With iPad or without?

[bernardchu]

Hi all,

I am new to Square and Electronic money transaction as I tend to be oldschool use cash for all my purchases. Also I am quite technologically inept. So pardon my questions if they sound non-sensical or "stupid".

Currently, I am in the middle of setting up a medical practice and looking to get a Square device. Deskspace is quite limited as my office is quite tiny. So I'm trying to minimize items in my clinic.

I've been pondering if I should just get the Square reader or buy the iPAD with it (I don't have a tablet yet)...

My questions are...

1. How do my clients enter their PIN number, because the Square reader has no keypad?

2. Will I be able to use my Laptop to do everything the iPAD device can do?

3. Can Square reader/iPAD be hardwired to the wallsocket for internet connectivity, just incase Wi-Fi becomes unavailable?

Thank you in advance. I may have some follow up questions later on.

Cheers

Bernard

Sydney, Australia.

[VanKalkerFarms]

very good and complicated questions.

I can't address how credit card processing works in Australia for chip and pin as I don't have experience with it.

it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  with your laptop, you can take lump sum payments right now without any additional hardware at a slightly higher rate.  it doesn't track item sales just accepts credit cards for deposit.

if you want to track items and services individually for records you will want to use Square POS on an iPad.  that way you can set up items and services ahead of time and then just choose them to check out when running the transaction.

  Square on an iPad can't be hardwired to an ethernet cable and uses wifi.  you can use Square register with ethernet but that is a $999 device that would be overkill for that one feature.

let me know if you have further questions.

[Seamus]

Hey @bernardchu,

Thanks for getting in touch!

1) A PIN entry screen is prompted on the touch screen device you're using the Square app on if the card requires a PIN for transactions over a certain size. You can read a little more about "PIN on Glass" tech here.

2) Note that you are NOT able to use our POS app or take a payment with a card reader via a computer or laptop. You CAN use a computer or laptop to manage your Square account via your online Dashboard. , email invoices and take "card not present" payment via your Virtual Terminal.

If you want to use our POS app and take payment with a card reader you will need to use a compatible iPad, iPhone or Android touchscreen device.

3) Square's POS app will need a WiFi or mobile (4G/3G) internet connection to take payments. The Register device @VanKalkerFarms is not yet available in Australia, but as he's mentioned, that device would indeed be overkill for the one feature even if it was available in Australia. At the moment all our Australian merchants use either Wifi or mobile broadband to take payments, as long as you have a decent enough connection you shouldn't experience any issues.

Hope this helps! let me know if you have any more questions or feel free to call our support team on 1800 760 137 🙂