Payments
Separate card terminal or integrated payments?
Both take cards. The difference is where the amount comes from — a cashier’s fingers, or the sale itself — and everything that follows from that: the mistakes, the reconciliation and who you call when a batch fails.
No rate quoted before somebody has read your statement.
Is an integrated payment terminal better than a separate one?
Integrated is better where the counter is busy, the basket is itemized or the day has to reconcile against the system that rang it, because the amount comes from the sale rather than being typed twice. A separate terminal is the honest answer where the counter is simple, the card volume is low, or the business is not ready to change what it runs. Neither is a default.
Most of the argument is really about one keystroke. A total typed into a terminal beside the register can be typed wrong, and everything downstream — the batch, the refund, the end of the night — inherits that. Taking the amount from the sale removes the keystroke and the class of error with it.
- Integrated: the sale drives the paymentNothing is typed twice, so nothing disagrees at close.
- Separate: nothing else has to changeIt works beside whatever rings the sale today.
- One owner or twoA failed batch is one call when the POS drives the payment.
- The statement decides the restWhat a change is worth is a question about your own numbers.
We do not publish rates, and we do not promise savings. Whether a change is worth making is a question about your statement, and we will not answer it before reading one.
Why retailers integrate
What integration actually changes
Each of these is a counter problem before it is a payments problem.
No double entry
The amount comes from the sale, so the cashier is not re-keying a total during a queue.
Fewer mismatches
What was rung and what was taken are the same number, because there was only ever one of them.
A faster lane
One workflow at the counter instead of two devices and a pause between them.
Transactions that match
Settlement reconciles against the sale rather than against a separate batch report.
Simpler training
New staff learn one process, and it is the same one on every lane.
One number to call
SupportWhen something fails mid-service, the sale and the settlement are in the same system.
When a separate terminal is still the right answer
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The counter is simple and the card volume is low
Integration would be effort spent where a re-keyed total costs almost nothing.
A standalone terminal beside the register, and nothing else changes.
Standalone terminals -
The business runs software that does not take payments
There is nothing to integrate with yet.
A terminal beside it now; the integration question waits for the system decision.
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A contract or lease is still running
A change is planned and then blocked by terms nobody read.
Terms and leased equipment are reviewed before a change is recommended.
Statement review -
The register model cannot do it
A payment workflow is assumed and then found not to exist.
What a register supports is confirmed for the model before anything is bought.
Card processing for registers
Terminal and integration questions
What does integrated actually mean here?
The amount is passed from the sale to the payment device instead of being typed into it, and the settlement reconciles against the system that rang the sale.
Can we integrate the terminal we already have?
Sometimes. It depends on the device, the processor behind it and what the POS supports, so the specific combination is checked rather than assumed.
Is integration more expensive?
That is a question about your statement rather than about the setup, and we will not answer it before reading one. What integration changes for certain is the amount of manual work at the counter.
Does an integrated setup lock us to one processor?
Not by definition, and it is worth asking the question directly of any supplier. For an Infinity system BizTracker offers two processing paths, Bold and Hybrid, and what applies to a particular store is confirmed for that store.
Which is better for a restaurant?
Restaurants and bars run on LINGA, and the same logic applies with tables and tabs in place of lanes. The restaurant payments page covers what to confirm for a venue.
Decide it from your own numbers
Send one recent processing statement and say how the counter takes cards today. That is enough to say whether integrating is worth it, and what it would involve.