Point of sale

Payments and the till

Take card and cash payments from the cart, split a bill across several payment types, and open, count, and close your till.

Taking payment

There is no separate checkout screen on the register — the cart column is the checkout. Required details are filled in there, and payment happens there too. The payment buttons sit at the bottom of the cart.

Card, in one tap

Tap Card Payment. This creates the order and charges the whole sale to the card reader in one go — the customer taps or inserts their card, and the sale completes.

It works whatever your order-type setup is, because anything the order needs (a name, a table, a phone number) is captured in the cart before the button becomes available. If no card reader is set up on this register, Card Payment takes you down the Pay route instead.

Each register has a default payment terminal chosen from your location's reader pool. Readers are registered under Settings → Payments or Settings → Devices, and a manager can also switch this register's reader from the register itself — see Managing devices.

To check the reader before you need it, open More in the navigation rail. Reader ready means a card can be taken now. On a Stripe card reader, if the line underneath says payments go via Stripe, the register can't reach the reader over the local network and will send payments through Stripe instead — it still works, just a moment slower. Reader busy means another screen is taking a payment on it. Reader offline means Stripe can't see the reader at all: check its power and internet.

If you ever need to disconnect an account entirely, an owner can do that from Settings → Payments. Open the bin icon next to the account's status, type DISCONNECT to confirm, and the connection is severed. Anything still using that account stops taking card payments until you reconnect it or move it to your other account, and the disconnect is refused while there are open orders still waiting on payment.

Choosing how you take payments

Under Settings → Payments → How you take payments you can use:

Mavos Payments — one rate and one statement from Mavos, with the card processing relationship looked after for you.
Your own Stripe account — choose Connect your Stripe account and sign in to Stripe. Stripe charges you its own processing fees directly; Mavos takes only its platform fee from each payment.
Both — for example your own Stripe for online orders and Mavos Payments at the counter.

Then, under Where each payment goes, pick the account for each kind of payment: In person, Online ordering and bookings, Payment links and invoices, and Memberships. A change applies to new payments from that moment. Refunds always go back through the account the original payment was taken on.

Card readers take payments on the account they're registered with. To move in-person payments to another account, register your readers on it (the register dialog asks which account when you have more than one). The In person choice is the account new readers use, and the one used for tabs held without a reader.

To stop using your own Stripe account, first move every kind of payment and every card reader off it, then disconnect it. Payments already taken on it stay in your Stripe account — refund those from your Stripe dashboard.

Your bank's EFTPOS terminals

You can also take in-person card payments on the EFTPOS terminals your bank supplies, connected through Linkly Cloud. This is being rolled out: until it's available for your business, the Your bank's EFTPOS terminals card under Settings → Payments says Coming soon. Once it's available, the card links you to pairing.

With a bank terminal, card payments go through your own bank and settle straight to your bank account, and your bank charges you its own fees. Mavos can't take its platform fee from those payments, so it bills that fee to you monthly (see Billing from Mavos). A bank terminal can't take payments until you've added a payment method under Billing from Mavos.

Pairing a terminal. An owner or admin opens Settings → Payments → Payment terminals and chooses Pair a bank terminal. Choose the location, give the terminal a name (for example "Front counter"), enter your Linkly Cloud username and password, and enter the pairing code the terminal shows. Mavos uses your username and password once to pair the terminal and doesn't keep them. Then set the terminal as the register's default payment terminal under Settings → Devices.

Taking a payment. Card Payment sends the sale to the bank terminal and the customer pays there. The screen shows the payment waiting, then processing, then paid, or the terminal's own decline message. The order records the card type, the last four digits, the approval code and the bank's reference. In More, the reader status says payments are taken on your bank's terminal. There's no local connection to set up and no Reconnect button.

Cancelling. While the terminal is waiting for the card, Cancel request clears it. Mavos releases the payment only once the terminal confirms nothing was charged; if it can't confirm that, it tells you the payment may be going through. Once the card has been presented, or on the Take payment sheet from an order, cancel on the terminal itself.
After a decline, start a new payment: the declined attempt can't be retried.
If the screen closes mid-payment, Mavos cancels the payment on the terminal. If the card had already been read, the payment finishes and is recorded on the order. Payments left waiting on a bank terminal are checked about every 15 minutes: completed ones are recorded, declined ones are marked declined, and ones that never reached the terminal are released so the order can be paid another way.
Tipping is set in Mavos, and the tip is sent to the terminal with the sale (on the last payment when a bill is split). Leave tip prompts off on your bank terminal so customers are only asked once. If the terminal adds a tip anyway, the payment is recorded at the full amount charged and the extra is added to the order's tip.
If the bank approves less than asked, the payment is recorded at that amount and the order shows the rest still owing.
Tabs on a bank terminal are opened without a card hold: the pre-authorisation field is hidden, and a "pre-auth required" rule for your location doesn't apply on that register.
Removing a terminal isn't possible while a payment on a bank terminal is still in progress. Finish or cancel it first.
Refunds go back on a bank terminal with the customer's card presented, one payment at a time — see Refunds and order edits.

At the end of the day, when the last till at a location is closed, each bank terminal there is asked to settle. The End of day report then shows a Bank terminal settlement section with each terminal's totals, as the terminal reported them, or the reason they couldn't be fetched. Closing the till never waits for this. Each terminal is settled at most once per till session. If one couldn't be fetched, check the terminal's own settlement printout.

Cancelling a card payment

The card charge runs right there in the cart, not on a separate screen. If you tap Card Payment by mistake, or the customer changes their mind while the reader is waiting for a tap, tap Cancel request. The reader prompt clears immediately and the order is free to take a different payment right away — no waiting around.

Cancel is greyed out while the payment is being finalised (it reads "Processing payment…"), because at that instant the money may already be moving between the customer's bank and yours — a short caption explains why. Wait for it to finish: if it succeeds, you'll see the payment recorded; if it fails, you'll be able to try again.

Leaving a card payment that is still waiting does the same as Cancel request: closing the screen, logging out, reloading or closing the tab cancels it on the reader, and the attempt shows as not gone through. If the card had actually gone through, the payment is recorded and the order completes. This never happens while the reader is processing. Card attempts left behind anyway are tidied every 15 minutes: completed ones are recorded, ones never presented are cancelled after 15 minutes, and a card that was read but never confirmed is released after 30 minutes once the card provider confirms nothing was charged. Bar-tab holds are never affected.

If a cancel is tapped at the exact moment the customer's card is approved, you're never left guessing — the sale is shown as paid rather than being silently closed, so you never accidentally charge the customer twice by retrying.

If the reader says "via Stripe" all the time

Payments still work, but each one takes a moment longer. Three things fix it, in order of likelihood:

Chrome's Local network permission. Click the icon left of the address bar, open Site settings, and set Local network to Allow. Then reload the register.
Same Wi-Fi. The reader and the register PC must be on the same network — not a guest network, and not a phone hotspot.
The router's DNS. Some routers block the address the reader uses. Setting the router's DNS to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 fixes it; the reader's own Settings → Diagnostics screen shows whether its "DNS resolution test" passes.

Tap Reconnect next to the reader status after changing any of these.

Pay — split it however the customer wants

Tap Pay. The order is created once, and a payment panel opens in the cart showing:

Balance — what is left to pay, and how much has been collected so far.
An amount row — a dollar box with −5 / −1 / +1 / +5 buttons either side for quick whole-dollar adjustments, prefilled with the whole remaining balance.
Card, Cash, Gift card and Loyalty points — always shown in the same order and place, so you always know where to look. Tap one to open it.
Payments — every payment on this order, listed below those four options: gone through, still waiting on the terminal, or one that didn't complete. A payment still waiting on the terminal shows a Cancel button right there in the list, so you can clear a stuck attempt without going back to the card screen.

Take as many payments as you like, in any combination, against the same order until the balance reaches zero — cash and card, two cards, a gift card and then cash. The register recalculates what is owing after every payment, so the amount you see is always the real one.

Card — tap it and the charge starts right there: the button becomes Cancel and a status card appears showing what the reader is doing. While a card payment is running, the rest of the panel — the amount, the tip, the other payment options, Back — is locked until it finishes or is cancelled.

Cash — two taps. The first arms it: the button changes to read something like "Received $20 · take $18.50". Underneath, note buttons ($1 / $5 / $10 / $20 / $50) let you tally what the customer handed over — tap a note again if they gave more than one — plus a box to type the amount received directly, a Reset, and a running Change due figure. The second tap takes the payment. The received amount and change are just there to help you count out change; the actual sale amount is what gets recorded either way.

Cash needs an open drawer. If the till isn't open yet, the panel says so and offers Open till & take payment — enter the opening float and the payment goes through in the same step.

Gift card — tap Check to look up the code. You'll see the card's balance, how much of it this sale is using, and what's left on the card afterwards, and the button to apply it reads Pay $X for the amount it will actually take. A gift card always applies whichever is smaller — its remaining balance, or what is still owing — which is why the amount row locks while a gift card is selected. If the customer is attached to the sale, their saved gift cards are listed on the Gift card method — tap one to pay with it, no code needed. A gift card counter code typed into the code box works too.

Loyalty points — shown once a customer with a points balance is attached, with their balance right on the button. Choose a dollar value in $1 steps and tap Apply. This isn't a payment — it's a discount that comes straight off the total (and the tax on it), so it appears in the payments list as an information line rather than a payment. It can only be applied once per order. If you apply it and then leave without taking any payment, the order stays open rather than being lost, so it's still there to collect from Search later.

Promo codes and discounts are applied in the cart before you start taking payment. See Gift cards, Discounts and Loyalty program.

Backing out

Before you have taken anything, backing out of the payment panel cancels the order.
After a part payment, you are asked "Leave order #… open?". Choose Keep collecting to carry on, or Leave it open to walk away — the order stays open with the rest to collect. You will not be allowed to simply discard an order that has money on it.

To collect the rest later, find the order in Search and use Take payment in its detail pane — that offers Card or Cash.

If you've emailed or texted the customer an invoice for the order, they can also settle it themselves without you doing anything — opening the invoice on their own device and tapping Pay now takes the balance by card. See Finding and managing orders for issuing invoices.

Tipping

Tipping is configured per location under Settings → Checkout: turn it on, set preset percentages, and choose whether custom tips are allowed.

On the register the tip sits above the first payment in the payment panel, and it locks as soon as you take one — the row changes to read "Tip · locked once a payment is taken". Set the tip before you start collecting; if it needs to change after that, refund and re-ring the sale.

Tips are recorded separately on each order and flow through to your reports and accounting exports.

After the sale

By default you get a confirmation you can dismiss — tap New order, or press Escape, or tap outside it. It closes on its own after a few seconds if you leave it.

Your app can also be set to show no confirmation at all: the sale is announced with a brief message, the cart clears straight away, and you are back on the menu ready for the next customer. If a customer screen is linked to this register, it still holds the receipt code for a few seconds so the customer can scan it.

That choice is per app, under App → Settings → Checkout → "After a sale, the register…", with the options Shows a confirmation and No confirmation — return to the menu. Kiosk and QR ordering always show their own full-screen confirmation and are not affected.

What you are charged

Settings → Payments (owners and admins) shows what a card sale costs you, and there are two possible answers depending on how your card processing is set up.

If your payment provider bills you directly, the page shows a platform fee and nothing else. Your processing costs are charged by the provider itself. Your payout statements show them as the provider's own line, so each statement adds up to what reached your bank, but they're never a Mavos charge.
If Mavos pays the provider for you, the page shows the rate that covers the provider's own cost, with the platform fee charged on top. Both appear on your payout statements.

The sample line ("A $115.00 sale is charged…", or "A $115.00 card sale is charged…" when the list below is shown) always shows the total a card sale pays, whatever applies to you.

How the platform fee is worked out. It's a percentage plus a fixed amount per payment, charged on the whole amount paid — tips included. Every payment type pays the same platform fee unless your plan sets a different rate for that type (for example, no fee on cash, or a lower rate for bank transfers). Gift card redemptions are never charged a platform fee, because the fee was already charged when the gift card was sold. A refund doesn't reduce a platform fee that was already charged. On card sales the fee is taken when the card is charged; on other payment types it's booked as owed and collected from a later card sale.

By payment type. If your plan charges a platform fee on any payment type, the card lists Card, Cash, Bank transfer and Cheque, each with its rate (the rate your plan sets for that type, or your usual rate if it doesn't set one) and what a $115.00 payment of that type is charged. Gift card is listed as never charged. A type with no fee shows No fee. When a cash, bank transfer or cheque payment is charged, the card reminds you that those fees are booked as owed and collected from your later card sales. If Mavos pays the provider for you, a card sale also pays the processing rate shown at the top of the card, on top of the platform fee in the list. If your plan charges no platform fee at all, the list isn't shown.

Owed to Mavos. The card also shows everything booked and not yet collected, as it stands right now — the same figure as Still owed to Mavos on your payout statements, which show what was booked and collected. If it can't be loaded, the card says Unavailable right now rather than showing $0.00; reload the page to try again.

If that card ever says it couldn't load your pricing, nothing has changed — reload the page, and get in touch if it keeps happening. It's a different message from "no pricing is configured", which is a real gap that stops card payments.

On your payout statements

Settings → Payments → Payout statements has one statement for every payout to your bank, and each one adds up to the cent: your card sales, less everything taken out, is what was paid to your bank. A statement has three parts.

This payout is what went into the payout:

Card sales — the card payments this payout includes.
Refunds and Disputes — money returned to customers, or taken back by their bank.
Card processing — charged by Stripe — Stripe's own processing fee, with the GST on it, which Stripe takes from each sale before paying out. It's shown so the statement adds up to what reached your bank; it isn't a Mavos charge. If Mavos pays the provider for you, this line doesn't appear.
Mavos fees — what Mavos took from these sales.
Paid to your bank — the payout itself. A line underneath spells out the sum with the real figures.

Mavos fees on these card sales breaks the Mavos fees line down. Platform fee is each sale's own fee. Earlier fees collected are fees booked before and taken from these sales: the platform fee on cash and other non-card sales, and fees such as your monthly account fee, a payout fee or a card processing shortfall. If Mavos pays the provider for you, the processing lines appear here too.

This part always adds up to the Mavos fees line, and two kinds of line make sure of that:

Not itemised yet — any sales whose breakdown isn't ready yet, all together on one line, with how many there are.
Other Mavos fee adjustments — when every sale is itemised but what was taken still differs a little from the sale-by-sale breakdown. For example, an amount held back when a sale was made, to be returned to you later, shows here on the payout that held it.

Booked this period, collected from later card sales lists fees that aren't taken from a payout directly: monthly account and reader fees, payout and dispute fees, the platform fee on cash and other non-card sales, and any card processing shortfall — when Mavos pays the provider for you and a sale's processing cost came to more than was set aside for it. They're booked when they happen and collected from later card sales, where they appear as Earlier fees collected. Each line shows how much of it has been collected so far. They aren't part of the payout's total, so nothing is counted twice.

Under that, Still owed to Mavos shows everything booked and not yet collected, across every period, as it stands right now. It's the place to check what you owe at any time. If it can't be loaded, the statement says so rather than showing $0.00.

A refund doesn't give back fees already charged: Stripe keeps its processing fee, and the platform fee on the refunded sale stays charged.

If a statement's lines ever don't add up to the amount paid, it shows a notice and we're told automatically. Payouts recorded before itemised statements show the older layout, marked with a note, because their figures may not add up to the amount paid.

Refunding from the register

Refund is available on any settled order now, whatever it was paid with — card, cash, or a gift card. Open the order from Search, tap Refund, and choose an amount as usual.

If the order was paid in more than one way (say, part gift card and part cash), a Take it from section lists each payment with what's still available to refund from it. Leave it untouched and the refund splits automatically — gift cards first, then card, then cash. Or tick the payments you want the refund to come off and set an amount against each one; the amounts you choose must add up to the refund total.

See Refunds and order edits for the full refund flow, including the manager PIN step.

When a customer disputes a payment with their bank

Sometimes a customer asks their bank to reverse a card payment instead of coming back to you — this is called a dispute, or a chargeback. The bank pulls the money back straight away, before anyone has had a chance to explain what happened, so it's worth responding even if you're confident the payment was legitimate.

You don't need to go anywhere outside Mavos to deal with it:

Where to find it. Owners and admins see the full list under Settings → Payments → Disputed payments, with a badge next to Payments showing how many are waiting on a response. Managers see the same list, scoped to their own location, on that location's Card payments & fees report.
You'll be emailed. Whoever can respond — owners, admins, and the location's managers — get an email as soon as a dispute opens, and reminders as the deadline gets close if it's still unanswered.
Responding. Open the dispute and you'll see the order it relates to, the amount, the reason the bank gave, and how long you have left. Some of the details — what was ordered, and the order date and number — are already filled in from your own records; add anything else that helps your case (a description of what happened, delivery or pickup confirmation, terms the customer agreed to) and attach any files, then submit. Submitting is final — you won't be able to add more afterwards, so make sure you're ready before you do.
Accepting. If you'd rather not contest it, an owner or admin can accept the dispute instead. This gives up the money and can't be undone.

Till sessions (the cash drawer)

Every cash payment needs an open till session. Open More → Till in the POS navigation rail — the Cash drawer opens right there as a window over the register, not a separate screen, and there's no extra PIN to enter: it trusts that you're already signed in, and every drawer action is recorded under your name.

Opening the till

Tap Open till.
Confirm the Opening float — the cash already in the drawer. It's prefilled with the device's default till amount (set per device under Settings → Devices).

During the day

The Cash drawer window always shows Expected cash on hand — opening float plus cash sales, minus cash refunds and paid-outs. Two tools help mid-shift:

Paid-out — record cash taken from the drawer (e.g. petty cash to a supplier) with an amount and a required reason.
Shift handover — count the drawer (optional) and hand it to the next staff member, who should sign in with their own PIN before continuing.

End of day: cash count and close

Open More → Till and find Cash count & close.
Count everything in the drawer (notes and coins) and enter it as Counted cash. Add a note if needed.
Tap Close till. If your count doesn't match the expected amount, you'll see whether the drawer is over or short and by how much — choose Recount to try again or Close with variance to record it.

Variances and all till activity appear in your end-of-day reporting — see Reports.

For refunds and order corrections, see Refunds and order edits.

Chargeback reserve balance

If your business has a chargeback reserve, an owner or admin can see its balance under Settings → Payments. If the balance cannot be loaded, the card says it is unavailable. That message does not mean your reserve is empty; try again shortly.

Stripe dashboard access

Owners and admins can use Manage in Stripe under Settings → Payments when their Mavos Payments account supports a Stripe dashboard. New managed accounts have Express dashboard access; existing accounts may use Stripe's full dashboard. If you connected your own Stripe account, Open Stripe dashboard takes you to your usual Stripe sign-in. Mavos payout statements remain available for reviewing recorded fees and adjustments. If dashboard access is unavailable, contact support. Dashboard access does not change your agreed payment rates.

Billing from Mavos

Mavos usually takes its platform fee straight out of each card payment. When it can't — for example on cash sales — the fee is kept as an amount you owe and is taken from later card payments where possible. Whatever is still owed is billed to you on a monthly invoice from Mavos for the platform fee, early each month for the month before. Small amounts are carried over to the next month rather than invoiced. When Mavos is registered for GST, invoices are tax invoices: they show Mavos's ABN and the GST included in the amount.

Adding a payment method

An owner or admin can add one under Settings → Payments → Billing from Mavos:

Choose Add payment method (or Replace to change the one on file).
Enter an Australian bank account (direct debit) or a card on the secure payment page and save it. A bank account has the lowest fees, so we recommend it.
You come back to Settings → Payments. The new payment method can take a minute to appear.

With a payment method on file, invoices are paid automatically. Without one, each invoice is emailed to your business with 14 days to pay online.

Seeing your invoices

Billing from Mavos lists your recent invoices with the month, the amount (and the GST included, on tax invoices) and whether each is due, paid or cancelled. Choose View to open the invoice, download it or pay it.

If an invoice isn't paid

An invoice that stays unpaid past its due date is marked Overdue. If it is still unpaid 21 days after the invoice date (or whatever period has been agreed for your account), your account can be paused until it is paid; paying the invoice lifts the pause. Mavos always checks with the payment provider before pausing, so an invoice you have paid never pauses your account. Keeping a payment method on file avoids this.