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Home>Taking Payments On A Mobile Device

Use Card on File with the Square Point of Sale App

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Use Card on File with the Square app to make selling easy:

  • Securely add and store payment cards in your Customer Directory.

  • Seamlessly charge your customers’ stored payment cards.

  • Safely carry out your business with Square handling PCI compliance and authorisation on your behalf.

Note: Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account cards are not currently supported with Card on File.

Turn on Card on File

With Card on File enabled, you can link payment cards to customer profiles from both the app and your online Square Dashboard. To turn on Card on File:

  1. From the navigation bar at the bottom right of your screen, tap More.

  2. Tap Settings.

  3. Tap Checkout > Customer Management.

  4. Under Save a Card on File :
    a. Toggle on the option to save a card in the Customer profile for future use.
    b. To save a card after a sale, toggle on After Checkout to show a Save Card button after checkout

Store Payment Cards from the App

There are three ways to store a card on file with the Square app:

  • From your in-app Customer Directory

  • Before a sale

  • After a sale

Note: Phone numbers cannot be used for Card on File notifications. A valid email must be provided.

From your in-app Customer Directory

  1. From the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, tap Transactions.

  2. Tap Customers > select an existing customer from the list or tap Create New Customer.

  3. Tap Edit Personal Information > scroll to the bottom and tap Add Card. (Note: If you’re creating a new customer, you’ll need to enter their personal information and tap Save. After the customer is saved in your Directory, you’ll see the option to add a Card on File.)

  4. Manually key in the card information. You’re required to enter the customer’s name and email address.

  5. Have your customer enter their email address for receipts.

  6. Have your customer authorise the card on file for future purchases by entering their postcode associated with their payment card. Your customer will receive an email confirming that you have saved a card on file for them.

  7. You’ll see Card Saved once it’s linked to the customer’s profile. If your business has multiple locations, you can use a saved payment card to process a transaction at any of them.

Before a sale

Note: We recommend using your device in landscape view.

  1. From your Current Sale screen, tap Add a customer.

  2. Select an existing customer from the list or tap Create New Customer.

  3. Use steps 3–7 from the section above, ‘From your in-app Customer Directory’, to add and save the payment card information.

After a sale

To start, ring up your customer as you normally would. Once you’ve completed the payment, you can store the payment card information used in the sale using the steps below.

Note: This option is only available for the Square app on an iPad or iPhone. Also, you’re unable to save payment card information for sales completed with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

  1. Tap Add Customer from the receipt screen.

  2. Select an existing customer or tap Create New Customer.

  3. Follow steps 3–7 under the ‘From your in-app Customer Directory’ section.

Charge a Card on File with the App

With a stored card on file, you can charge your customer with the Square app at a future visit or with a Square Invoice, all without ever using the physical card.

From the Square App

Note: We recommend using your device in landscape view for each set of steps below.

  1. Add items to your basket or enter a custom amount.

  2. Tap Charge > Customer Cards on File. Note: If you’re using a mobile device, or your tablet is being used in Portrait mode (vertically), tap Review Sale > Charge.

  3. Select a customer with a card on file > tap Charge to select a payment card for the transaction.

  4. Complete the payment flow.

With Open Tickets

  1. Add items to your basket or enter a custom amount.

  2. From the Current Sale screen, tap Add a customer.

  3. Select a customer with a card on file.

  4. Tap Charge. Note: If you’re using a mobile device, or your tablet is being used in portrait mode (vertically), tap Review Sale > Charge.

  5. Card on File displays as a new tender type at the bottom of the screen. Tap Charge next to the card on file that you would like to use for the payment.

  6. Complete the payment flow.

When you charge a customer’s card on file, a receipt is automatically sent to the email address associated with their customer profile.

Note: You can enable or restrict your team’s ability to add custom amounts to transactions by editing your team member’s role from Permissions > Checkout in your online Square Dashboard. Team members that do not have permission to add custom amounts will be required to key in a manager passcode to add a custom amount to a transaction.

Unlink a Card on File

You can unlink and remove your customers’ cards on file from their profile in your Customer Directory under Edit Personal Information.

Your customers can also remove their own cards by following the link provided to them on all card on file notifications. Customers will receive notifications when their card is stored, when their email address associated with the card is changed and when a payment is made using a card on file. The link on these notifications will take them to their Card on File Dashboard, where they can view and remove the cards on file associated with your business at any time.

Read more about using Card on File with the Point of Sale app.

Learn more about: Point of Sale

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