How to take payments on a Linkly terminal

Taking Terminal Payments (Linkly)

If your business uses a Linkly EFTPOS terminal, you can send card payments from Nabooki straight to the terminal. Your customer taps, inserts, or swipes their card on the terminal, and the payment is recorded against their order automatically. There's no need to key amounts into the terminal by hand or reconcile payments separately.

This guide covers how to take a terminal payment for the first time, what to expect while the payment is processing.

Before you start

Your terminal needs to be set up in Nabooki before you can take payments with it. If this hasn't been done yet, a Manager or Super-staff user can follow the Linkly Cloud Pairing Guide to pair the terminal and assign staff to it.

The Terminal payment option only appears when all of the following are true:

Your Nabooki account is connected to Linkly.
Your store trades in Australian dollars (AUD).
You're assigned to at least one active terminal.
There's still an amount owing on the order.

If you can't see the Terminal option, the most common reason is that you haven't been assigned to a terminal yet. Ask your account Manager to add you under Payments > Linkly.

Where you can take a terminal payment

There are two places to take a terminal payment in Nabooki:

At checkout, when you're creating a new order for a customer.
From Order Details, when an order already exists but hasn't been fully paid (for example, a customer arrives at the gate without having paid online).

Option 1: Taking a terminal payment at checkout

When a staff member is creating a new order for a customer, they can send the charge straight to a nearby terminal instead of taking a card manually or sending an online payment link.

Fill in the customer's booking details as usual (name, email, mobile, etc.).
In Payment details, select Terminal.
The Sending to [terminal name] line shows which terminal the payment will be sent to. This picker only lists the active terminals the staff member is assigned to, with whichever one they used last preselected.
- If the staff member is only assigned to one terminal, the name displays without a dropdown arrow, since there's nothing to choose between.
Select Confirm & Pay to send the charge to the terminal.

Option 2: Taking a terminal payment from Order Details

If an order already exists and is unpaid or only part-paid (for example, a customer arrives at the gate without having paid), staff can take the payment directly from that order rather than creating a new one.

Open the order from Sales > Orders.
On the Order Details page, select the ellipsis (⋮) menu next to Edit order.
Choose Process terminal payment. This option sits directly above Apply manual payment.
A Process terminal payment modal opens, showing the order ID, the total and amount owing, and a note that the customer needs to present their card at the terminal to complete the payment.
Enter the amount to charge in Amount to pay. It defaults to the full amount owing, but staff can reduce it to take a part payment (it can't be increased beyond what's owed).
Confirm the terminal shown in Sending to [terminal name]. As at checkout, this only lists terminals the staff member is assigned to, and shows without a dropdown if they're only assigned to one.
Select Pay $[amount] to send the charge to the terminal.

While the payment is processing

Once sent, both flows show the same progress screen:

A Waiting for the terminal... message with the instruction to follow the prompts on the terminal itself
The amount being charged and which terminal it was sent to
A status line reflecting the terminal's current prompt (for example, Enter card number on terminal)
A progress indicator, noting that Nabooki will keep checking for up to 3 minutes
A Cancel payment option, available at any point while waiting

The customer completes the payment on the terminal (inserting, tapping, or swiping their card) while this screen stays open. If the card can't be read this way, staff can select FUNC on the terminal to enter the card number manually instead.

What happens next

If the payment is approved:

It's recorded against the order, including the card type, last four digits, and which terminal it was taken on.
The order's payment status updates to Part Paid or Paid, and the amount owing reduces accordingly.
Staff remain on the Order Details page and can see the new payment listed in the order's transaction history.

If the payment is declined or fails:

An error message displays with the reason returned by the terminal.
Nothing is recorded against the order, so staff can retry on the terminal or switch to another payment method.
If the terminal is already in use by another staff member, or isn't responding, staff are notified and no charge is sent.
The customer is only ever charged once, no matter how many attempts are made.

Troubleshooting & FAQs

Can I take a partial payment on the terminal?

Yes. In the Amount to pay field, staff can reduce the amount below what's owing to take a part payment. It can't be set higher than the amount owing.

What's the difference between "Process terminal payment" and "Process online payment"?

Process terminal payment sends the charge to a physical Linkly terminal for the customer to tap, insert, or swipe their card. Process online payment (previously called "Process payment") sends a payment request the customer completes online, without a terminal.

Where does the payment show up once it's approved?

It's added to the order's transaction list on the Order Details page, along with the card type and last four digits, and the terminal it was taken on. The order's status updates to Part Paid or Paid depending on the amount covered.

The card won't read on the terminal.

Select FUNC on the terminal to enter the card number manually instead of tapping, inserting, or swiping.

Did the customer get charged twice from a retry?

No — regardless of how many attempts are made, the customer is only ever charged once per successful payment.

Need Help?

If you need assistance, contact our support team:
💬 Live Chat: Click the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
📧 Email: support@nabooki.com