A safety net for every card payment
A card was approved but the sale never saved. A cashier tapped Pay twice. The network dropped mid-payment. SeroPOS is built so that none of these turn into a lost sale or a double charge.
Payment safety net in SeroPOS
Charge saved first
Every approved card charge is written down on the till before the sale itself is saved.
Automatic replay
If an approved charge has no matching sale after 90 seconds, the till records the sale.
Duplicate warning
The till warns when the same card was just charged the same amount moments ago.
Check on Terminal
Unsure whether a card went through? The till reads the terminal's batch to find out.
Safe recovery choices
Clear buttons such as Tap Card Again (Safe Retry) and Close (Keep Order) guide the cashier.
Stall reports
A transaction stuck for more than 90 seconds sends a redacted timeline for investigation.
The problem with card payments
A card payment involves three parties: the till, the terminal and the processor. Usually they agree within seconds. But a Wi-Fi dropout, a frozen app or an impatient double tap can leave them out of step. The customer's card is charged but the till shows no sale, or the cashier retries and the customer is charged twice. Either way, someone ends up untangling it with a refund and an apology.
SeroPOS treats this as a design problem, not a training problem. The till keeps its own record of every approved charge, checks for duplicates before charging again, and gives cashiers recovery choices that cannot make things worse. The goal is simple: every approved charge ends up attached to exactly one sale.
Approved charges are never lost
The moment the terminal approves a card, SeroPOS writes the charge to a local outbox before it saves the sale. If the sale then saves normally, the outbox entry is cleared. If something goes wrong, such as the app closing or the network dropping, the approved charge is still on the till.
After 90 seconds without a matching sale, the till replays the outbox entry and records the sale against the charge. The customer paid, and now the books say so. This works together with offline mode: sales saved locally are uploaded every 20 seconds, retried with back-off when the server cannot be reached, and parked rather than dropped if they keep failing.
Stopping double charges
Before charging a card, SeroPOS checks whether the same card was just charged the same amount. If it was, the till warns that this card was already charged the same amount moments ago, so the cashier stops and checks instead of charging again. This catches the most common cause of double charges: a retry after a slow approval.
When the cashier is not sure whether a payment went through, Check on Terminal reads the terminal's batch to see whether the card was charged. Moneris tills offer a similar Close option that reminds staff to check the terminal before charging again. The answer comes from the terminal, not from guesswork.
Recovery buttons that make sense
When a payment does not complete cleanly, the Global Pay payment dialog offers plain choices instead of a generic error. Each button says what it will do, so a new cashier can pick the right one under pressure. A declined card shows a red screen with an alarm and prints a decline slip, so nobody mistakes a decline for an approval.
If a transaction stalls for more than 90 seconds, a terminal watchdog sends a redacted timeline of what happened, without card details, so the problem can be investigated. Combined with the outbox and the duplicate check, it means card trouble at the counter is rare and, when it happens, quick to sort out.
- Cancel: card not tapped yet
- Tap Card Again: safe retry
- Check on Terminal
- Close: keep the order
- Retry: try another card
- Use another payment method
- Cancel sale
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the card is approved but the sale does not save?
SeroPOS writes every approved card charge to a local outbox before saving the sale. If no matching sale exists after 90 seconds, the till replays the entry and records the sale against the charge. The customer's payment is never left without a sale.
How does SeroPOS prevent double charging a card?
Before a card is charged, the till checks whether the same card was just charged the same amount. If it was, staff see a warning and can use Check on Terminal to confirm what happened, instead of charging the customer a second time.
How can I tell whether a card payment went through?
Use Check on Terminal in the payment dialog. SeroPOS reads the terminal's batch and shows whether the card was charged. You can also open the terminal menu from the app bar to see card transaction history and print the last card receipt.
What happens to card payments when the internet drops?
Approved charges are saved on the till in the outbox, and sales are stored locally with a unique token. When the connection returns, sales upload in the background. Sales that keep failing are parked and kept, never dropped, until they can be sent.
What does the till do when a card is declined?
The payment dialog turns red, an alarm sounds and a decline slip prints, so staff cannot miss it. The cashier can then retry with another card, use another payment method, or keep the order open while the customer sorts out payment.