Can you connect both the Square Terminal and an iPad to a cash drawer and receipt printer?

[Katcookie]

Can you have both the square terminal as well as the iPad with the cash drawer and the receipt connected together 

[JustinC · Accepted solution]

Hey @Katcookie - 

This type of configuration won't work with the internal printer built into the Square Terminal, but perhaps connecting an Ethernet printer and printer driven cash drawer to both your iPad and Terminal is your best option.

You'll just need to plug the LAN cable in an internet router and create printer stations in-app on both your devices. As long as your iPad and your Terminal are connected to the same network, your printer will communicate via a wifi signal. Learn how to set up a printer station here. 

I hope this helps!

[rsnider2]

couldn't it just be sent to the reader using a device code kind of like Urable is doing? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rwuWGiwmg&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1Yo3HM94CSFuEhuRy4Mwi2NCJwrP...

[Manitoulin]

Hello,

Has this feature been added or still not possible to use square terminal as a reader? Thanks

[AshleyK]

Hi! Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Seller Community. We do not have any further updates for this thread as of yet, but will be sure to post any that come our way. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

[HippoAndCo]

@crystal-meadow  @DBC1 This is what I have been after for months! It just makes sense to me and would look brilliant as part of a POS setup! Ring up the sale using my iPad stand and have the Square terminal to provide the customer with a nice big screen to see the items being scanned, as well as taking the payment and printing the receipt, like a chip and pin machine, but more awesome! Currently using my iPad which is in a bolted on stand has made making chip and pin payments a nightmare, as people feel awkward typing their PIN on my massive iPad Pro! Currently my Square Terminal is redundant as I can’t use it for the obvious thing it could be used for (hence why I bought it D:)

Please make this happen!

[pastonacre]

Yes please make this happen 

[Brewedawake]

Yes this would be ideal. With Social D and plexi-glass it's difficult to get "tips" for the staff when you have to spin the iPad. There is no way for the customer to reach in and tip.

[HippoAndCo]

Hi!

Any news about amending the functionality of the Square Terminal to allow it to be used in conjunction with a tablet so it can be used as a chip and pin device without needing to use it in isolation?

I raised this in the forums a few months ago and have not seen anything that would suggest that this is even being considered. I know 14 others on the post I have mentioned this on all would love to see this functionality, especially now with Covid-19 requiring social distancing measures...not that helpful at the moment needing to create an order to then amend it on the Terminal to do what I think many people would have just expected it to do and acted as a chip and pin machine, connecting to your main pos tablet to do the item selection/scanning etc. Massive opportunity missed in my eyes and a complete no-brainer.

It’s a stunning bit of kit but currently have no use for it in its current guise, which is a real shame.

[pastonacre]

I agree with the above - can you sort it out please Square so we can start using you rather than iZettle

[Triangle]

Also would like to use Square terminal as the reader for the Square POS app on my iPad. I actually thought that was possible as many POS solutions have a customer facing display available so they can verify all the information is correct.

[sayra]

Hey @Triangle- I see how this can be helpful given the circumstances we are currently in. As mentioned in this thread, we don't have a way to connect our Square Terminal with a mobile or i-pad device. You can take a look at @isabelle  best answer as well.

I can't say when this will be available but will make sure to post any updates here.

[ToniP]

I ordered the Terminal thinking I could use it connected with my iPad to process cards & provide a printed receipt to customers that wanted one.  Very disappointed to find that it won't work that way at all & will be returning it.  I hope Square will make this feature happen soon, because it would be a very desirable option!

[NoLooseEnds18]

I am interested also. Mainly because of social distancing. And the privacy. It will keep the client at a distance. 

[eatmorecheese]

Also interested in this... I assumed it would be an option with the Terminal.

Shopkeep does this with the Clover terminal - you ring customers up on the iPad and process payments on the separate Clover device.   I strongly dislike Shopkeep support and ongoing bugs in their software, which is why I'm switching to Square, but they did get that idea right.

[JustinC]

@eatmorecheese 

Thanks for adding your voice to this thread. Not sure if this is gonna be a thing in the future. Both the Terminal and the iPad/Square Stand is designed to stand alone. 

[HippoAndCo]

I don’t understand what is so difficult to grasp in terms of the rationale, especially with the current COVID-19 epidemic.

I use an iPad Pro to allow me to see my descriptions more clearly and to provide better service, as I need to capture client information when ordering. The last thing I want to be doing is using the square terminal to do this. I bought the square terminal under the impression it would link to my iPad and stop me having to hand my expensive equipment over to somebody who may drop it, steal it or be uncomfortable holding a massive screen that cannot be covered up easily to enter their PIN. The square terminal is perfect to assist with this. 

The square reader connects to the iPad, so why is it so hard to provide this functionality to the square terminal? It could be a game changing bit of kit that shows a real level of professionalism to your customers, but instead it is currently in a box doing nothing.

The mind boggles as to how this was not thought of despite separate chip and pin systems being in every shop going.

[Joe]

Hi @HippoAndCo - thanks for adding your voice here in support of expanded services in connection between Terminal and Stand. We definitely hear you, here. 

We field thousands of feature requests each week here on the Seller Community, and bringing these features to fruition often takes an ample amount of time and effort from our engineers. We want to ensure that our releases are not just surface level products, but the best all-around resources to help you grow your business. And as you can imagine, integrating two separate payment devices can be tricky work. 

These requests also span an array of different aspects of our products; some are more major, while some are periphery features. Our Product Teams do have a road-map for future additions to our offering, but the nature of our work includes trial, error, and set-backs. So sharing a timeline would be far from accurate and more than likely cause more confusion and angst. 

We understand that it might be difficult waiting for something to be built out, but our engineers are working on various different requests brought up by our sellers, and working with Apple, Google, and our other partners in order to approve these changes and be able to push them out in future updates.

[pastonacre]

It seems pretty clear that A LOT of people want/require this feature so perhaps you could highlight this further as a priority with your software engineers

[JCCCafe]

I want to chime in. I am also hoping for this feature- it just makes sense and would solve my problems as well.

[SCB1961]

Yup. I tried the Square Register with the dual screen but ended up using an iPad Pro instead bc it was much faster at entry. 

[HippoAndCo]

Hi @Joe

Hope you are well.

I’m just wondering if there has been any movement on this suggestion at all?

I apologise for sounding a bit short in my previous response, but I am just really struggling to understand where the rhetoric is in terms of why the Square Terminal was thought to be a vastly different product and viable in comparison to what was already on offer in Square’s portfolio. 

Currently you have the Square reader which is used with a phone/tablet, which in my opinion is handy for people like tradespeople and does everything that a Square Terminal does, bar print receipts. Thus, you would think that for those wanting a more elegant and fixed solution for chip and pin, like in a shop, the Square Terminal would be the perfect solution for this, given that you offer no other standalone chip and pin device and it being unlikely that anyone who works in a non-static location (like a builder/carpenter for example) would want to carry around something so bulky when there is the Square reader for such portability needs, whilst also being just as unlikely that anyone in a static location would want to use something so small and fiddly in comparison to a tablet when they will no doubt also have other large POS equipment like tills etc.

As mentioned previously, I feel like you guys have really missed a trick and given that you didn’t offer a stand-alone chip and pin solution prior to the Terminal, I just don’t get the logic. It almost feels like a money grab attempt and with chip and pin terminals alongside POS screens being used by everyone, every day, I kind of wonder if your development team have been under a rock for the last 10 years?

With regards to the development of such an idea, wouldn’t it just work in the same way you push a request currently from an iPad to the Square Reader to accept a payment, but just display the total like it does on any other chip and pin machine? Just feels like we are being blinded with science and fluffy language, when the solution for anybody working to create these backend API’s shouldn’t be too taxing given the current blueprint for the square app and reader.

All in all very frustrating and perplexing.

I look forward to your response.

Cheers

Chris

[sarahscellar]

The only reason I bought the terminal was to have a card and printer to connect to my iPad.  So your solution is buy iPad and a reader and not be able to give receipts. Or buy a separate printer.  Like someone else has mentioned, the descriptions of my products are long and we have a vast category section which is unusable on the terminal. not impressed!