Taking payment

Every payment is taken on the iPad, from the Charge button on a check. This page covers paying the whole check or part of it, cash, card, tips, charging a customer account, what happens when the check is paid, closing a check that owes nothing, and what to do if the connection drops mid-charge.

Four things apply to everything on this page:

• Anyone signed in can take payments, in any role, once the day has been started at the PIN pad (see Cash drawer).
• Payments need a connection. If the iPad is offline, it won't take payments until the connection is back. Nothing is queued to send later.
• Money is exact to the centavo. Nothing is rounded to coins.
• Each payment is one record: its method (cash, card or house account), the part of the check it pays, its tip, for a card the credit or debit pick and the authorization code, the tender the tip arrived on, the seat it paid (if any), the day's drawer it belongs to, the customer account (for a house charge) and who took it.

Open the payment sheet

The payment sheet is where every payment is taken. When it opens it checks what has already been paid on the check, then shows what is owed and the ways to take it.

1. Open the check from the floor.
2. Tap Charge $X at the foot of the check. The figure is what is still owed: the check total less anything already paid.
3. The sheet opens with the check's name in its title — for example Payment · T4. For a tab without a table it shows the guest's name, or Check if there is neither.
4. For a moment the method cards are dimmed and the foot of the sheet reads "Checking the balance…". They light up once the balance is confirmed.
5. Read the amount at the top: Amount Due — or Rest once something has been paid — in large type.
   • If your prices include tax, one line under it says what the figure contains, for example "2 items · includes IVA $85.52". For part of a check it reads "part of the check · includes IVA $8.28". A second line appears when there is a discount or money already paid: "discount −$50.00 · paid $300.00".
   • If tax is added on top, rows for Subtotal, IVA (16%), Discount and Paid amount come first, then the figure.
   • Which of the two you see depends on Tax-inclusive pricing, in the back office under Settings › Venue › Venue › Taxes. The IVA label shows your Tax rate (%).
6. Choose how to take the money:
   • Cash — "numpad · change"
   • Card — "credit or debit · physical terminal"
   • House Account — "sign later"
   • Split or partial › — "by seat · in parts · other amount"
   • Booking deposit — only when a deposit the group paid online can pay this check: a fifth card under the four, "paid online · $X left". See Pay with a booking deposit.
7. Under the cards you'll also find Discount / Comp (see Discounts and comps) and, once something has been paid, Payments taken · N (see Payment corrections).
8. Close, top left, leaves without charging. Inside a method, the top left reads ‹ Method and takes you back to the methods.

How the amount owed is worked out

• What is owed = the check total minus the amounts already paid on it. Tips never count toward paying the bill.
• If another iPad takes a payment on the same check while your sheet is open, your figure goes down with it.
• If the sheet can't confirm what has already been paid, it won't show a balance or take any money until it can.
• The tip is asked on the Cash or Card step, never on this screen. The foot of the methods says so: "The tip is asked at charge, once."

When the sheet won't take money

• Offline: a banner reads "Offline — payments are paused until the connection is back." and every charge button is dimmed with Offline.
• The balance can't be checked: a banner reads "Couldn't verify what's already been collected — charging is blocked." with Retry, and the foot reads "Methods blocked until the balance is verified · tap Retry above". Tap Retry.
• Settled elsewhere: if the check is paid or closed on another iPad while your sheet is open, your iPad drops it and shows "This check was paid or closed on another terminal."
• A charge is in progress: the sheet can't be swiped away, and Close and ‹ Method don't respond until the charge has answered.

Pay the whole check

The everyday case. With nothing chosen under Split or partial, a payment is for everything still owed, and the check closes in the same step.

1. Tap Charge $X on the check.
2. Tap Cash, Card or House Account. Each one's own steps are below: Take cash, Take a card payment, Charge a customer account.
3. Choose a tip if the guest leaves one (cash and card only — see Add a tip).
4. Tap the full-width button at the foot of the step, Charge $X. Its figure is what this payment records, tip included.
5. The check closes and the completion card appears (see After the last payment).

The button always says what will happen: Charge $X when this payment settles the check, Partial $X when a balance will remain — for example, cash that doesn't cover the bill. When the amounts paid reach the check total, the check is paid and gets its closing time; until then it is partly paid.

Barform won't take more than what is still owed.

Charge part of the check

Split or partial sets how much of the check the next payment covers: all of it, one seat's share, a fraction of what is left, or an amount you type. It is a choice, not a mode — nothing is locked, and whatever isn't paid stays owed for the next payer.

1. In the payment sheet, tap Split or partial ›. The step's title starts with Split or partial.
2. Tap one option:
   • All — everything still owed. This is the default. After a payment it reads Rest.
   • Under By seat: Seat N, with each seat's figure. These only appear when at least two seats have priced lines. See Pay by seat.
   • Under In parts — of $X remaining: 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4 of what is still owed right now.
   • Other amount: opens the Amount to charge pad. Type the figure — digits are whole pesos, and "." adds centavos. The pad shows the most you can charge: "of $X due", or "of $X due · $Y paid" once something has been paid. Tap Done (it stays dimmed until the figure is above $0). Cancel keeps your earlier choice.
3. The sheet goes back to the methods. The split card now shows your choice and its figure — for example "Seat 1 · $320.00", "1/3 · $206.67" or "Other amount · $500.00" — with change under it. Tap it to choose again.
4. Take the payment with Cash, Card or House Account. The foot button reads Partial $X when a balance will remain.
5. After the payment, the choice goes back to Rest for the next payer.

Example: two cards on one check

A $1,000.00 check; card A pays $300.00 and card B the rest.

1. Split or partial › › Other amount › type 300 › Done.
2. Card › tap Credit or Debit › tip, if any › run the terminal › type the code › Partial $300.00.
3. The sheet now reads Rest $700.00. Card › pick the type › tip › terminal › code › Charge $700.00.

To split three ways evenly, the first person pays 1/3, the second 1/2 (half of what is left) and the third Rest. Fractions are always of what is still owed at that moment, not of the original check.

How the parts are worked out

• A fraction is what is owed divided by 2, 3 or 4. When it doesn't divide evenly, this payment takes the extra centavo: $100.01 in halves is $50.01 now and $50.00 after.
• A typed amount is a ceiling. It never charges more than is owed: type $900.00 on a $700.00 balance and the payment is $700.00, which settles the check. If a payment on another iPad shrinks the balance below the figure you typed, your charge shrinks with it and the sheet says "The balance changed on another terminal — now $X due".
• Only a seat choice records the payment against a seat. All, a fraction and a typed amount pay the check but no particular seat.
• Changing the choice clears any tip already chosen: a tip belongs to one payment.
• The options are dimmed while the balance is being checked or if it couldn't be read.
• If the chosen seat's lines are voided on another iPad, the choice goes back to All.
• The choice only lives in the open sheet. Closing the sheet forgets it.

Pay by seat

When a check's lines are on seats, each guest can pay their own share. The payment is recorded against the seat, so every iPad knows that seat is done, and the guest gets their own receipt.

1. Tap Charge $X, then Split or partial ›, then Seat N. The split card now reads "Seat N · $X".
2. Tap Cash, Card or House Account and finish the payment. The tip chips are worked out on this seat's share.
3. When the payment is recorded:
   • The seat's own receipt prints, headed with the seat, showing that seat's lines, this payment as the TOTAL (with a Paid so far row above it if part of the seat was paid earlier), and its tip and tender.
   • A card appears: "Seat N of T4 charged", with the amount, method, tip, authorization code and, for cash, the change. Tap Done.
   • The sheet reads Rest, and the seat shows as Seat N · Paid with its figure struck through. It can't be tapped any more.
4. Repeat for the next seat. The last seat's payment closes the check: that seat's receipt prints first, then the receipt for the whole check.

How seat shares are worked out

• Each seat's share is its part of the whole check total, in proportion to its own lines after their own discounts: a guest's discounted drink lowers only that guest's share. Tax, a whole-check discount and lines that aren't on any seat (shared lines) are spread over the seats in the same proportion. For example, seats 1 and 2 each have a $200.00 drink and seat 1's is 50% off: the $300.00 check splits $100.00 and $200.00.
• Shares are fixed against the whole total. They aren't divided again as people pay.
• A seat's figure is its share minus what has already been paid against that seat, and never more than the check still owes.
• A seat counts as paid when the payments recorded against it reach its share. Payments without a seat (a fraction or a typed amount) never mark a seat paid.
• As soon as any money is paid against a seat, that seat's lines lock on the check: they are dimmed and can't be voided, discounted, moved or given a note. Barform holds the lock on every iPad, whatever its app version: a void, comp, discount or new quantity on those lines, or a new line on that seat, is refused with "That seat has already paid — its lines stay put."
• Cash short of the seat's figure is recorded against the seat as a part payment. The seat's receipt still prints for what was paid, and the seat's figure then shows the rest. The "charged" card only appears once the seat is fully paid.
• A house-account charge that leaves a seat short prints an account-charge slip instead. The seat's receipt waits for the payment that finishes the seat.
• A check with lines on only one seat shows no seat options: there is nothing to split.
• If a seat's lines are voided on another iPad, that seat's option disappears.
• If a seat's share grows after it has paid (for example, the rest of the table orders more under a whole-check discount), the seat stays locked and its figure shows only the difference.

Take a check in several payments

A check can be paid in any number of payments, each with its own method and its own tip. Until the payments cover the total, the check is partly paid: it stays on the floor showing what is still owed.

Where you see it:

• On the floor, a partly paid table has a dashed outline and a Partial chip (left off on very small tiles), and shows what is still owed. See The floor and tabs.
• On the check, under the total: Paid amount −$X and Remaining $Y. The button reads Charge $Y.
• In the payment sheet: the amount reads Rest, and Payments taken · N lists the payments so far.

To take a check in several payments:

1. Tap Charge $X and choose the amount under Split or partial (a seat, a fraction or Other amount).
2. Take the first payment with any method. The button reads Partial $X.
3. The sheet goes back to the methods, reading Rest. After a cash payment, the foot of the sheet shows "Change due: $X" until the next charge.
4. Take the next payment the same way — a different method is fine. The last one reads Charge $X and closes the check.

To come back to a partly paid check later, open it from the floor and tap Charge $Y. The sheet reads what has been paid and starts at Rest.

Rules for partly paid checks

• A check is open until its first payment, partly paid while the amounts paid are above $0 but below the total, and paid once they reach the total. Tips aren't part of this sum.
• Each payment's tip is asked on its own step and worked out on its own share (see Add a tip).
• A partly paid check still takes new lines, voids, discounts and comps of single drinks. What is owed moves with them. Comping the whole check isn't offered once a check has payments: comp the drinks still owed one by one (see Discounts and comps).
• No completion card appears after a part payment, unless it finished a seat.
• A partly paid check can't be closed with Close empty table. Only paying the rest, or voiding its payments, moves it.
• The day can't be closed while any check is open or partly paid: "Open checks must be paid or closed before the day can close." See Closing the day.
• If the total later falls below what was already paid — a void, discount or comp after a payment — the check owes $0 but can't close. Close — no charge answers "Payments exceed the total — refund pending: $X. Void the extra payment under Payments taken." Barform won't take any more money on it either. The way out is to void a payment (see Payment corrections).

Take cash

The cash step works out the change. You type what the guest handed over, or tap the bill chips, and the iPad shows the change in large type. A guest who says "keep the change" can turn it into a tip with one tap.

1. Tap Cash. The step's title starts with Cash. With Barform 1.2.1 or later on the iPad, the night's first cash waits for the opening count: if nobody has counted tonight's drawer yet, the count comes first, and the cash step opens once it's done (see Cash drawer).
2. Choose the tip first, if there is one, in the Tip row (see Add a tip).
3. Read the strip: Amount Due — "Amount Due (incl. tip $X)" when a tip is chosen — then Received and Change.
4. Type the cash received on the keypad: digits are whole pesos (5, 0, 0 = $500), "." and up to two digits add centavos, and ⌫ deletes a digit.
   • Or tap the chips above the keys: $100, $200, $500, $1,000. Each tap adds to the figure (two taps on $500 = $1,000).
   • Exact fills exactly the amount due, tip included.
   • After a chip or Exact, the next digit starts a new figure, and ⌫ clears it in one tap.
5. If the guest leaves the change, tap Keep the change as tip. The change goes to $0 and becomes the tip. Give the change back undoes it.
6. Tap Charge $X — or Partial $X if the cash doesn't cover this payment. Until a figure is typed, the button is dimmed with "Type the amount received".
7. Hand back the change shown. On the last payment the completion card repeats it under Change, with "Received $X". After a part payment, the methods screen keeps "Change due: $X".

How cash is divided

• If the cash covers this payment's amount plus the tip, the payment takes both, and the change is the rest.
• If it doesn't, the whole of the cash goes to the bill (up to what this payment covers), the tip is $0, and any cash beyond the bill is change. A tip is never taken from cash that doesn't cover bill and tip.
  • So with a tip chosen, cash that covers the bill but not bill plus tip drops the tip and shows the extra as change. If the guest means it for staff, tap Keep the change as tip.
• Cash short of the amount records a part payment, and the check stays open for the rest.
• The button's figure is the amount plus the tip actually taken. That is what is recorded. The change isn't recorded as money; it is printed on the receipt.
• The keypad takes up to seven digits of pesos.
• The figures on the strip freeze the moment you tap Charge, so the change on screen doesn't jump while the check closes.

Take a card payment

You run the card on your own terminal, and the iPad records it. You must tap Credit or Debit — nothing is chosen for you — and you can add a tip and say whether it is on the card or in cash.

1. On the check, tap Charge $X. To charge only part of the check, choose it first under Split or partial.
2. Tap Card. The step's title starts with Card. Top left: this payment's amount. Top right: Credit | Debit, with neither chosen.
3. Tap Credit or Debit to match the guest's card. You can switch until you tap Charge.
4. Choose a tip in the Tip row if the guest leaves one (see Add a tip). "Total with tip" shows the bill plus the tip.
5. If there is a tip, choose where it goes: Tip on card (the default) or Tip in cash. With Tip in cash, "terminal $X" appears beside the chips: the bill without the tip.
6. Run the card on the terminal for the figure to charge: the total with tip — or the "terminal $X" figure when the tip comes in cash.
7. When the terminal approves, type its authorization code under Terminal authorization, using the iPad's own keys: two rows of digits, ABC for letters and 123 to go back to digits, ⌫ to delete. Until you type, the field shows Reference / authorization.
8. Tap Charge $X — or Partial $X if a balance will remain. The figure includes the tip, even a cash tip.
9. The completion card reads, for example, "Credit card · tip $93.00 · auth 123456", with the time and your name. Tap Done.

Charge stays dimmed until everything is in place, and the reason shows under it:

1. "Choose credit or debit" — no type tapped yet.
2. "Type the authorization code" — the code is empty.
3. Offline or Balance unverified — these come first when they apply.

Rules for card payments

• The credit or debit pick is always required. Nothing turns it off.
• Every time you open the card step, neither type is chosen. Going back with ‹ Method and coming back clears the type and the code, and so does a part payment, ready for the next payer.
• The pick is saved on the payment. Card stays card in every total, and the pick divides it:
  • Today in the back office shows credit and debit under the Card figure.
  • Reports › Income shows card money by type, day by day or month by month, and in its CSV and PDF exports.
  • Reports › Shift closes (Z) splits each night's POS card total, also in its CSV.
  • On the iPad, Close the day shows "Credit $X · Debit $Y" under the terminal total, with tips by type. The Z shows Credit and Debit under Card, and Credit card and Debit card under By Method.
  • Service › Payments in the back office shows the type on each payment.
• Today and Income divide the card money paid on bills (and, as a line of its own, card payments into customer accounts). Shift closes (Z), the iPad's close and the Z divide the drawer's card total: the bills plus the tips that came on the card.
• Card money with no type recorded — older card payments, payments from an iPad that hadn't been updated, or card credit added to a customer account in the back office — shows as Card (type not recorded) on the iPad or Type not recorded in the back office.
• Tip in cash records the tip as cash. Reports then count it as cash, and at the close the terminal is expected to hold only the card amounts and the tips left on the card. With Tip on card, the tip rides the card.
• The receipt shows the method as Card, not credit or debit, and doesn't print the authorization code. Its card row is the figure on the terminal slip: the payment plus the tip when the tip rode the card. With the tip in cash, it prints the tip as Tip (cash), and the card row shows the payment without the tip.
• The authorization code takes letters and digits, from 1 to 12 characters. It is what links the payment in Barform to the terminal's own record.
• A card payment is always for the step's full amount. There is no amount handed over and no change.

If something changes before you tap Charge

• The credit or debit pick can't be changed once the payment is recorded. Check it before you tap Charge (to fix a wrong one, see Fix a wrong credit or debit pick).
• If what is owed changes on another iPad between running the terminal and tapping Charge, the payment isn't recorded and the iPad says "The amount due changed on another terminal — this charge was not recorded. Void it on the card terminal and charge the new amount."

• Switching between Credit and Debit before retrying a charge makes it a new charge (see If the connection drops during a charge).

Fix a wrong credit or debit pick

A recorded payment's credit or debit pick can't be edited. If it's wrong, fix it the same night, while the day is still open:

1. A manager voids the payment with the reason Wrong tender: from Payments taken on the check, or from Check history if the check has closed. The check's balance comes back, and a closed check reopens on its table. See Payment corrections.
2. Charge it again with Card: tap the right type, choose the same tip — on the card or in cash, as before — and type the same authorization code.
3. Tap Charge. Don't run the card on the terminal again: the terminal's charge was right. For the same reason, don't void it on the terminal either. With Wrong tender picked, the iPad's void panel says so: "Don't void it on the terminal — record it again with the right card type." The back office's Void dialog says the same when you pick Wrong tender.

Once the day is closed, the payment can't be voided. Leave it as it is, and take that night's credit and debit totals from your terminal's batch report.

Add a tip

The tip is asked once per payment, on the Cash or Card step: preset percentage chips, each showing its amount in pesos, or a figure you type. A tip belongs to the payment it was asked on, so each seat or card on a split check leaves its own.

1. On the Cash or Card step, tap a percentage chip. Each chip shows the percentage and, under it, what it comes to on this payment. None means no tip.
2. Or tap Other: the Tip pad opens. Type the figure (whole pesos, "." for centavos) and tap Done. Cancel keeps your earlier choice. The Other chip then shows the typed amount; a typed tip replaces any percentage.
3. On a card, choose Tip on card or Tip in cash (see Take a card payment). Tip in cash puts cash in the drawer, so before tonight's opening count it asks for the count first. On cash, Keep the change as tip turns the change into the tip (see Take cash).

If the guest adds a tip on the card terminal itself, type the same tip under Other before you tap Charge, and leave Tip on card. The payment and its tip then match the terminal. To change a tip after the payment is recorded, use Payments taken (see Payment corrections).

How tips are worked out

• A percentage tip is worked out on what the guest pays: the check's lines after their own discounts, less any whole-check discount. On a $1,000.00 check with 50% off, the 10% chip is $50.00. If your prices include IVA, that figure includes it; if IVA is added on top, it doesn't.
• A percentage tip is rounded down to the centavo.
• When a payment covers only part of the check, its chips are worked out on that payment's share of what the guest pays, not on the whole check.
• A typed tip is used exactly as typed, up to seven digits of pesos.
• The tip is asked once. It is cleared whenever you change step (‹ Method, another method), whenever you change the Split or partial choice, and after each payment.
• On cash, a tip is only taken when the cash covers the bill plus the tip.
• House Account has no tip row. The only house-account tip is leaving an account's extra credit as a tip (see Charge a customer account).
• Tips are kept apart from the bill and never count toward paying it.
• Reports treat tips as money held for staff, not income, and split them by the tender they arrived on: the tip's own tender when it differs (a card bill tipped in cash), otherwise the payment's.
• Whether the night's cash tips count in the drawer at the close depends on Cash tips stay in the drawer until the count (see Closing the day).

Set the tip buttons

Who can do this: admins.

1. In the back office, go to Settings › Venue › iPads and service.
2. In Quick picks, type up to three whole percentages in Tip presets (%), separated by commas — for example 10, 15, 20. It saves when you leave the field.
3. Each iPad picks up the change the next time someone signs in on it.

Charge a customer account

House Account puts the check, or part of it, on a customer account instead of taking money now — "sign later". If the account has credit, the step offers to use it. The accounts themselves are covered in Customer accounts.

Anyone signed in can charge an account; no PIN is asked. Only active accounts are listed. Accounts are created by an admin or manager, on the iPad under ··· › Customer accounts or in the back office.

1. Tap House Account. The accounts load fresh.
2. Find the account with Search accounts and tap it. Each row shows its balance; credit shows as "Credit $X".
3. Read the line under the list. It says what this charge does to the balance, for example "Owes $X — this charge brings the balance to $Y" or "After this charge the account will owe $X".
4. If the account's credit covers only part of the charge, pick one:
   • "Use credit $X · pay $Y next" (the default) — the rest is then paid by cash or card.
   • "Charge all $X · leaves $Y owed".
5. If the credit is bigger than the charge, pick one:
   • "Keep $X as credit" (the default).
   • "Leave $X as a tip". When the extra is courtesy credit, this side reads "Comp credit can't become a tip" and can't be tapped.
6. Tap Charge $X or Partial $X. Until an account is picked, it is dimmed with "Choose an account".

Rules for house charges

• A house charge isn't money yet: it settles the check, and the reports count the money when the account is paid. See Customer accounts and Income.
• Every house charge needs a named, active account of this venue.
• A tip on a house charge can only come out of the account's existing credit, and never more than the paid part of that credit (courtesy credit never becomes a tip).
• A charge that settles the check prints the receipt with the account's details: Account, then Credit before or Previous balance, and Credit remaining or Balance due. A house charge that leaves the check open prints an ACCOUNT CHARGE slip instead. A house charge never opens the cash drawer.
• If the list can't load: "Couldn't load the accounts." with Retry. Nothing can be charged until it loads.
• If there are no accounts yet, the list says "No customer accounts yet. A manager can add them under More › Customer accounts, or in the Backoffice."
• If another iPad used the credit first: "The credit was spent on another terminal — nothing was charged. Check the new balance and charge again."

Pay with a booking deposit

A group that paid a deposit online for its booking spends it on its bill. Booking deposit pays as much of this payment as the deposit holds, and can carry a tip out of what's left. The money is already in your venue's Stripe account, so there's no terminal, no credit or debit choice and no cash drawer. How deposits are taken, refunded and kept is on Deposits for large groups.

Who can do this: anyone signed in, at a venue that takes deposits.

1. Open the check. If the party seated on it paid a deposit, a line above the buttons says "Deposit paid online: $2,400.00 — use it at Charge". Tap Charge $X.
2. To use the deposit for part of the bill only, choose the part first under Split or partial, as for any method.
3. Tap Booking deposit. It reads "paid online · $X left", or, when more than one of tonight's bookings has a deposit, "2 paid online tonight" — then pick one: This check's booking first, then Other bookings tonight.
4. The iPad checks the deposit, then shows who paid it, how much and when. If the booking isn't seated yet: "This seats (name)'s booking on this check."
5. When the deposit holds more than this bill, Tip from the deposit offers your tip buttons and Other. Only tips up to what's left can be picked: bigger ones are dimmed, and Other says "up to" the most.
6. Read This bill, Tip and Left after. When money stays on the deposit, the line under them says what happens to it: "What's left is refunded to the guest's card after tonight." or "What's left stays with the bar after tonight.", by your venue's setting.
7. Tap Charge $X — Partial $X when the check stays open — and take the rest with another method.

Rules for deposit payments

• A deposit is never applied by itself: staff tap it. It pays the smaller of what it holds and this payment; a deposit smaller than the bill pays all it has.
• Any booking on tonight's book with a paid deposit can pay this check, so a group split across two checks can use its deposit on either.
• The step always reads the deposit fresh. If it can't: "Couldn't check the deposit — try again.", with Retry, and nothing can be charged.
• The completion card and the receipt name the payment Booking deposit, with its tip. The drawer never opens for it.
• On Today and Sales it's a payment of the tab's night, under Booking deposit. On Income it isn't new money: the deposit was income the day it was paid online. On the Z it's in Gross Sales and By Method, and its tip in Tips from deposits, never in the drawer or the terminal total.
• Voiding it gives the money back to the deposit, and a tip change on it comes out of what's left (see Payment corrections).
• The iPad never refunds or keeps a deposit: that's done in the back office.

After the last payment

When a payment covers what is left, the check closes on the spot: it is marked paid, its stock comes off, it leaves the floor, the receipt prints (or waits for a tap), the drawer opens for cash, and a completion card stays on screen until you tap Done.

1. The order screen closes and the table shows free on the floor.
2. The completion card shows a tick, "T4 charged", this payment's amount (tip included), the method line (for example "Debit card · tip $50.00 · auth 4821Z"), the time and your name, and for cash a Change box with "Received $X".
3. For cash, hand back the change shown.
4. If the guest wants paper and it didn't print, tap Print receipt. With auto-print on, the button reads Reprint and prints the same paper again. Neither opens the drawer.
5. Tap Done. The card can't be swiped away.

What happens when the check is paid

• The check becomes paid in the same step as the payment, and that takes the check's stock off: every line still on the check, plus comped lines. See Recipes, wells and stock.
• Paper comes out in this order: when the last payment was a seat's, that seat's receipt first; then the receipt for the whole check.
• The receipt for the whole check lists every payment taken on it. Paid at once, it shows the one payment: for cash, "Cash received" and the Change; for a card, the payment plus a tip that rode it — the figure on the terminal slip. Paid in several payments (in parts, Other amount or by seat), it lists each payment, oldest first, with its tip on an indented line — "incl. tip $X", "tip in cash $X" or "tip on card $X". The Tip row and the TOTAL carry every payment's tip, so the payment rows add up to the total. Money another iPad took while your sheet was open shows as one Paid so far row.
• The drawer opens when cash went in — a cash payment, or a card payment whose tip came in cash — and Open the cash drawer on cash payments is on. Part payments in cash open it too.
• Which night a sale counts on: Today and Sales count it on the night the tab was opened; Income counts the money on the service day it was taken. See Today and Income.
• Printing never blocks or undoes a sale. A printer problem shows on the printer banner, and the payment stands.
• Closed checks can be reprinted later from ··· › Check history (see Check history).
• Print receipt answers "Nothing to print — printing was off when this payment settled." when POS printing was off as the check settled. The same message appears when no receipt printer is set up.
• A failed reprint shows "The receipt did not print: …" with the reason.

A new venue starts with POS printing and Auto-print receipts off: turn them on once your printers are set up. Both reach an iPad the next time someone signs in on it. Which printer prints receipts is set under Settings › Printers, or for one iPad under ··· › Receipt printer, and what the receipt shows is set under Settings › Receipt (see Printing and receipts). Changes there — the receipt's design and logo, and Open the cash drawer on cash payments — also reach an iPad the next time someone signs in on it.

Close a check that owes nothing

When a check owes $0 — comped, discounted to zero, or already covered by earlier payments — the payment sheet shows Close — no charge instead of the methods. It closes the check as paid without recording a payment, and prints a receipt with Comp as the method.

No PIN is asked: the comp or discount that brought the check to $0 was approved when it was applied.

1. Open the check and tap Charge $0.00.
2. Instead of the methods, the sheet shows Payments taken · N (only if something was paid), Discount / Comp (to undo a discount that went too far) and Close — no charge.
3. Tap Close — no charge. The check closes and leaves the floor.

A check given away whole can also be closed from the check itself with Close empty table (see Discounts and comps).

Rules for $0 closes

• Before closing, the iPad checks the check's payments and lines again.
• If payments are more than the check now totals — a void or discount after a payment — it refuses: "Payments exceed the total — refund pending: $X. Void the extra payment under Payments taken." Void the extra payment first (see Payment corrections). A comp of the whole check is never offered on a check with payments, so it can't lead here.
• If the check never had a line, it refuses with "The order is empty — nothing to charge." Close it as an empty table instead.
• If another iPad closed it first: "This check was paid or closed on another terminal."
• No payment is recorded. The check is marked paid, so its comped lines come off stock.
• The receipt is printed from the check as it is when it closes, so a comp or discount you applied on this same sheet is on it. It shows Comp $0.00 as the method, below any payments the check already had, with no change, and the drawer doesn't open. With the receipt's Comped lines option on, the comped drinks print with "comp" where the price goes. It follows Auto-print receipts and POS printing like any closing receipt.
• No completion card appears after this close, so with Auto-print receipts off the receipt doesn't print from here. Reprint it from Check history if you need it.
• An offline iPad can't close it: the button is dimmed with Offline.

If the connection drops during a charge

Bar Wi-Fi sometimes drops answers. The payment step is built so that tapping again, retrying, or a payment whose answer was lost can never charge the guest twice. When an answer is lost, the iPad asks Barform whether this exact payment was recorded before it lets anyone charge again.

1. You tapped Charge and the answer didn't come back. A banner reads "Charge sent — confirming it was recorded…". The step stays dimmed. Don't leave the sheet.
2. If the payment was recorded, the iPad finishes as if the answer had arrived: drawer, change, receipt and completion card.
3. If it wasn't, a message says so — usually "The payment was not recorded — try again." or "No connection — check the network and try again." Tap Charge again with the same figures. If the first attempt landed in the meantime, Barform recognises the repeat and records nothing new.
4. If the iPad couldn't even ask, because the connection is still down, the banner reads "Couldn't verify what's already been collected — charging is blocked." with Retry. Tap Retry once the connection is back. The sheet then shows the true balance, including the payment if it did land.

How double charges are prevented

• A repeat of the same charge — same method, card type, amount, tip, tip tender and account — is recognised as the same charge and never recorded twice. Changing any of these makes it a new charge. Retyping the authorization code doesn't.
• A repeat can't bring back a payment that a manager voided in the meantime.
• After a lost answer, the iPad decides by asking for this exact charge — never by whether the balance went down, which another iPad's payment could also cause.
• A double tap can't start two charges, and while one is being recorded the sheet can't be closed or swiped away.
• Close the sheet only once the charge has answered: the protection lives in the open sheet.
• A slow answer shows "The server took too long to answer — try again." Tap Charge again with the same figures; the repeat is recognised.
• If the day was closed on another iPad: "The day is closed. Start a new day on the PIN screen to continue."
• A card already run on the terminal for a payment that wasn't recorded must be voided on the terminal.

Messages and what they mean

The payment step shows plain sentences in the app's language. After each of these, nothing was recorded — except "The credit was smaller than expected…", which tells you a house charge went through.

Related

• Discounts and comps
• Payment corrections
• Customer accounts
• Cash drawer
• Closing the day