Payment

This standard governs how payment is taken at the point of sale: card, cash, gift card, store credit, check, and split payment. It applies to cashiers, who take each tender, and to managers, who approve manual card records and resolve payments whose status cannot be verified. Until a tender is accepted, everything in the sale is editable. The moment a tender is accepted, the sale becomes a financial record: a payment with its own number, linked to the sale, stamped with who took it and how.

Card: the four paths

A card payment at the register may complete in four ways. The cashier shall choose the path that fits the situation

1. Keyed: the card is typed into the register. The sale completes when the register confirms the charge.
2. Link: the customer pays on a payment page. The register shows a link the cashier can display, copy, or email to the address on file. Use this path when the card needs the customer's phone approval, or for a phone order.
3. On file: the customer's saved card is charged. This path requires the customer attached to the sale; with no customer attached, the register refuses. If the bank requires authentication, the register reports it rather than failing silently, and the cashier shall use the link path so the customer can approve on their phone. If the card declines, the register gives the decline reason; offer another path rather than retrying the same card repeatedly.
4. Manual: recorded only. The card was charged elsewhere, such as a phone terminal, and the cashier records the tender. Manager approval is required, and the entry shall be made exactly, because the register trusts it completely.

What happens when a card is charged

The keyed, link, and on-file paths begin the same way: the register creates a pending charge: a record of everything needed to finish the sale: amount, customer, and the full cart. When the payment provider confirms the money, the sale completes through the same sale-completion path as a counter-paid sale; there is one completion path, and every card payment uses it. Completion claims the pending charge so that exactly one completion: the register's confirmation or the provider's notification: finishes it. If it is already completed, the second stands down and nothing happens twice.

If the confirmed amount does not match the pending amount, completion is refused and the payment is not recorded against a sale; the mismatch is surfaced, not covered over. If the sale fails after the card was charged, the pending charge returns to waiting, with the error recorded, so a retry or the provider's notification can still complete the recording. Confirmed money shall never be left silently unrecorded.

When card charging is unavailable

If no payment provider key is configured for the register, card charging is unavailable and the register says so plainly: cash, check, gift card, or a manual card record still work. The register does not pretend to charge a card and does not hold a card charge for later. Staff shall know the fallback tenders before this message appears.

Saved cards

Cards on file are held by the payment provider against the customer's provider record, reached from the customer record. No card numbers are stored in the store's own records. Saved cards are listed from the provider showing brand, last four digits, and expiry, and a new card is saved to the provider record when the customer chooses to save it during a keyed or link payment. Handling of customer payment data is also governed by the Privacy Policy.

Cash

Cash is the only tender for which the register calculates change: amount tendered minus total equals change due, recorded on the sale. The cashier shall count the cash before it enters the drawer, enter the amount tendered as counted: not as the total: and let the register state the change. The cashier shall announce the change while handing it over and count it back into the customer's hand. Large bills receive a counterfeit check under store policy. If wrong change is discovered after the customer leaves, the cashier shall not adjust the sale; the cashier shall report it to a manager at close. Cash sales update the session's expected cash automatically, by cash tendered minus change given back.

Gift card: the hard rules

A gift card tender draws down the card's stored balance. The register enforces three rules without exception, and breaching any one stops the entire sale, with a full rollback rather than a partial completion

1. The card must exist. A mistyped number is "not found," not a zero balance.
2. The card must be redeemable: active or partially redeemed. An expired, voided, or never-activated card cannot be tendered.
3. The balance must cover the tendered amount. The register will not reduce an over-tender to the balance on its own; tendering $50 against a $30 balance does not complete the sale.

Every redemption writes a ledger entry with the balance before and after, so the card's history can be audited to the cent. When the balance reaches zero, the card is marked redeemed. The cashier shall check the balance before tendering, and shall tender gift cards before cash, because a gift card cannot make change.

Store credit and check

Store credit works like a gift card but belongs to a customer account rather than a card number. The customer shall be attached first; the register shows the available balance and applies it on confirmation. Partial use is normal; the remainder stays for next time.

A check is recorded with its check number as the reference. The drawer release fires for checks as for cash. Store policy governs acceptance: identification, limits, and no third-party checks. A check is a promise, not a guarantee; the cashier shall know the store's rule on large checks before the customer writes one.

Split payment

Each tender becomes its own payment against the same sale, and the paid total is the sum. The register limits card charges to the remaining balance; cash may overpay and generate change. Tender in this order: gift cards and store credit first, because they cannot make change; then cards; then cash. If a split goes wrong midway: first tender accepted, second declined: the cashier shall not void the whole sale. The accepted tender stands; void or refund it individually and re-tender the remainder.

Card-decline recovery

1. Do not retry the same card immediately. Repeated rapid declines can cause the customer's bank to lock the card.
2. Read the message. An authentication-required result on a card-on-file charge means: send a payment link and let the customer approve on their phone.
3. Offer the next path: another card keyed, the link, or cash: framed as routine.
4. If the register shows the payment as succeeded with an authorization code and the customer says they were not charged, trust the register. A succeeded payment with an authorization code is a completed charge; the customer's banking application may not show it yet.
5. Never re-tender a card payment whose status has not been verified. An uncertain payment shall be checked: payment status and pending-charge state: before a second attempt.

Reader status

The card reader's status light is the first diagnostic. A steady ready light means paired and listening; no light means power or pairing; a blinking fault light means attention is needed. If the register reports the reader not found while the light looks correct, re-pair a Bluetooth reader or reseat a USB reader. While the reader is down, cash, gift card, store credit, and manager-approved manual card entry still work.

Controls

• A card purchase shall never be refunded as cash; refunds follow Post-Transaction and the Returns and Refunds Policy.
• Manual card records require manager approval.
• Staff shall not re-tender a payment whose status is waiting, completing, or otherwise unverified.

Records

Each tender creates a payment record with its own payment number, linked to the sale, showing method, amount, tip where applicable, and who took it. Card payments create pending-charge records that move through waiting, completing, and completed, with failed, expired, and cancelled as end states. Gift card redemptions create ledger entries with balances before and after. These records are kept in the point of sale system.

Escalation and review

Managers review manual card records, amount mismatches, and payments that cannot be verified. A payment fault that the store cannot resolve shall be reported to support@aapawz.com. Legal process concerning a payment record shall be directed to legal@aapawz.com.