is open on this device. Open the float.
- Pick your register on the Registers screen to take terminal payments — more than one register could be yours. Tap Use This Register on the right one.
Any other reason — no terminal attached, terminal link not configured — hides the tender entirely. Those are account setup, not something to fix at the counter.
Run the card
- Tap Card.
- Check the amount, then tap Charge $… on Terminal.
- The screen shows Waiting for Tap… — "Ask the customer to tap, insert, or swipe their card on 1850123456."
- It may change to Checking the Terminal — "Still working — asking the terminal for this charge's result." That is normal on a slow tap; it is asking about the same charge, not starting another.
- On approval the sale records and you land on the sale-complete screen.
While a charge is live, every way out of the payment window is inert. That is deliberate — a live charge must not be abandoned by accident.
The POS waits about three minutes before it gives up asking.
Card Declined
"The card was declined on the terminal." No money moved.
Tap Try Again to run a different card, or go back and take the payment another way.
Card Charged, but the sale is not recorded
If the card is charged and the sale then fails to record, you get Card Charged and:
The card was charged. This sale has not been recorded yet — record it now. Do NOT run the card again.
Tap Record this sale. That replays the charge that already happened; it never touches the terminal. Keep tapping it until the sale records. Running the card again takes the money twice.
Terminal Unavailable / Status Unknown / Terminal Link Misconfigured
These three mean the POS does not know the outcome. The card may still have been charged.
- Terminal Unavailable — the terminal could not be reached.
- Status Unknown — the terminal did not answer in time.
- Terminal Link Misconfigured — your account's terminal connection is not set up correctly. That one needs an operator, not a retry.
In all three, tap Check this charge's status. It asks about the same charge; it never starts a second one.
Only when you have looked at the terminal and know the charge either went through or was reversed should you use This charge is settled — start a new one. That is the only control that lets a fresh charge be started over one that may have moved money, and it is deliberately not the obvious button.
Stop waiting
Stop waiting (card may still run) stops the POS waiting. It does not cancel anything on the terminal:
This only stops the POS waiting. It does not stop the terminal — cancel there.
If you use it, cancel on the terminal itself and check its receipt before you ring the sale again.
Reprinting the terminal's copy
After a sale paid on the terminal, the sale-complete screen offers Reprint at terminal. It sends the customer copy back to the device — useful when the paper jammed. It cannot fail the sale; if the device is not reachable you get "Could not print — check the terminal."