Connect a card terminal

Every card terminal works the same way in the POS: you pick the terminal payment method, the register pushes the exact amount to the card machine over the cloud, the buyer taps or inserts their card, and the sale completes with the payment reference stored on the WooCommerce order. No typing totals into a separate device, no reconciling two systems afterwards.

What you get

• A Card – [provider] payment method on the register once a terminal is configured.
• Live status while charging – Sending to terminal…, Waiting for card…, Approved or Declined – with a Cancel button that also clears the reader.
• The provider’s transaction ID saved on the order (as the order’s transaction ID).
• Automatic card refunds: refunding from the POS reverses the charge on the card through the provider – no need to open their dashboard.

Supported providers

1. Stripe Terminal – Stripe’s smart readers (BBPOS WisePOS E, Stripe Reader S700/S710, Verifone models). Available in 20+ countries across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
2. Square Terminal – the Square Terminal device. Available where Square operates (US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, Japan).
3. SumUp – the SumUp Solo reader. Available in most of Europe plus the US, Brazil and Chile.

The framework is provider-based, so more terminal providers can be added over time.

Enable a terminal

1. Go to POS → Card Terminals in wp-admin.
2. Pick your provider under Active provider – only the selected provider’s settings are shown.
3. Enter the provider’s credentials and pair or pick a reader (each provider article walks through this step by step, for both live and test mode).
4. Save. The register now shows the Card – [provider] payment method.

Integrated vs. external terminal

The plain Card method on the register is for a stand-alone terminal from your bank: you type the amount into the device yourself and the POS only records that the sale was paid by card. A connected terminal replaces that typing – the amount travels to the reader by itself, the result comes back to the register, and refunds reverse the charge automatically. You can keep using the plain Card method alongside a connected terminal, for example as a backup.

Test without hardware

Every supported provider has a free test mode that works entirely without a physical reader, so you can rehearse the whole flow – charge, decline, refund – before any hardware arrives. Each provider article has a dedicated test / sandbox section explaining exactly where the test credentials live and how the simulated reader behaves.

Currency

The terminal charges in your WooCommerce store currency, and the provider account must support that currency. If they don’t match, the charge is rejected with a clear message before the buyer is ever asked for a card (for example, a US Stripe account cannot collect Australian dollars). Test/sandbox accounts are typically fixed to one currency – USD for Square, GBP/EUR for SumUp sandboxes – so match your test store accordingly.

Refunds

Process the refund from the POS as usual (refunds & shift reports). When the order was paid on a terminal, the POS automatically asks the provider to reverse the charge on the card and adds an order note confirming it. If the reversal fails for any reason, the note says so explicitly and asks you to refund the card manually – the WooCommerce refund itself still goes through.