Accept payments wherever customers actually buy.

Mobile payments, away from a counter

If you take payment at a table, an event, a route, or a job site, the terminal has to travel and stay connected. The questions worth asking are what happens when the signal drops, how the device is secured, and whether it syncs back to the same reporting as everything else. Two systems that never reconcile is a slow problem that gets worse as you grow. Food trucks feel this most, which is why they have their own page.

Contactless and digital wallets

Tap to pay and phone wallets are card-present transactions, so they sit in the favorable cost category rather than the expensive one. The practical question is not whether to accept them, it is whether your current hardware does, and whether your checkout is fast enough for it to matter at a queue.

Virtual terminals and taking payment by phone

A virtual terminal turns a browser into a card machine, which is useful when the customer is not in front of you. Two things to be aware of. There is often a gateway fee attached, and keyed transactions run through it cost more than card-present ones.

Where the customer can complete payment themselves through a link or an emailed invoice, that is normally the better route. Cheaper, and a cleaner record if the charge is ever questioned. Repair shops and contractors take a lot of payments this way.

Recurring billing and cards on file

If you bill on a schedule, the payment system stops being a terminal and becomes part of your bookkeeping. What matters is how cards on file are stored, what happens when one expires or is declined, and whether failed payments are retried automatically or quietly dropped.

One warning worth repeating. If you ever change providers, ask who moves the stored card tokens and get the answer before you sign. Asking customers to re-enter card details is where recurring revenue goes to die, and it is the single most disruptive part of a switch handled badly.