Payments & Reconciliation
Part of POS offline and outage planning
Recording sales during a payment terminal outage
Record items, amounts and payment status when an EFTPOS terminal fails, without mistaking a POS paid mark for a confirmed card charge.
Keep the sale and its payment status separate. If the terminal cannot confirm a card charge, record the items and amount, and mark the payment unresolved until the processor can confirm it. A POS entry saying “card” or “paid” does not by itself prove that a broken terminal took money.
Decide whether checkout can continue
Have the shift lead identify whether the fault is the terminal, its connection or the POS-to-terminal link. Check the original attempt in the terminal provider’s merchant record before retrying. If its status cannot be found, pause that charge and follow the business’s escalation route.
Offer only payment methods the current setup can complete and verify. Cash may be available if the till can record it or the business has an approved manual record.
A separate terminal is an option only if its processor confirms it is working and staff can link its payment to the sale. Provider-supported offline card acceptance is another arrangement: a stored payment may later decline. A terminal outage does not itself make offline card payments available.
Square says its cash and other tender choices record funds that Square does not process. Staff need to know which system handled the money.
Give each sale one traceable entry
If the POS works, select the actual items and keep the original sale in the state the software supports. Record a payment as confirmed only when its result is known.
For a confirmed external terminal payment, retain its reference with the sale using the fields available. Check how the manual method appears in reports; Square custom payment methods, for example, appear under Other.
If the POS is unavailable, use a numbered outage sheet approved by the business. Record:
- date, time, counter and staff member;
- item or service, quantity, price and total;
- payment choice and statuscash received, external card confirmed, card attempt unresolved, or unpaid;
- receipt or terminal reference, when available; and
- the person who will enter or resolve the sale after recovery.
Keep full card numbers, security codes and card photographs off the sheet. A paper entry records the sale; it does not authorise a card payment. Tell the customer when payment is unresolved and let the shift lead decide whether goods can be released under the business’s policy.
Key Statistics from Provider Guidance
- Square custom payment methods appear underOther in reports
- POS entry showing 'card' does not confirm paymentOnly indicates attempted charge – not confirmation
- Offline card payments require processor approvalTerminal outage alone does not enable offline mode
Prevent a duplicate sale or charge
If a card screen freezes after the customer presents a card, find the original attempt before opening another sale or charging again. If the processor later confirms a charge, link it to the original sale through the supported correction path.
If no completed charge is found, arrange payment under the business’s policy. Keep the attempted and final references together.
When service returns, hand the numbered sheet and unresolved list to the recovery owner. Compare each entry with POS orders and processor transactions before entering missing sales. Label any later entry as backfilled so cash or card takings are not counted twice.
