Home>Accept Payments

Accept Payments on Square Register

What’s in this article?

Once you’ve set up your Square Register, you can start processing payments right away.

Accept Payments with Square Register

Position the customer display so your customers can easily see it and pay with their cards or devices. To take a payment, build your cart and tap Charge. Learn more about accepted cards with Square.

Tap

The contactless logo lights up after tapping Charge. Ask your customer to hold a contactless device or card near the contactless logo to trigger the payment. If the transaction is over $200, the customer must enter their PIN.

Insert

Ask your customer to insert a chip card into the illuminated chip card slot on the customer display, and leave it in place until they’ve entered their PIN and the sale is complete. If prompted, your customer can select their preferred account after inserting their card before entering their PIN on the customer display.

Note: The front of the card should face upwards if the customer display is docked, and towards your customer, if the customer display is undocked.

Swipe

Ask your customer to swipe a magnetic stripe-only card through the magnetic stripe reader on the customer display. Customers can swipe in either direction and must enter a PIN if the transaction is over $200. Note: Only internationally issued cards without a chip can be swiped, or cards with a chip that is faulty.

Docked Display
Undocked display

Add Images to Your Customer Display

To get started, you can upload your image then configure the appearance from your Square Register. To do so:

  1. Go to Settings > Account & Settings from your online Square Dashboard.

  2. Click Businessinformation > Locations.

  3. Select the location you’d like to update or create a new one.

  4. Scroll to Point of Sale Checkout Background, and click the + icon in the image box to upload your image.

  5. Click Save.

To configure your customer display and image settings:

  1. On your Square Register, tap the down arrow at the top of the screen.

  2. Select Settings > Hardware > Customer Display.

  3. Toggle on Show Image.

Connect Hardware Accessories

The USB accessory hub lets you connect a cash drawer, printer or barcode scanner to Square Register via USB. Learn more about supported point of sale hardware accessories for Square Register.

Note: Charging USB devices is not supported by the Hub USB ports.

Take Payments in Offline Mode

Square Register requires an internet connection at all times to function properly. If your internet connection becomes interrupted or temporarily unavailable, you can enable Offline mode to accept tap, swipe or chip and PIN card payments and digital payments like Google Pay and Apple Pay. Offline payments are processed automatically when you reconnect your device to the internet and may be declined if not processed within24 hours.

To enable Offline Mode from your online Square Dashboard:

  1. Go to Settings > Devices.

  2. Select an existing device to update, or click Create a Point of Sale. 

  3. Toggle on Offline mode. 

  4. Set the maximum amount allowed per transaction for payments accepted in Offline mode. 

  5. Click Save.

Once enabled, Offline mode will automatically activate on the Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail or Square for Restaurants app whenever your internet connectivity is unavailable. You will see a banner at the top of your Square Register screen indicating it has automatically entered Offline mode.

For your team members to enable or disable Offline mode, they will need to have the Configure Checkout Settings box ticked in their Permission setting. Team Members without this permission granted can still process payments in Offline mode but will be unable to enable or disable Offline mode.

When operating in Offline mode, there is an additional risk with any payments you accept. Square is not responsible for any loss due to declined cards or expired payments are taken while offline or for chargebacks. In addition, Square cannot contact any customers on your behalf should a payment decline or expire when taken in Offline mode. You will also be unable to add customers or cards on file to your offline sales.

If you recently accepted payments while offline and have not yet uploaded them, do not delete and reinstall the Square app or factory-reset your Square Register. Doing so will delete any offline payments you have not uploaded.

Learn more about Offline Mode.

Supported Point of Sale Features

Square Register allows you to do a lot more than take payments. Learn more about what your device can do:

Specialised Point of Sale apps:

What’s in this article?

Can't find what you need?

Ask our support assistant