Square's Guide to Taking Offline Payments

How to Respond to a Service Disruption

Follow these steps in the event of a service disruption so you can continue doing business.

Know the risks of accepting offline payments.

There is additional risk when accepting offline payments. It is important to note that:

• Square is not responsible for any loss due to declined cards or expired payments taken while offline. Square cannot contact customers on your behalf should a payment be declined or expire when taken as an offline payment.
• You must reconnect to the internet within 24 hours of losing internet connectivity (if your hardware is Square Reader or Square Stand) or within 24 hours of taking your first offline payment (if your hardware is Square Register or Square Terminal) to upload your Square payments. Any offline payment that is not processed within the proper time limit will expire and the funds will not be received from your customer.
• When taking offline payments, you will not be able to accept contactless payments, Square Gift Cards or Clearpay, and you will not be able to enter a card number manually.

You can process transactions through offline payments for up to 1 hour with Square Reader in a single session and will be declined if you do not reconnect to the internet within 24 hours of the start of your offline payment session. By enabling offline payments, you are responsible for any expired, declined or disputed payments accepted while offline. Square is unable to provide customer contact information for payments declined while offline. Contactless card payments, Square Gift Cards and Clearpay transactions don't work with offline payments. Offline payments are not supported on older versions of Square Reader (1st generation - v1 and v2).

1. Identify Your Disruption Type.

There are two types of service disruptions: an internet or network disruption or a Square service disruption. Once a disruption is identified, a notification will automatically appear on your Square device, letting you know the type. See which alert you have in order to troubleshoot your issue.

Types of alerts

2. Check Square Status.

Scan the QR code to view the Square status page and stay informed about any service interruptions. issquareup.com

3. Turn on Offline Payments.

Set up offline payments on your device so your business can keep running during a service disruption for up to 1 hour for Square Reader or Square Stand and up to 24 hours for Square Register or Square Terminal. Follow these steps to take offline payments:

1. From your Square app or device, tap More.
2. Select Settings from the menu options.
3. Tap Checkout, then Offline payments.
4. Toggle on Allow to confirm.
5. Set a transaction limit that you're comfortable with (you can change this at any time).

4. Manage Your Online Orders and Deliveries.

New online orders from Square Online or other ordering platforms won't appear in your POS, but they'll be there once the disruption is resolved. Your customers won't notice a difference, so continue delivering excellent service and processing payments just like you would for online transactions. Don't forget to check card details and print receipts for your records to reduce the risk of declined payments and disputes.

5. Stay Signed In.

If you have pending offline payments, do not sign out of the Square app or switch locations. Do not factory reset the device used to take the payment or delete the app. Make sure you process these payments by reconnecting your device to the internet within 24 hours.

6. Process Your Offline Payments.

If your internet is down, reconnect to the internet within 24 hours of your first offline payment for Square Register or Square Terminal and within 24 hours of losing internet connectivity for Square Reader or Square Stand. Open the Square Point of Sale app so your offline payments can be processed. You can see all your offline payments in the Transactions tab. If you accepted offline payments due to a Square service disruption, they'll process automatically once service is back up and running.

Note: If you log out of your Square account, delete the Square app, or factory-reset the device that took offline payments, any pending transactions will be lost, and you will unfortunately be out of pocket for the cost of goods or services you sold.