Card payments while the internet is down
How Store and Forward lets you keep taking cards offline, the risk that comes with it, and what happens when the internet is back.
If your restaurant has Store and Forward turned on, card payments keep working when the internet is down. The card reader approves and stores each card, and they are sent in automatically once the internet is back. The terminal name at the top of the screen turns pink while this is happening.
Without Store and Forward, card payments need the internet. Take cash or another tender until it's back.
What staff do
Nothing different: take the card as usual. You can add or change the tip on a card taken offline the normal way, before or after the internet comes back.
The risk
A card stored offline is approved by the reader without the card company checking it, so it can still be declined when it is sent in. If any are declined, the store close Manager Note says how many, so a manager can follow up on those orders.
Limits (set by a manager)
In the back office, Store Settings > Payments > the Card payment type, under Enable Store and Forward:
- Largest card payment taken offline - a card payment over this amount is not taken while the internet is down.
- Most card payments stored at once - after this many, cards are refused until the internet is back.
Your card processor has to turn Store and Forward on for your merchant account as well.
When the internet is back
- Stored payments are sent in on their own. You don't need to do anything.
- The card batch can't close while the internet is down. If it's still down at the End of Day Time, the store close Manager Note says the batch was not closed. Stored payments are always sent in before a batch closes.
Related: The POS says it can't reach the other terminals, Payment types.