About offline paymentsBefore you beginEnable offline paymentsAccept offline paymentsTime limits for offline paymentsSafety practices for offline paymentsRefunds for offline paymentsTroubleshoot offline transaction historyRelated articles
Who is this article for?
- Sellers with the account and settings permission to configure checkout settings can enable offline payments.
- Sellers with the checkout setting to take payments can accept an offline payment. Set permissions in Square Dashboard.
About offline payments
The Square app requires an internet connection at all times to function properly. This can be either a Wi-Fi connection or a data service on your mobile device (such as 4G, 5G, or EDGE).If your internet connection becomes interrupted or temporarily unavailable, you can accept payments during an offline session and upload them once you have an internet connection again.
Offline payments are stored in your Square app and will process automatically when you reconnect your device to the internet. Your current processing rate will be applied to offline transactions, so you’ll see no difference in fees.
Before you begin
With offline payments enabled, you can accept payments from most major card brands.
Offline payments will not work with Afterpay, Cash App Pay, Square Gift Cards, or manually-entered cards.
Dip, tap, and swipe payment functionality varies by device when using offline payments.
Any offline payment that isn’t processed within 24 hours will expire and the funds will not be received from your customer.
Offline payments can be processed on Square POS apps on Square Register, Square Terminal, tablets, and mobile devices. Offline payments are not available on the Square Invoices app.
Square Loyalty is not supported in offline mode, and you'll need to manually link and accrue customer's points earned from transactions while in offline mode.
Offline payments are not available on Square Reader for contactless and chip (1st generation - v1 and v2).
Enable offline payments
Offline payments must be enabled on your device prior to going offline. To enable:
Sign in to your Square POS app and go to ≡ More > Settings.
Tap Checkout > Offline payments and toggle on Allow offline payments.
Offline payments will be enabled on all compatible devices signed in to your account.
Accept offline payments
Once enabled, you’ll see a notification banner at the top of your device screen any time your device goes offline. The banner indicates that your device has automatically started an offline payments session accompanied by a countdown clock showing how much time you have left to accept offline payments. The notification banner will not appear on Square Register or Square Terminal.
You’ll receive an in-app notification when your offline session has expired or if it was interrupted. After you’ve regained internet connectivity and uploaded your offline payments, another offline session will activate if you lose internet connectivity again.
Offline payments will appear as pending from your in-app payment history while your device is offline. Once you reconnect your device to the internet, payments will show as completed and will be visible from your Square Dashboard. Customers’ digital receipts and your payment notification emails will also be sent when the device is back online.
If you have pending offline payments, do not delete the app or factory reset your device. Pending offline payments will be permanently lost, and the funds won’t be captured if you log out of your Square account.
Time limits for offline payments
Payment card industry partners and regulators set specific requirements related to the duration of offline payment sessions. Due to those requirements, offline payment product features, including the duration and availability of offline payments, may differ based on the payment type and hardware used.
24 hours from start of offline session
For the products listed below, you must reconnect your device to the internet and upload your offline payments within 24 hours of the start of your offline payments session, meaning you’ll have up to 24 hours from when your device goes offline to accept and upload offline payments using:
- Square Reader for magstripe, if you have Square Reader for contactless and chip or Square Stand connected to the device
- Square Reader for contactless and chip (1st generation)
- Square Reader for contactless and chip (2nd generation)
- Square Stand (1st generation), if you have Square Reader for contactless and chip connected to the device
- Square Stand (2nd generation)
24 hours from first offline payment
For the products listed below, you must reconnect your device to the internet and upload your offline payments within 24 hours of when you process your first offline payment, meaning you’ll have up to 24 hours from when you process the first offline payment to accept and upload offline payments using:
- Square Reader for magstripe
- Square Terminal
- Square Stand (1st generation)
- Square Register
Safety practices for offline payments
There is additional risk with any offline payments you accept. Square is not responsible for any loss due to declined cards or expired payments taken while offline. In addition, Square cannot contact any customers on your behalf should an offline payment expire or be declined. You are responsible for any expired, declined, or disputed payments accepted while offline.
Be sure to obtain a signature for every transaction (where possible) and verify the signature on the screen matches the signature on the back of the payment card.
If the card is not signed, ask your customer for a government-issued ID and to sign the card. Looking at their ID, match the signature to the signature on the payment card.
While you can’t require your customer to provide an ID, and requesting an ID doesn’t change your liability for chargebacks, unsigned cards are invalid and should not be accepted.
Remember, if a payment card is declined, Square is unable to provide customer contact information or contact the customer on your behalf.
Refunds for offline payments
Offline payments can’t be canceled or refunded while they're still processing. You can issue a refund once your internet connection has been restored.
Troubleshoot offline transaction history
If you’ve uploaded your offline payments within 24 hours but are unable to locate them in your transaction history, try the following troubleshooting steps:
Confirm that you’ve uploaded your offline payments by checking your Transaction history on another device, or by logging in to Square Dashboard.
Forget the network you are connected to on your device.
Reconnect to the same network.
Restart the app.
Note: Pending offline payments will be permanently lost and the funds won’t be captured if you log out of your Square account, delete the Square app, or factory reset the device that has taken offline payments.
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