Merchant Machine

How to Use Square Terminal To Take Payments


By: Ian Wright | Last Updated: April 25, 2025

Sections

  • Quick Summary
  • Full Summary
    • Making a Payment
    • Payment Receipt
    • Payment Options
    • Terminal Options
    • Tracking Your Business

Quick Summary

TLDR: Square Terminal is a versatile and user-friendly payment processing device that allows businesses to accept various forms of payment, manage transactions, and access valuable customer information.

1. Take payments, enter custom amount, add note, search for item, tap charge, customer confirms price, pays with chip card and enters pin on terminal.

2. Customers can pay with contactless cards or devices, record cash transactions, process phone orders, and search for specific transactions using Square Terminal.

3. Refund transactions by selecting items or entering amount, then enter reason and tap refund; Square Terminal has customer and seller facing checkout flows.

4. Speed up checkout by turning off itemized cart screen, adjust tipping options, and allow employees to clock in/out on Square Terminal.

5. Adjust settings for screen brightness, sleep, and automatic updates on Square Terminal, easily view daily sales reports and deposits, and access more detailed reports on your computer through the Square dashboard.

6. Add and manage customers during a sale, search and import customer lists, and access valuable customer information using Square Terminal.

Full Summary

How To Use The Square Terminal

Here’s a step-by-step look at what you can do with your new square terminal.

Let’s start with payments to take a payment. You can enter a custom amount using the keypad. You can add a note that will show up on the customer’s receipt or search for an item in your library choose.

The item and tap charge pass the terminal to your customer so they can confirm the price tip pay and choose to have their receipt texted emailed or printed. They can pay with a chip card with a chip facing up and enter their pin right on terminal.

Making a Payment

Making a Payment with Square Terminal

They can also tap their card phone or other contactless. Device exit the customer checkout screen by tapping the x in the corner to record cash or any other way. Your customers want to pay for an order where the card is not present say a phone order you simply process.

The order like usual and tap manual credit card entry enter the customer’s full card number as well as the card’s expiration date security code and postcode.

If you want to view your transaction history just tap the menu then transactions to find a specific transaction. You can scroll search by card number or insert or swipe the card that was used to search using a contactless card or device just tap. The search field first then hover the card or device over the screen.

Payment Receipt

Square Terminal Receipt

Once you’ve located the transaction you can text email or print a new receipt to give a refund choose the transaction tap issue refund and then either select the items in the transaction to refund or tap amount and enter the amount you’d like to refund.

Then enter the reason for refund and tap refund square terminal comes with a customer facing checkout flow out of the box but you can change it to a seller facing flow.

Payment Options

Payment Options

If that’s how you like to work. You can also speed up your checkout by turning off the show itemized cart screen. Then you won’t see this screen before each sale you can also adjust how you allow for tipping change tipping amounts or turn off tips entirely.

You can also allow employees to clock in and out of your terminal to learn more about team management follow the link in the description.

Terminal Options

Square Terminal Options

Below you can adjust screen brightness or adjust how soon terminal will go to sleep after a period of inactivity and you can set when terminal will automatically restart.

We restart daily so you get automatic software updates as soon as they’re available. Square terminal makes it simple to see daily sales reports at a glance just go to menu reports.

Then sales select the time period for which you want to see your sales press apply and there they are and then see the deposits. Square made to your account just as easily you can see more detailed reports from your computer on your square dashboard.

Tracking Your Business

Square Terminal Tracking

It’s your way to keep your finger on the pulse of your entire business to add a customer to a sale tap current sale.

The down arrow then add customer. You can apply a customer to this sale or create a new customer just enter their information on your screen and even save a card on file. If you want.

You can also add a customer from the receipt screen after the sale to manage your customer list tap on customers in your main menu. It’s easy to search all your customers by name phone or email.

Long lists of customers should be imported on your square dashboard. You can also see valuable information about your customers like who your regulars are and who hasn’t been back in a while to learn more about using your square terminal go to Square.com.

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