Introducing Square Terminal

[mattgrinberg]

Square Terminal is your all-in-one credit card machine for payments and receipts. It’s built from the ground up entirely by Square so you can sell confidently knowing everything just works.

Square Terminal takes every form of payment and is able to print or email receipts, all from one compact, portable device. With an extremely durable construction, it’s built to withstand the busiest checkouts, and it processes chip cards in just two seconds to keep your line moving.

Square Terminal can be used completely cordlessly with Wi-Fi connectivity and a battery designed to last all day. Or use the included accessory hub to connect to Ethernet, or to connect additional accessories like a cash drawer or barcode scanner. Check out a full list of our supported hardware on our Support Center.

Square Terminal is available for purchase here or with financing.

[Tom]

@cozccs and @VanKalkerFarms: confirmed—you can process payments in the field with Square Terminal by tethering it to your iPhone. 😎

[jeffknouse]

Does the terminal use a standard receipt paper roll (like used in a calculator) or is a proprietary paper receipt roll required?

[VanKalkerFarms]

@jeffknouse it uses thermal receipt paper with 2 ¼” x 50’ dimensions.  first look there are options $38 for 100 rolls on Amazon http://a.co/d/2SRDyRI

[Helen]

You're right, it's 2.6% + 10c, sorry about that! I've just updated my first reply (thanks!) And yes, if you have a custom rate it will apply on this Terminal as well.

[lawjj]

Will the Square Terminal also take keyed in credit card payments? We take payments over the phone at times and key in charges on the virtual terminal but would like to use the new Square Terminal for everything.

[pessosices]

@lawjj Yes! The square terminal will also take manual keyed in payments!

Hope it works for you, and hope to hear your experience if you get it!

[sciabica1936]

Awesome! A cellular version would rock at a farmers market 🙂

[square_marc]

The idea of having a few portable readers is interesting. Can multiple readers share one cash drawer?

A related question....since our cash drawer is connected via our Ethernet receipt printer and the Terminal has it own printer...is the Terminal  compatiable with our cash drawer? 

[pessosices]

Hey @square_marc

You can absolutely use multiple readers/terminals/registers with a single cash drawer as long as that cash drawer is connected via an Ethernet Printer - as yours is! And you can absolutely use the Terminal with a separate Printer - you do not need to use the built in printer.

Your set up should totally work with the Terminal!

[Glowskin]

Does this work with Square Appointments? Can I start the checkout process from my Appointment app and have this on the counter where my clients total will appear and they can swipe, tip and sign from Terminal?

[puka]

Hey @Glowskin - Square Terminal is not compatible with Appointments at this time, but your proposed workflow is possible! You can start the checkout process on the Appointments app from another device and then save it as a ticket. From there, you can open that ticket on Square Terminal, hit Charge, and then hand to your customer to pay.

Hope that helps!

[Dbaraga]

I’m using an iPad.  I have the open tickets option “on”.  I cannot see how to save it as a ticket. 

[VanKalkerFarms]

here are the steps to using open tickets.  It is great for transferring a transaction from one device to another.

I can't get this to load at the moment, I'm getting a server error from Square, but I believe this is the right link.

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5337-use-open-tickets-with-square

[priormaille]

We currently have a swiper, chip reader, and receipt printer. It seems as if Terminal could replace all 3 of these, which would really help us out. I do have two questions, however. How would I use it with my cash drawer? It's hooked into our printer to pop it open. Would we simply use the same cord?

My second question is one about financing, as we can't afford to pay for this outright (our business is very small). To the best of my understanding from the fine print, we wouldn't be eligible for it as we're based in Missouri. Is this correct? If so, are there any plans to change this policy?

Thank you in advance for your help! 😄

[candlepins]

If you can't afford to buy this device then you shouldn't use it. The transaction fees are much higher than the swiper/dip/tap reader you already have. That is unless you only take credit card purchases for above 50 dollars. The devil is in the details.

[Helen]

Hi @priormaille, thanks for your interest in Square Terminal! 

First, yes you can connect compatible hardware to the Terminal using the accessories hub. Accessories — receipt printer, cash drawer and bar code scanner — can be connected to the hub via USB, and the hub is plugged in to a power source. You can see how to set up hardware accessories in this video at 1:54. 

Also important is to make sure the printer and cash drawer you have already are compatible with Terminal! Head to this Support Center article to confirm: Hardware Compatibilty by Device.

Second, you are right, financing for Square hardware isn't available in Missouri yet. I don't have a timeline for when financing will be available in Missouri but we are always working to increase coverage! We'll announce any updates. 

[indianathomas]

Great post.  We've also had problems in actually getting it to work at certain venues: https://youtu.be/1f1rI_JaUX4

[VanKalkerFarms]

@priormaille, from your description it sounds like your printer is an ethernet printer, meaning you are connecting to it via WIFI.  the new Square Terminal will print to this printer, you will not have to connect it to the Terminal.  But this isn't really gaining you anything as the cash drawer that is plugged into the printer can't directly attach to the Square Terminal hub as that is for USB cash drawers which your drawer isn't if it is hooked up to your printer so you would still need the printer and cash drawer.

It seems in your situation you are doing fine and I don't see spending $400 making your situation any better, especially if you don't think you can afford the purchase.

[indianathomas]

We've had lots of problems with the terminal.  It does not have the flexibility of the regular Square POS system with uses the iPad.  I've created a video showing our issues.  Hope this helps: https://youtu.be/1f1rI_JaUX4

[pessosices]

Hey @indianathomas

I can definitely sympathize with not being able to connect to WiFi networks with a landing page. Hopefully there will be a software update at some point to remedy this!

In terms of not working with the Royal cash drawer or printer, they’re not on the Square Compatibility List (https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6334-hardware-compatibility-by-device) so yea, they definitely wouldn’t work with any square device (without the extreme workaround you showed for the printer and iPad) not just Terminal.

Hopefully you could return them?

[VanKalkerFarms]

yeah, that was my first thought as soon as he said royal, I paused the video and told my wife that drawer isn't even supported, as the cash drawer isn't supported.  It sounded like the cash drawer was more like a printer driven drawer that had an RJ45 to USB adapter as he referenced an adapter multiple times.  I've wondered why there was an adapter like that before because it is quite the jump in price to go from a printer driven to USB driven drawer, and I guess now we know why because they don't work.

While I do wish Square supported more printers and drawers I'm sure it is more complicated than just adding one line of code.  They have added Epson support in the last year or so so maybe more will come over the year.  

As for the internet with a landing page that does suck that they didn't think that part thru as that is needed all over the place to get on public wifi.  Personally, for my business when I go to public markets I don't use their provided internet, as it may suck or not be working, I bring my own hotspot wifi router so I know that I will be good to go.  Only $10 a month as an additional line on our att account.