Credit Card Interface and SAM4s Cash Registers

SAM4s makes quite a few cash register models that interface with credit card payments. What does that mean? Well it means rather than having to ring up the sale on the cash register and than re-enter the total on a stand alone credit card terminal risking error and fraud it is all done at the cash register, no re-entering, no mistakes all done in one machine.

As described above the biggest advantages of integrating credit card payments and cash registers is that by eliminating the extra steps that are part of the traditional method you will also reduce costly errors and often stop or reduce fraud dramatically.

Ten key errors happen all the time in the old school method of two different machines. A $14.99 often will turn into a $1.49 or $4.99 instead of the original value. How does this happen? Well you have a busy cashier that has to deal with two machines. The cashier gets the total from the cash register $14.99 then turns to the standalone credit card terminal and enters what they think is $14.99 and the enter key. The customer rarely complains when the sales draft is under the purchased amount. The cashier does not notice and finishes the sale on the cash register shorting your store $10.00 all while thing they are doing a goo job.

How does interfacing stop this? Well when you interface you do everything on the cash register. So in this example the cashier rings up the sale just like normal, gets the subtotal just like before. Now starts the difference when the customer hands a credit card to the cashier the cashier simply press the credit card payment button on the cash register, this prompts the cashier to swipe the card without entering the sale amount. The cash register already knows how much the sale is and has entered the correct amount, now the credit card receipt prints on the cash register receipt tape for the customer to sign and the cashier moves to the next transaction. Much faster and much fewer error. People sometimes ask if they can change the amount of the credit card payment. The answer is yes they can but they must make a choice to do that and would only do so in the case of a split tender which does happen from time to time. Even in a split tender case the register will still force the cashier to finalize the sale.

Speed, accuracy, less or no fraud why would you not interface your cash register and credit card payments and throw your stand alone  credit card machine in the dust bin of history where it belongs.