Integrating your Card Machines (PDQ) decreases room for human error, but knowing how you can continue to trade when experiencing difficulties is important.
Last updated 08 May 2024
Jump to:
- Introduction
- Contacting Support
- Standalone Payment Type
- Temporarily disabling your integration (steps 1-5)
Introduction
Kobas offers integration between your EPoS system and your Card Machines (also known as PDQ's). This offers many benefits including reducing room for human error, and speeding up the payment process. You can read more about managing PDQ's and integrations here.
In order for this to work, there are several connections in the transit of the data, spanning several companies. Therefore, from time to time you may experience some difficulties. In order for you to continue trade, should your Card Machine integration fail, you will need to temporarily disable your integration. This article explains how.
Sometimes a monetary 'drop out' can simply mean one payment is taken on your PDQ but isn't recorded in Kobas; but sometimes that issue could last longer until it can be resolved.
Kobas has two solutions in this scenario:
- PDQ Standalone Payment Type (this requires no additional configuration and is more suitable for a one-off or short term issue)
- Temporarily disable the integration (this requires an administrator/manager to change some settings, and is more suited for a more persistent issue)
Top Tip: To be clear, if you take a payment in a standalone mode, you must still record that in Kobas in real time.
Contacting support
When the integration fails this could be because of your PDQ or EPoS connection to the internet, or a wider issue with either the Payment Provider or with EPoS. More commonly, there are simple issues that can be resolved such as settings issues, or on site issues such as poor Wi-Fi / 4G signal, or loose cables.
If you are experiencing trouble taking payments through your PDQ Integration, please do not hesitate to contact our Support Help Desk on 020 7633 9449 and choose Option 3. Our team will help you troubleshoot, and direct you to your Payment Provider if required.
Standalone PDQ Payment Type
When taking a payment on EPoS, pressing Card when the integration is active, will only trigger an integrated payment.
Therefore, you can choose to optionally accept standalone PDQ payments (ie. not processed through the integration) by ticking the relevant box in the Venue Manager.
This will create an Other Payment Type allowing you to record a card payment that wasn't created through the integration.
In your reporting, you will need to add together the Card and PDQ stand-alone lines to get your total card figure.
When using this method of payment, the amounts will still sit within your Card section in Cash Logs, tips will also be treated in the same way.
Top Tip: On occasion, your connection to Dojo may time out. If this occurs, but the payment has been taken:
1. Check the amount taken (including tip) on the Dojo terminal
2. Cancel the payment on Kobas
3. Go to Take Payment, enter the amount inclusive of the Tip and press Other > PDQ Stand Alone.
Temporarily disabling your PDQ integration
1. Contact a staff member with the relevant permission level
In order to fully complete this process, you will need a Kobas user who has the user permission level to:
- Administration > Venues > Manage; and
- Administration > Hardware > Manage
2. Go to the Venue Manager in cloud
Log into your cloud account and go to Administrations > Venue Settings > Settings > Tills.
You will then need to tell each till not to look for an integrated PDQ. This is done by pressing Edit, and in the new Edit Till pop-up, scroll down to the PDQ section. Press the Bin icon next to each PDQ.
You will need to press Save and then Download Data on your tills.
3. Continuing to trade
This change will now mean that you are able to press the Card button in your basket or any of the card tender options within the Take Payment screen, and record a manual amount.
Your serving staff will need to enter the amount manually into the card machine. This is called "standalone mode".
If you have a Paymentsense Ingenico Terminal:
- From the home screen of the PDQ (Paymentsense logo showing), press F4
- Enter the supervisor password (default is 123456 or 01483) and press ENTER
- Press F4 to turn Standalone Mode on, or press F1 to turn Standalone Mode off
If you have a Dojo PAX A920 Terminal:
- From the sales screen, tap the menu icon in the top left corner (three lines)
- Select ‘Settings’
- Disable Integrated payments by toggling off PAC and PAT
For other Payment Providers or terminals, you may need to refer to your card machine or payment provider user guides or support to achieve this.
4. Reporting and reconciliation
This process will not effect reporting, card payments will still be recorded in the same lines of the Cash Log. Tips can be processed in the same way.
You will need to Z-Read the card machines in the same way, and enter the figures in the same place in Closing Tasks.
This is the same even if this process happens mid-shift.
5. Turning the integration back on
Once the problem has been fixed, you can turn your integration back on, by simply heading back to Administration > Venue Settings > Settings > Tills and adding the PDQ's back to each till as required.