Accept payments with Square Register
About Square Register
Square Register is an integrated point of sale system that lets you start selling right out of the box. Square Register includes two displays — a seller-facing point of sale screen to ring up orders, and a customer-facing display to show customers what they’re buying and let them complete payment, so you can keep your line moving fast.
There are two generations of Square Register.
Square Register (1st generation) accepts the following payment types:
Magstripe cards (swipe)
EMV chip cards (insert)
NFC contactless cards and mobile wallet payments (tap)
Square Register (2nd generation) accepts the following payment types:
EMV chip cards (insert)
NFC contactless cards and mobile wallet payments (tap)
Before you begin
Make sure you have set up Square Register (1st generation) or set up Square Register (2nd generation).
When a customer taps, inserts or swipes their card in person, you pay a standard fee per transaction. Learn more about Square payment fees.
Square Register is powered by Square Point of Sale software and can also be used with Square for Restaurants, Square for Appointments and Square for Retail.
Square works with any Australian-issued and most internationally-issued payment cards, and also supports mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Afterpay. Learn how to Accept payment cards with Square.
You can purchase Square hardware and accessories via Square Shop or visit your local retail store.
Tap, insert and swipe payments
Select your version of Square Register below to learn how to accept tap, insert and swipe payments.
Accept payments on your Square Register (1st generation) with the customer display docked or undocked.
- Position the customer display so your customers can easily see it and pay with their cards and devices.
- Add items to the current sale by tapping on the item in your Library or Favourites tab. If you’re using a supported barcode scanner, you can scan an item’s barcode with a SKU saved to your Item Library.
- You can tap on items in the current sale to select a variation or modifier, adjust the quantity, add a note or remove the item.
- Tap Charge to prepare for payment.
- Help your customer pay with one of the following methods:
- Tap (Apple Pay, Google Pay, contactless credit cards): Ask your customer to hold a contactless device or card near the contactless logo to trigger the payment. The contactless logo lights up after tapping Charge.
- Insert (chip credit cards): Ask your customer to insert a chip card into the chip card slot on the customer display and leave it in place until the sale is complete. The front of the card should face your customer.
- Swipe (swipe cards): Ask your customer to swipe a swipe card through the swipe card reader. Customers can swipe in either direction.
- When you hear a beep and see a confirmation on your screen, the payment has successfully completed.
- If the customer wants a digital receipt, they can enter their phone number or email address on the customer display. After a payment completes, the final screen will read All Done.
- To cancel the payment before it’s been processed, tap the X icon or the back arrow to return to the previous screen.
Image description: Square Register (1st generation) with customer display docked to the seller display.
Image description: Three panels showing Square Register (1st generation) payment acceptance methods with the customer display docked: left panel demonstrates contactless tap payment, centre panel shows chip card insertion, right panel illustrates swipe card swipe.
Image description: Square Register (1st generation) with customer display undocked.
Image description: Three panels showing Square Register (1st generation) payment acceptance methods with the customer display undocked: left panel demonstrates contactless tap payment, centre panel shows chip card insertion, right panel illustrates swipe card swipe.
Accept payments on your Square Register (2nd generation) with the customer display docked or undocked.
- Position the customer display so your customers can easily see it and pay with their cards and devices.
- Add items to the current sale by tapping on the item in your Library or Favourites tab. If you’re using a supported barcode scanner, you can scan an item’s barcode with a SKU saved to your Item Library.
- You can tap on items in the current sale to select a variation or modifier, adjust the quantity, add a note or remove the item.
- Tap Charge to prepare for payment.
- Help your customer pay with one of the following methods:
- Tap (Apple Pay, Google Pay, contactless credit cards): Ask your customer to hold a contactless device or card near the contactless logo to trigger the payment. The contactless logo lights up after tapping Charge.
- Insert (chip credit cards): Ask your customer to insert a chip card into the chip card slot on the customer display and leave it in place until the sale is complete. The front of the card should face your customer.
- Swipe (magstripe): Square Register (2nd generation) does not have a built-in magstripe reader to accept swipe payments. You can manually enter the card number to accept payment. You can accept physical and eGift cards by scanning the QR code on the back of the card with a compatible barcode scanner. Learn more about manual card entry and accepting gift cards.
- When you hear a beep and see a confirmation on your screen, the payment has successfully completed.
- If the customer wants a digital receipt, they can enter their phone number or email address on the customer display. After a payment completes, the final screen will read All Done.
- To cancel the payment before it’s been processed, tap the X icon or the back arrow to return to the previous screen.
Image description: Square Register (2nd generation) with customer display docked to the seller display, accepting a contactless card (tap) payment.
Image description: Square Register (2nd generation) with customer display docked to the seller display, accepting a chip card (insert) payment.
Image description: Square Register (2nd generation) with customer display undocked, accepting a contactless mobile (tap) payment.
More payment types
In addition to payment cards, you can take payments in a number of other ways, including card on file, house accounts, QR codes, cash and more. Learn how to Customise payment types with Square Point of Sale and Accept cash and cheques with Square.