Take a card at the signing: Tap to Pay or a card reader

Once card payments are set up, the phone app takes a card right at the table. The money goes into your own Stripe account, and the invoice is marked paid. How the card is taken depends on your phone:

Get ready at home, before your first signing

1. Open More → Settings → Card payments → Card reader.

2. Register your business address with Stripe — once. Stripe registers every card reader, a phone's Tap to Pay too, to a business address. Your home base is filled in; change it if the business is elsewhere, then tap Register this address with Stripe. It goes to your own Stripe account, and clients never see it. In a business with partners, an owner does this once, for everyone.

3. Choose how you'll take cards. Stripe needs the phone's location and Bluetooth to take a card: allow them when the phone asks.

   AndroidiPhone

   • This phone — Tap to Pay. Nothing else to carry. The phone needs NFC, a recent Android, and developer options off; if it can't, it says so and you can use a reader. The first time, Getting this phone ready… takes a few seconds while Stripe checks the phone.
   • A card reader — Bluetooth. A Stripe Reader M2 — the Bluetooth reader Stripe sells in the United States: chip, tap or swipe — for a card that needs its chip and PIN, or a phone that can't tap. Turn the reader on, keep it near the phone, and tap Connect beside it.

4. Let a new reader update. A reader's first connection can bring a software update that takes several minutes: it says Updating its software, with how far along it is — keep it near the phone. That's why it's worth doing at home. When it says Ready, tap Done.

Take the card

1. Close out the signing. Under How you were paid, tap Card — tap or reader. If it's dimmed, with “Not on this phone yet” in the line under it, this phone isn't ready to take a card: tap Set up in that line, and do the steps above.

2. Tap Close out, then take the card · $…. The journal lines are locked and the invoice is made first — then Take a card opens with the Amount due.

3. Tap Take $…. The phone starts with the reader you used last. Then hand it over: Insert, tap or swipe the card on a reader, or Hold the card to the back of the phone with Tap to Pay on Android. The screen follows what the reader asks — Try the card again, Remove the card, and so on.

4. Paid by card. The amount, the card's last four, and The invoice is paid. Send the receipt while you're there — Email the receipt, or Text the link instead — and tap Done.

An invoice still open later can be paid the same way: open it (its row on the job, or Owed to you on Books), then Take a card here.

A card on their own phone

With no reader — or a card the reader won't take — your client can pay by card on their own phone. It's the same on an iPhone and on Android, and there's nothing to carry.

1. Close out the signing. Under How you were paid, tap Card, on their phone, then Close out, then show the code · $….

2. Have them scan the code. It shows under Scan to pay $…. They point their phone's camera at it, the invoice opens with Pay … by card on it, and they pay on Stripe's page, into your own Stripe account. Text them the link shares the same link instead.

3. Wait for Paid by card. The phone says so the moment they've paid, and the payment is recorded by itself. If they don't pay now, the invoice stays open.

On an invoice that's still open, Pay by card on their phone shows the same code.

When a card doesn't go through

The phone says why, in plain words — Declined — not enough funds on the card., Declined — the card has expired., The PIN was wrong. Try again., This card needs its PIN — insert it in the card reader., No card was presented in time., The card reader disconnected. Reconnect it and try again.

• Try again is there when trying again can help.
• Cash, Zelle, or send them the bill takes you back to record another way. Nothing is lost: the job is closed out, and its invoice stays open until it's paid.

What each message means, and what to do when the phone itself can't take a card: A card payment didn't go through.