Taking payments

A sale, start to finish

• 1.
  New charge. Build a cart from your catalogue (Inventory), or type an amount. Quick sale adds something that isn't in the catalogue. Items with options (a size, an add-on) ask for them.
• 2.
  Add the customer (optional). Scan the code in their Clear or shop app, or add them by phone number; they confirm on their phone. You see their name and their points at your shop, never a balance. It earns them points and lets you send a Clear charge straight to their phone (see Rewards and online sales).
• 3.
  Checkout. Clear prices the order: tax, any discount and the total. Apply a discount code here, typed or scanned.
• 4.
  Tip. If the shop asks for tips (Settings › Tips), the customer picks one of your presets or Custom.
• 5.
  How they pay: Clear, Card, Cash, or Split between methods.
• 6.
  Receipt: Text, Email, Print, or none.

Card, cash and split can each be turned off in Settings › Payments › Ways to pay; Checkout then leaves them out. Clear is always on.

Discounts at the counter

Each role can give up to a set percentage off without asking: counter 10%, manager 25% and owner without limit, to start with (Settings › Discounts). Above your limit, an owner or manager whose own limit covers it types their PIN at the counter.

Clear

The customer pays with Clear on their phone: now, or over time on a charge of $50.00 or more. They approve a figure they can see. Nothing is charged until they do.

There are three ways to get the charge to them:

• Show the code. Checkout shows a code on the tablet; turn the screen to the customer and they scan it. Someone new to Clear can scan it too: it sets them up with the charge waiting.
• Scan their code. If they already have their Clear code open, the tablet's camera reads it and the charge lands in their app. Their code says who they are and carries no amount.
• Text it. Type their phone number and Clear texts them the link. Use this for a dead battery, a cracked screen, or someone in the waiting room. You can serve the next customer meanwhile.

The waiting screen says where the charge went and follows the customer's answer. Send again repeats it. If they decline, you aren't told why; the customer can see why in their app. A charge nobody answers expires, and resending raises a new one. A charge still waiting can be cancelled from Charges.

What the shop receives for a Clear charge, and when, is on Payouts.

Card

Cards need Stripe connected (see Setting up) and a reader:

At Checkout, choose Card. The tablet connects to a reader it can use (if there's more than one, it lists them), then waits for the customer to tap, insert or swipe. Use another reader switches. A smart reader connects to Clear over the internet, so the tablet and the reader don't need to be on the same network.

A card payment is authorised at the sale and captured at Close the day. Until then you can:

• adjust its tip (Charges › the sale › Adjust the tip). Clear asks the card for the higher amount; if it's refused, the app says so and the original hold stands;
• void it (see Refunds, voids and disputes).

Stripe releases a hold that isn't captured within two days, so close every day you take cards.

Cash

Cash needs today's drawer open. Until it is, the Cash tile at Checkout reads Open the drawer on Home to take cash. Open it on Home with the starting cash (see Closing the day).

Type what the customer hands over; the screen shows the change. If a Clear cash drawer is paired, it opens as the change screen comes up. If it hasn't opened after two seconds, the screen says Drawer didn't open; I used the key records a key open against the sale.

Split payments

Split between methods takes the total in parts: part cash, part card, part Clear, in any mix. Each part is taken in turn and the screen shows what is still owed. A card that goes through on one part brings you back to the split for the rest.

An order that is part-paid stops the day from closing; finish it or void it.

Payment links

Owners and managers can send a link instead of taking payment at the counter. From New charge, choose Send a link:

• an amount (at least $0.50), or an item from Inventory and how many (up to 99);
• a note to the customer;
• when it expires: never, in 7 days or in 30 days;
• whether members may pay over time.

Create link makes the address, with Copy and a QR code. The customer pays on Clear's page with Clear, or by card when Stripe is connected. Over time is offered when the link allows it and the total is $50.00 or more.

Paying from a phone at the table

With Clear Terminal, a Point at a table or the counter shows a code. A customer who scans it opens the Point's page on their phone (useclear.org/p/ and its four letters): the menu, or the bill once you send it. They pay the bill there with Clear, or by card through Stripe Checkout. Card payments made there are captured at once, unlike the counter's. When it's paid, they can have the receipt emailed.

Receipts

After a sale, choose how the customer gets the receipt:

• Text or Email asks for a number or address the first time, then shows where it went.
• Print uses a paired printer if there is one, or the device's own print dialog (AirPrint on an iPad, Android's print service, or the browser's). The receipt is laid out for 80mm paper. Reprint from the sale in Charges; a refund taken later shows on a reprint.

When the connection drops

A line above New charge says when the tablet is offline.

• Cash still works. Checkout prices the cart on the tablet with the tax rates it last read, and the sale and its drawer events are queued on the tablet and sent, in order, when the connection is back. A tablet that has never read the shop's tax rates says so.
• Card, Clear and split wait for the connection.

Card payments while offline

Not available yet.

Every card payment, on an M2, with Tap to Pay or on a smart reader, needs the connection at the moment it's taken. While the tablet is offline, take cash or wait for the connection.

Charges

Charges lists every sale, however it was paid: Clear charges, and card, cash and split sales, each dollar once. A counter shift sees today and yesterday; owners and managers see the month. Open a row to see what was sold, who raised it, and to refund, void or adjust a tip.

When something goes wrong